Hanging a Door
Have you ever hung a door. . . by yourself? Its not easy. Its like the tango. . . it takes two.
I've just finished the major part of hanging an exterior door to the apartment in our barn. (Yes, there is a completely livable apartment in our barn.) All I have to do now is finish adding the interior trim.
First I had to take out the old door, the jam (frame) and trim. Fairly easy to tear something out. But now I had to carry an 82 x 34 inch jam with a metal door attached as a unit by myself to the original door opening. Then stand it up and slide it into the opening with less than half an inch clearance on both sides and top. That necessitated lifting the complete unit up about two inches to clear the threshold all the while balancing it so it doesn't fall and simultaneously carefully slipping it into the side openings but once over the threshold slowly letting it down to rest on the top of the threshold as I gently pushed in the top part to clear underneath the overhead sill. A daunting task by yourself.
Naturally, I managed to drop it. It not only fell onto the concrete porch but on the way down crashed onto a small step ladder. No real damage except it knocked the jam about six inches out of square. That presented an additional problem to deal with.
I finally got it into the opening, but now how to keep it there and not fall again? This time I worked a little smarter. I pre-drilled two holes in the middle of the jam on each side. I started screws well into the holes. I set my drill on the step ladder within reach. I again picked the unit up and with difficulty (several attempts) got it slipped into the opening. As I leaned my shoulder against one side of the jam I reached for and retrieved the drill and set the two screws. That held that side. I then moved to the other side leaning my shoulder against it as I used the drill to set those two screws.
From there on it was a matter of selectively loosening the screws one at a time and pushing in shims to get it properly squared up, and then re-set the screw and add additional screws for stability. All the while making sure the door would freely swing open and close. I then stuffed insulation material in the cracks between the jam and the original opening 2x4's and added the exterior trim.
Tomorrow I'll finish adding the interior trim. I will still have to install the doorknob and deadbolt. Then paint it.
It seems like such a simple thing to hang a door in an opening, but by yourself its not so easy, especially when you're an old 84 year old man. I like the Tango approach. . . it takes two.
I've just finished the major part of hanging an exterior door to the apartment in our barn. (Yes, there is a completely livable apartment in our barn.) All I have to do now is finish adding the interior trim.
First I had to take out the old door, the jam (frame) and trim. Fairly easy to tear something out. But now I had to carry an 82 x 34 inch jam with a metal door attached as a unit by myself to the original door opening. Then stand it up and slide it into the opening with less than half an inch clearance on both sides and top. That necessitated lifting the complete unit up about two inches to clear the threshold all the while balancing it so it doesn't fall and simultaneously carefully slipping it into the side openings but once over the threshold slowly letting it down to rest on the top of the threshold as I gently pushed in the top part to clear underneath the overhead sill. A daunting task by yourself.
Naturally, I managed to drop it. It not only fell onto the concrete porch but on the way down crashed onto a small step ladder. No real damage except it knocked the jam about six inches out of square. That presented an additional problem to deal with.
I finally got it into the opening, but now how to keep it there and not fall again? This time I worked a little smarter. I pre-drilled two holes in the middle of the jam on each side. I started screws well into the holes. I set my drill on the step ladder within reach. I again picked the unit up and with difficulty (several attempts) got it slipped into the opening. As I leaned my shoulder against one side of the jam I reached for and retrieved the drill and set the two screws. That held that side. I then moved to the other side leaning my shoulder against it as I used the drill to set those two screws.
From there on it was a matter of selectively loosening the screws one at a time and pushing in shims to get it properly squared up, and then re-set the screw and add additional screws for stability. All the while making sure the door would freely swing open and close. I then stuffed insulation material in the cracks between the jam and the original opening 2x4's and added the exterior trim.
Tomorrow I'll finish adding the interior trim. I will still have to install the doorknob and deadbolt. Then paint it.
It seems like such a simple thing to hang a door in an opening, but by yourself its not so easy, especially when you're an old 84 year old man. I like the Tango approach. . . it takes two.
posted by Donald G Davidson at 1:28 AM
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