Altering Victorian Architrave- Please Help

[Blackeyez09]

Hi

posting for traffic

So I just agreed to buy a reclaimed but done up door for my victorian terrace vestibule (so internal door). The vestibule fitting needs to be 81 cm approximately.

My problem is the door is too wide 89.5 and my joiner really does not want to have to take off any of the door.

He has suggested altering the architrave frame from inside the door (reducing it) as a way of fitting the door but cannot swear by it as not routinely done.

I really want the door as its a rare find already costing a lot to be honest (think 4 hundred). He is thinking it would cost 150 to alter architrave and hang door

Any ideas

 

[geraldthehamster]

There are plenty of reclaimed doors out there. My advice would be to buy one that fits.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

8.5cm is quite a big change. The wood in the door frame (where the hinges attach) is not very thick, so if you cut into it by 4.5cm each side, you may find you have no wood left! It's more likely that you would need to remove pretty much the whole door frame, hack away some brick to widen the aperture, then build a new door frame and put on new architrave. Urg.

A less invasive solution I can think of would be to remove the architrave and build a new door frame of the correct size, on the surface of the wall where the architrave used to be. Maybe add a pelmet too, so it becomes a cool Victorian ornate feature, rather than a weird-looking bodge.

 

[crank39]

I would strip the stiles off the rails and cut the shoulders back and reasemble this would obviously require the architrave to be reduced also around the inset panels