under construction
Doors are bought at the same time as window… early in the process.
- how high
- how wide
- which way should it swing?
- Later you will have to pick the hardware color…doorknobs, and hinges
hardware…
don’t order a 12 pack of doorknobs from Amazon.. but consider how many keys do you want not deal with… and get matching door locks, so you only need 1 key! not 10.
you do not want to body slam your French doors, to get them open!
AT the end… you MUST make sure the doors open and close nicely…not with a hip push, or foot kick… doors stick. Especially French doors… the hinges have to be adjusted ….so much like the reeking of spokes on a bike. it is tedious, but a logical exercise. ADD THIS IN THE BID… this is NOT a “punch list item” half of which get ignored because you are sick of each other… it is a DO NOW, ASAP item..
Often, falsely screwed in doors, are repaired with a splinter of wood, a bit of wood, like a meat skewer, and then the screw can be re-inserted.
finally make sure the doors are cleaned!
(same with all windows… they must open with a single hand, BE CLEANED. This is your one chance … it will be year till you have the energy to deal wit it later..
Doors should swing INTO a room, making an easy, opening entrance. (Wharton, page 65). Then, if you have a blank slate… do you put the door in the center of the wall? Or off in a corner? Luckily Edith Wharton addresses even this… “Doors should be hung so that they screen, that part of a room in which the occupants usually sit.”
My experience…. My architect tended to put a door right in the center of a wall. In one case, the elevator door opened up, to the opening of a bedroom door…so as you arrive in the living room, you stair right at the bed… made or unmade, occupied or unoccupied….but hardly what you want on display every day for 50 years.
I redrew his blueprints by moving the doors off to the corners, and put a bureau and fine painting & flowers and lights on this wall… The take home lesson I beat into everyone…is to SEE your blueprints in 3D, don’t just ‘obey” the architect… he actually might be an idiot… YES… a true imbecile. Well, the thing is, he just wants to get his job done, get paid, and get new job. While YOU want a job done right, really right, for the next 50 years…. See? Same job different goals… you just have to believe in your ideas, and back them up, with commons sense, the literature, or just confidence in seeing your 3D drawings vs his 3D drawings and pick one. Details such as door swings, or door locations just cannot be SEEN in a cold, dry blueprint. Blueprints looks so professional, so final, so perfect, so great…but they HIDE HORRIBLE UGLY ERRORS AND SHORTCUTS, OR SIMPLY LACK OF CARE AT ALL…. You have to be the one that cares… You are the one that OK’s everything. When ugly happens, they (architects, bids, contractors) all reflexively snap back “well, this is what YOU OK’d.” You get the blame, they get the glory…. So buck up and speak up and fight back and defend yourself! You are defending the house, they are defending their time and money and patience… The least work they do, the more profit they get.. pretty simple cross motivations at work…
Doors are bought at the same time as window… early in the process.
- how high
- how wide
- which way should it swing?
- Later you will have to pick the hardware color…doorknobs, and hinges
hardware…
don’t order a 12 pack of doorknobs from Amazon.. but consider how many keys do you want not deal with… and get matching door locks, so you only need 1 key! not 10.
you do not want to body slam your French doors, to get them open!
AT the end… you MUST make sure the doors open and close nicely…not with a hip push, or foot kick… doors stick. Especially French doors… the hinges have to be adjusted ….so much like the reeking of spokes on a bike. it is tedious, but a logical exercise. ADD THIS IN THE BID… this is NOT a “punch list item” half of which get ignored because you are sick of each other… it is a DO NOW, ASAP item..
Often, falsely screwed in doors, are repaired with a splinter of wood, a bit of wood, like a meat skewer, and then the screw can be re-inserted.
finally make sure the doors are cleaned!
(same with all windows… they must open with a single hand, BE CLEANED. This is your one chance … it will be year till you have the energy to deal wit it later..
The CONCEALED DOOR
Ah, this is another refinement, you build into your plans, that is an incremental cost…but a great design bonus for 50 years. This too goes way back to Edith Wharton days, page 66…
It would be in bad taste to disturb the equilibrium of wall-spaces and decoration by introducing a visible door leading to some unimportant closet or passageway, of which the existence need not be know to any but the inmates of the house. It is in such cases that the concealed door is a useful expedient.
It can hardly e necessary to point out that it would be a great mistake to place a concealed door in the MAIN opening. These openings should always be recognized as one of the chief features of the room, and so treated by the decorator.
The concealed door has until recently been used so little by American architects that its construction is not well understood, an it is often hung on ordinary visible hinges, instead of being swung on a pivot. There is no reason why, with proper care, a door of this kind should not be so nicely adjusted to the wall-paneling as to be practically invisible.”
Ah, this is another refinement, you build into your plans, that is an incremental cost…but a great design bonus for 50 years. This too goes way back to Edith Wharton days, page 66…
"It would be in bad taste to disturb the equilibrium of wall-spaces and decoration by introducing a visible door leading to some unimportant closet or passageway, of which the existence need not be know to any but the inmates of the house. It is in such cases that the concealed door is a useful expedient.
It can hardly be necessary to point out that it would be a great mistake to place a concealed door in the MAIN opening.
These openings should always be recognized as one of the chief features of the room, and so treated by the decorator.
The concealed door has until recently been used so little by American architects that its construction is not well understood, an it is often hung on ordinary visible hinges, instead of being swung on a pivot.
There is no reason why, with proper care, a door of this kind should not be so nicely adjusted to the wall-paneling as to be practically invisible.”