Tidying between door liner and brickwork/plaster

[diynige]

Hi all,

I've had a door liner installed by a chippie into a wonky doorway, and I intend to fill the gap between liner and brickwork with something - can anyone recommend an appropriate material, preferably something that will dampen noise, to use for this?

Here's what it looks like:


Also, the plaster is a few mm proud of the door liner in places which may make fitting the architrave tricky - is sanding back the best way to bring the plaster back to the level of the liner? Or something else?

Any replies appreciated,
diynige

 

[stephenf8542]

Get yourself a tin of expanding foam that'll fill the gap and deaden the sound.
Sanding is the best way of smoothing back the plaster

 

[Richard C]

I've had a door liner installed by a chippie into a wonky doorway, and I intend to fill the gap between liner and brickwork with something - can anyone recommend an appropriate material, preferably something that will dampen noise, to use for this?

Here's what it looks like:

A chippie did that ; my word, I don’t think that’s been done at all well. Is it home made? You can get pre-formed door liners made to all the standard door sizes, why did he not use one of those? Why are there such huge gaps around the liner, has he made it to match a standard door size? Left as it is, it will be very flimsy; that’s a huge gap at the head plate, are there any fixings up there at all? If the brick opening is wrong I would have packed that out with plasterboard wood fillets or anything to the correct size rather than just inserted local packers into such large gaps

Also, the plaster is a few mm proud of the door liner in places which may make fitting the architrave tricky - is sanding back the best way to bring the plaster back to the level of the liner? Or something else?

You can’t sand the render/plaster back a few mm. If the plaster is proud of the liner, either the wrong width liner has been used or if non standard, he should have made up a custom width liner to suit; all you can do with that is try to fix some timber battens each side to bring it out but it’s going to show & look really cack. Personally, I’d take it down & start again, using someone who can make a decent job of it.

 

[diynige]

Not only did a chippie do that, but a chippie with 40 years experience - as he repeatedly pointed out to me, in-between moaning about the doorway, and telling me how much he was looking forward to retirement. He had to make up the liner from a single plank of wood because the standard door liners were smaller than the doorway width. The plank, as you say, clearly wasn't wide enough, but since the builders weren't brought in to do anything after the fitting of the door liner, what do they care? I have the standard door liner kit that he was originally intending to use going spare now.

The huge gaps round the liner are because the doorway was widened - badly - by his builder colleagues. And the reason the liner had to be shaved off at the corner was because the lintel above is getting dangerously close to the edge of widened door opening. It's unfortunate because he had to reduce the standard size from 30 inches to 29 3/4 inches because of that lintel problem, so when the door does eventually go in it'll need a fair bit of 'trimming' to fit. What's more, the wall slopes, so on the other side, there is an overlap of liner over plaster.

The doorway was originally very narrow, and I wanted to widen it to get larger furniture in there. When the original door liner was removed they found that the original builders had put bricks not only above the lintel, but below the lintel. Go figure. So after removing the bricks below, and installing the liner, there was still a gap from liner to lintel.

I won't be using the building firm in question again. They did a generally shonky job, and while they broadly met the spec, their main concern was to do everything at breakneck speed, while charging through the nose (the inflated charges made me expect quality, more fool me). In fact, this is part of the reason that I'm getting into DIY, because I have diminishing faith in the willingness of builders to do a careful - and well finished - job. The problem seems to be finding someone who can make a decent job of it. The majority of the builders that I've had in to quote for this job never got back to me with a quote, even after I chased. Which says to me that any or all of the following are true:
1. the recession in the building trade round here is a myth
2. they didn't fancy the job, so builders are still being picky over the jobs they do in my area (see 1.)
Rant over.

 

[Richard C]

So the opening has got some problems, that makes sense when looking at the photo. Rather than fit the liner & try to pack out the gaps to suit, I would have worked on the opening first using a disc cutter to straighten out the top if necessary & then brought the rest out with either render or base plaster & possible plasterboard at the top where it looks reasonably level. That would have brought it out to within a reasonable tolerance to allow a standard width door to be fitted & the liner to go in with the minimum of packing. Not much you can do about the liner width except make one up wide enough to accept the remedial plaster work (probably a re-skim looking at that) which will have to be done around the opening; not difficult but no not much you can do about it if it’s too narrow.

Just trying to help but I still don’t think it’s been done particularly well; you’re clearly ****ed by my initial reply so good luck with it my friend, you’ll need it.

 

[diynige]

Just trying to help but I still don’t think it’s been done particularly well; you’re clearly p****d by my initial reply so good luck with it my friend, you’ll need it.

I appreciate the comments, really I do, and I agree with you, that it wasn't done well. My problem is that I'm finding it difficult to keep a lid on my annoyance over the job that was done, and I couldn't help but vent. I do appreciate the advice, and want to get the job done as well as possible.

I think I may try to pack the area between the top of the liner and lintel with a batten, attach it to the liner, screw plasterboard into that, then fill as best as I can. I really can't afford to pay for jobs to be done twice.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Not only did a chippie do that, but a chippie with 40 years experience - as he repeatedly pointed out to me, in-between moaning about the doorway, and telling me how much he was looking forward to retirement.

If thats the standard of all of his work he may be taking early retirement!