Solid wood airing cupboard door

[AdamW]

I have moved the opening for my airing cupboard door from one side of the cupboard to the other. Instead of having a full-sized door I now have a doorway about 1.1m high by 65cm wide, thereabouts, into my bathroom.

I was planning to build my own airing cupboard door, as premade doors and cupboard doors don't come in the size I require.

I was thinking I would use pine board, the stuff that comes in large areas about half an inch thick. I was planning on glueing two sheets together, screws from the back side of it to give some extra support. Then cut the inch-thick pine to size. Finishing the door with a satin varnish.

The reasoning I have behind the double thickness instead of just finding inch-thick pine is that this would hopefully stop it from warping in the hot humid environment of a bathroom and airing cupboard.

Does this sound OK? The only alternatives I can think of are:

1) Make a hollow door by taking two sheets of thin wood separated by a wooden structure

2) Contract a chippy to custom make me one.

 

[breezer]

could you not use a bit of mdf and put two vents in it one top one bottom?

 

[big-all]

heeelllooo a w
not quite shure what you mean

do you mean only part off the door will now open

what is the original door made from

if its typical hardboard wood and cardboard

you can add new hinges above and below the cut

cut the door in half

you can push in the carboard by 2 inches and insert

new wood into top and bottom and glue

big all

 

[2scoops0406]

In a bit of a hurry, so not sure I've read this entirely accurately, the best way to fix two wood panels together, is use a jointer to square the panel edges, biscuit joint the panels, glue and clamp. This requires quite a lot of kit though. If you really wanted a solid wood door, it may be worth checking out your local hire shops to check that the cost wasn't prohibitive. Failing that, either use MDF or alternatively get a chippy to "knock one up" for you.

 

[2scoops0406]

Now I am confused, a doorway 1.1m by 65 cm, you have to crawl into the bathroom?

 

[AdamW]

Thanks guys, these are all good ideas. I will explain a bit better what I am doing.

My airing cupboard used to open into my kitchen, with a full-sized door. I have now cut an opening into the wall between the airing cupboard and my bathroom (stud wall, so I just peeled off one skin, cut the studs about, put in a frame and then reskinned it). This opening starts halfway up the wall and is about 1.1m high by 65cm wide.

What I need now is a door to cover it. Kitchen cupboard doors aren't made in the right size.

The original door was a cardboard-core type, but I have replaced all my other doors with panelled solid pine ones. So, I can't really cut a door down to fit as it would have half a panel at one end.

I like the idea of the MDF door that I could seal and paint, as it won't warp. How would I make it so the screws holding it to the hinges won't work loose in the material?

 

[AdamW]

Now I am confused, a doorway 1.1m by 65 cm, you have to crawl into the bathroom?

Nah, I'm 3 foot tall

 

[TexMex]

I'm even more confused now. You don't have to duck to get through the door, you have to climb up into it

 

[TexMex]

that's not a doorway that's a serving hatch

 

[AdamW]

Well, I suppose it is a serving hatch if you like eating towels and bed linen!

It all came about because I realised my airing cupboard was twice as big as it needed to be (that is the engineer part of me talking). Instead of having this massive airing cupboard I decided to split it in two: the half with the hot water cylinder in it would become my airing cupboard, with only the top half opening into the bathroom. The other half of the original airing cupboard is now part of my kitchen, with a large fridge to sit in the space. I have retained access to the cylinder and shower pump by making a large access panel into the kitchen.

The reason I couldn't use a full-sized airing cupboard door is that the bathroom basin would have got in the way. I considered a sliding door but the hassle would have been greater (would have involved removing a whole stud wall and replacing it with a very expensive metal stud system that had a sliding door mechanism in it.

 

[masona]

Just a thought...

Make a door out of Exterior plywood with mirror tiles on it, tend to make the bathroom lighter & bigger (not you)

 

[TexMex]

What you could do is get some solid pine (say 3x1 PAR), run a router down one edge with a nice fancy bit, run it down on the other side to form a rebate, use a mitre saw to cut up a frame, mount a bit of ply in the middle (with pins and glue), router round the outside edge, and voila, a nice panelled door.

Obviously you could also mount another panel of solid pine (with a suitably embellished edge) on the centre, stain it and a bit of yatch varnish could look a real treat.

 

[AdamW]

The routed solid pine isn't a bad idea, unfortunately I got my Screwfix order in on Tuesday and couldn't think of a good reason to buy a router then (and I wanted to buy one!). I did order a rather snazzy tool belt though

I have decided to do a "plain" door as I am also making a loft hatch to match... (Hey, I'm a poet and I don't even know it ), but I will definitely bear that in mind for future projects: I have seen people with dwarf-sized panel doors and wondered where they buy them, never thought they could be router + moulding.

Masona, that is a good design idea, perhaps you should get Ms. Beeney in! It gives me an idea (the door idea, not Sarah Beeney): is it possible to sand, prime and paint exterior ply to make it look "smooth" on all sides? Then I could paint them a satin white (to match the architraves) and it would blend in with the white tiles quite nicely.

 

[TexMex]

Adam, its another job for that router. Run down the edge with a laminate trimming bit and it comes out the canine testicals.

 

[AdamW]

OK, I would like to thank you all for your suggestions and imparting some knowledge of router uses on me

I did the job this weekend (no, didn't take me all day both days!)

In the end I used timberboard from Wickes, which is basically strips of pine laminated together to form a board. The stuff I bought was £30 for a sheet 2.1m long, 0.6m wide and 28mm thick. This one sheet made both the airing cupboard door and loft hatch.

The label said "Not for use as doors", but when I thought about the reasons NOT to use it as a door, I presume that is because some idiot will try to hang a big heavy sheet of this stuff from some weedy hinges and small screws. I was using just a small piece, suspended from 2x 75mm butt hinges and 3 x 2" no. 8 screws on each side of each hinge. The hinges and screws seem to be doing their job, in fact it is probably the best I have ever hung a door. I took my time, sharpened my chisels before use, and ended up with rebating as near to perfect as a non-professional chippy can get. The hinges sit exactly in their rebates, and are aligned exactly. The door is balanced so it stays in whatever position you open it to... No stiff hinges or slightly mal-aligned hinges here!

The loft hatch, well. I thought about it and realised that if I was going to hinge it, it would need to swing down. This would involve driving screws into the end of the timber board, in the direction of the grain. I wasn't sure how well the screws would hold over time. So, I chose to make it a "push up and slide out of the way" loft hatch. Not quite as functionally pleasing as the hinged variety, but no risk of screws pulling out.

So, a swift re-siting of the loft ladder (by a whole 1.5 centimetres to the right ) I was able to achieve this. Whoever owns this flat next will probably think the hatch is stuck, it is a bit heavy for this type of hatch!

I will be varnishing them with several coats of clear satin varnish in the next few evenings... They look great.