Cutting door on hinges.

[lazzerr1]

Hi all,

Last year I had 5 doors supplied and fitted. It cost me quite a lot as they are not standard doors, and it took a hell of a lot of work for the guy to fit them.

I have fitted wood flooring in our hallway, but I need to chop a bit off the bottom of each door.

I am not keen on taking the doors off, cutting them and trying to hang them again.

Are there any tricks that I can use to trim a bit off the bottom whilst they are still on? (I have seen a couple of tools that do this, but they are way too expensive - all above £300)

Thanks,

L

 

[Symptoms]

lazz - your guy did all the hard work when fitting them so all you have to do is to unscrew the hinges from the door frame (not the door), lift the door away, do whatever you need to do, then rehang. Before you start any of this fashion some wooden wedges to support the door in position whilst you remove the screws (so the door won't 'drop' or fall); these wedges can then be used to support the door (holding it position) when refitting. Using a 'door lifter' will help with the above operation - you can buy these or make one. Basically it's lever and fulcrum which you can 'rock' with your foot to lift or lower the door ... it looks like a double-ended wedge or a very, very shallow V. It's not unknown for a screw-driver over a block of wood to be used as a lifter but these tend to slip.

 

[^woody^]

Get yourself a Bosch PMF 180 (about £50) or a similar Worx model (from Argos) or the Fein Multimaster (but that's 3x as much)

You may also need the half round wood blade, but the supplied flat one may do.

Make sure the door is held firm though, as these tools work on vibration, and if the door moves slightly, the cutting is less effective.

Alternatively, you may not know, but when you take a door off it will go back in the exact same place, so you are not "hanging" a door just refitting it. So if you remove the door and trim the bottom, then it's just a case of refitting it

 

[lazzerr1]

Thanks Symptoms,

The only concern that I have, is that where the hinges are screwed into the frame, he has used what looks like cardboard wedges to pack it out, I guess to get everything lined up right. I'm worried that when taking the hinges off the frame, these will drop out

 

[chappers]

then just put them back in or you could hire a door trimmer.

 

[lazzerr1]

hmmmmm.

Confused now. Think I'll take one off, trim it and if all goes well putting it back, i'll do the rest. If not i'll have another look at what Hardware i can use.

Thanks all for the advice.

L