TOP-7 errors committed during interior door installation. Troubleshooting considerations

Installation of interior door is not so simple thing as it might seem.

Any attempt to do it independently or address a ham-fisted person will inevitably gain deplorable results like improper clearance, squeaking sounds, coating damage and subsequent problems in usage.

Consequences of faulty door installation

Insecure fastening of the door casing, excessively tightened hinges, low-quality sealing foam, incompetent repair works sequence, faulty “door weight — door opening” correlation — all this, supplemented with installation errors may result in:

• Door casing deformation and loss of parallelism.
• Premature hinges wear.
• Usage problems.
• Damaged door leaf.
• Affected acoustic and thermal insulating properties.
• Squeaking sounds during door turning.
• Locking gear faults

Recommendation

Precautionary examination of your doors - namely this measure will help you avoid doors breakdown and inconveniences.

Timely examination of your doors enables you to detect minor defects arising in the course of usage, due to faulty installation and to eliminate them in due time by your own efforts.

TOP-7 errors committed during installation

Apart from observing basic installation regulations you should envisage contingencies which may bring you nasty surprise:

• Correct door installation requires a professional approach. You will obviously need facilities like bubble level, milling cutters, high-quality foam. To be on the safe side, you should also have a set of markers and door color caulking compound immediately at your disposal.
• Check walls evenness by means of bubble level: curved wall will result in faulty door installation.
• In case of two-leaf door keep watch over texture pattern. Most frequently met error - one incorrectly installed leaf and two parts of your door are going off in contrary directions.
• A trim which fails to cover the “wall-casing” clearance will inevitably result in a gap over the door leaf. Such defect may be avoided by means of threshold placement.
• Doors should be installed on one and the same level.

Wrong plaster works organization algorithm

Most frequently met error — wrong algorithm of repair works.

For instance, the owner procures new doors, installs them (“Honey, look how beautiful they are!”) and proceeds with walls papering.

However, new wallpaper is not a global issue.

More serious problems appear when workers arrive to make floor levelling and screed placement. You will have chance of having two options — in the best scenario the door will fail to get closed, in the worst scenario — the door will fail to be installed at all.

In the long run, you will be forced to eliminate the consequences of poorly performed repair works.

To avoid this is quite a simple thing — observe correct sequence of finishing works performance and that is all.

Recommendation!

Your dwelling renovation will go smoothly if you fulfill the following algorithm — demolition, electrical wiring, screed placement, walls levelling, corners and jambs plastering, wall papering, stretched ceiling installation, laminate, parquet etc.

And, at last, once renovation works have been through you are welcome to begin doors installation.

Gaps — oversized and undersized

Precise gaps adjustment — this is one of the main headaches associated with door installation. They may turn to be either too small or too large.

Undersized gaps make the door leaf graze the casing.

Oversized gaps affect the room’s heat and acoustic insulation.

Incorrect clearances arise from improper door leaf or casing installation.

Probable cause of the above:

• Loss of door casing parallelism (distortion). Normally, this fault occurs due to uneven load distribution affecting one of casing side post fasteners screwed into the wall opening.

  Thus, overtightened upper or lower fastener of the hinge jamb may cause door casing distortion and result in faulty gap occurrence. Distortion mat be detected by means of bubble level. Accordingly, defect should be eliminated by adjusting “casing-opening” relative position (tighten or release appropriate hardware).

  Bubble level also allows to detect convex/concave door casing areas.

• Coupling of imprecisely offcut door casing jambs. If you allow this it will mean that your door casing angles will be far from ideal 90 degrees. Even a couple of extra millimeters left in one of the jambs will produce unacceptable gap.

  Remedy for such case — immediate dismounting followed by adjustment and re-installation of the door casing.

• Unaccounted environmental conditions. Failure to take into account door casing’s shrinkage or expansion ability, temperature differential or relative humidity while designing the door will inevitably lead to casing deformation.

  However, this problem can be solved. For instance, if the door swelled under humidity impact just dry it in a proper way.

  And, alternately, to avoid shrinkage due to excessive temperature just remove the heat source.

  If you fouled up and failed to find a proper solution just replace the troublesome door.

Wrong fastening of the door hinges

Wrong fastening of the door hinges is one of the most frequently encountered reasons of door failing to close.

Too deeply or, on the contrary, incompletely recessed door hinge will impede perfect door closure.

Obviously, the door finish coating will be impacted and display cracks, chipping and scratches.

To avoid this problem just remove incorrectly installed hinges, make adjustment measurements and re-install them in a proper way.

Sagged hinges may cause jam-up whilst door leaf movement. The problem may be resolved either by inserting the cardboard shim under the hinge or, which is more expedient, by replacing the hinges for the new ones.

Obviously, as a first reasonable remedy, the sagged hinges should be lubricated.

Recommendation!

Never use self-adhesive paper in capacity of adjusting shim. Door seal should be made of high-quality long-service material. It should be inserted into the groove.

Faulty door casing installation

Use bubble level and plumb bob to precisely install the door unit.

The casing should be first wedged by wooden pieces. After that, fix the hinge jamb maintaining verticality and monitoring the ease of leaf movement.

Foam application should be preceded by spacers installation to avoid door casing deformation.

Spontaneously moving leaf of the door indicates incorrect installation of the door casing.

If the door leaf is independently moving to the side of opening it means that the problem should be sought somewhere in the upper part of the door casing. Most frequently, namely the upper part of the hinge jamb is deviating to the right from perpendicular. Spontaneously closing door leaf indicates casing lower part’s deviation to the right from perpendicular.

Errors arising in the course of door casing installation are very hard to remedy.

Best solution — remove the door unit in whole.

After that, make all necessary measurements, adjustments and improvements on the detached casing and reinstall the door leaf.

Another solution of the problem under discussion — try European door trim placement standard: 90° in reference to each piece, not 45°.

Incorrect door leaf hanging on hinges

Incorrect hanging of the door leaf leads to premature wear of locking unit, hinges and overall door unit distortion. Gaps arising will affect door casing alignment with wall opening. Door sealing foam may begin casting out of the wall opening.

Professional carpenters and installers usually provide less than 90° door leaf edge angle on the side of the hinge. This is absolutely essential if the doors intended for installation are made of solid wood.

Whilst hanging the doors made of chipboard and other factory materials do not allow the hinge to “press” the counter piece during door closing. Appropriately hinged door leaf should not touch the door casing even on the side of the hinge. Sealing is the only pertinent area where touching may be acceptable.

Is quite easy to check correct door installation: insert the paper sheet inside “casing-leaf” slot. Free movement of the paper sheet throughout the entire door length is evidencing perfect installation. If paper sheet movement is impeded - repeat hinging the door leaf having investigated the fault first.

Important!

The more the door leaf weighs the more hinges should be provided. Important that all hinges occupy appropriate grooves. Play and gaps are inadmissible.

Cheap foam

Even with high-priced door and state-of-the-art hinges the door owner may not be sure that any ham-fisted carpenter will not spoil the door leaf using the cheap foam.

The foam is normally used instead of screws and self-tappers. It is used to provide proper bonding between door opening elements.

Namely this stealth creature often frustrates the owners who decide to save their money buying the door installation materials. In fact, cheap foam may cause serious door casing distortion.

Therefore, we advise to use foam produced by proven manufacturers and mind that spacers are also essential.

Low-quality materials and measurement errors.

To avoid serious problems with interior doors usage we recommend to select door leaves taking into consideration door unit and wall opening features.

Prior to works commencement first make all necessary dimensional measurements, double-check the door weight, composition and density.

For instance, if you install the door in premises with brickwork you should, therefore, reinforce the door opening in advance.

The point is that factory-made trims and low-cost MDF casings are manufactured using standard templates. Trims like that are using low-cost materials which can fail to bear the loads exerted by heavy doors.

Conclusions

Please do not commit installation errors mentioned above to ensure long service life of your interior doors.

In fact, almost any potential installation error can be avoided and any fault that has been committed may be remedied.

Any detected defect requires immediate elimination. Timely preventive maintenance is always cheaper than procurement of the new product.