Just a little project I got done. Well turned out quite a bit of prep work involved in it!
Putting in a side door for my garage. There had been a door before witt previous owner, but for whatever reason this was blocked up. So I wanted to open it up again. I had been searching for a door to fit the hole for ages, but other than paying crazy money for a solid new one, I was trying to get one second hand.
Then I found one on gumtree for £35. Solid oak door, was used as a back door. The sizes would work. Well chuffed! However when I started looking at door carefully, i realised it was not very square and was off quite a bit from top to bottom. So I spent some time planing this door and trying to make it square. I didnt get it perfect square, but I got it close enough. Off by a couple mm top/bottom. I then got a few coats of exterior woodstain on it.
For the door frame, I got some timber that would just about fit. However I really should have checked the lenghts of wood before buying. As they were around 2m long, there was bow and cupping going on. So I had to plane these down with a handplaner to try and make them more square. Ugh, what a nightmare! Wish I had a bench planer/thicknesser. Would have saved loaaads of time!
Then I had to get some wood preserver on them. 2 coats and well saturated them with a brush.
I borrowed a Titan angle grinder cutting the hole out from a family member. With the diamond blade, wow this thing just cut through the wall like a knife through butter. Impressive! However, i discovered the blade was not quite deep enough to make the entire cut, so I had to go from the inside as well. However for one side of it I could not do this, as there was a double brick support pillar at the edge, so couldn't fit the grinder in there. I ended up just using a long masonry bit and drilling loads of holes all the way down and then chiseling it out to make it weaker.
I thought putting in the door frame would be difficult after reading online, but turned out not that hard at all. I got it in and all plumb. I then put some silicone between frame and brick to seal it all.
I chose to have the door open outwards as I did not want it to go in the garage. So I lined the frame up with outer wall.
Then the weather turned and that put a hold on getting it finished. Need to put the finishing architrave around it and get them painted in same woodstain. Just need a few dry days...
Worst part of this project was the dust from angle grinding! Had dust mask on of course, but still it just got everywhere. Went had a shower as soon as i got it all cut out lol!
Putting in a side door for my garage. There had been a door before witt previous owner, but for whatever reason this was blocked up. So I wanted to open it up again. I had been searching for a door to fit the hole for ages, but other than paying crazy money for a solid new one, I was trying to get one second hand.
Then I found one on gumtree for £35. Solid oak door, was used as a back door. The sizes would work. Well chuffed! However when I started looking at door carefully, i realised it was not very square and was off quite a bit from top to bottom. So I spent some time planing this door and trying to make it square. I didnt get it perfect square, but I got it close enough. Off by a couple mm top/bottom. I then got a few coats of exterior woodstain on it.
For the door frame, I got some timber that would just about fit. However I really should have checked the lenghts of wood before buying. As they were around 2m long, there was bow and cupping going on. So I had to plane these down with a handplaner to try and make them more square. Ugh, what a nightmare! Wish I had a bench planer/thicknesser. Would have saved loaaads of time!
Then I had to get some wood preserver on them. 2 coats and well saturated them with a brush.
I borrowed a Titan angle grinder cutting the hole out from a family member. With the diamond blade, wow this thing just cut through the wall like a knife through butter. Impressive! However, i discovered the blade was not quite deep enough to make the entire cut, so I had to go from the inside as well. However for one side of it I could not do this, as there was a double brick support pillar at the edge, so couldn't fit the grinder in there. I ended up just using a long masonry bit and drilling loads of holes all the way down and then chiseling it out to make it weaker.
I thought putting in the door frame would be difficult after reading online, but turned out not that hard at all. I got it in and all plumb. I then put some silicone between frame and brick to seal it all.
I chose to have the door open outwards as I did not want it to go in the garage. So I lined the frame up with outer wall.
Then the weather turned and that put a hold on getting it finished. Need to put the finishing architrave around it and get them painted in same woodstain. Just need a few dry days...
Worst part of this project was the dust from angle grinding! Had dust mask on of course, but still it just got everywhere. Went had a shower as soon as i got it all cut out lol!
