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We're looking to replace the two downstairs internal doors in our house and I could do with some advice...
The house was build around 1900 which maybe has some bearing.
The current doors are in a bit of a state and I assume are not (economically) repairable.
They also seem to be non-standard sizes compared to off-the-shelf doors I can find via google.
The current doors are (roughly) 75x206x35 and 80.5x206x35.
Questions...
Solid or Engineered, everyone selling solid that I've found says these are infinitely better, likewise the converse for those selling Engineered.
Is it possible to get new doors this size off-the-shelf or are we looking a custom made doors? For either option can you suggest a source? For custom constructed doors are we going to get into stratospheric prices?
Another option I see (perhaps cost prohibitive?) would be dropping the architrave by a few centimetres - standard doors now seem to come in up to 204 cm sizes (though maybe we have a problem with the 206x75 door - tall + narrow I've not come across yet)
Would we be better looking at salvaged doors (we're in Glasgow & there a salvage yard down in the Scotstoun area that we've bought stuff from before, they have loads of old doors. We've looked a bit in here already [not measured anything though] and initially discounted it as they likely don't work out any cheaper than brand new solid doors).
Finally, anyone recommend a good joiner in the Glasgow area (my long dead grandad was a joiner by trade and he always said hanging a door well was the hardest job)?
I have recently hung some engineered oak doors, they are great but if you have non-standard sizes you need to be aware that you can only trim around 6mm off of the width and height before you hit the chipboard.
I don't know if it is an option for you, but I had similarly odd sized doors in a previous house and I changed the frames and made them a standard fit.
We are in Edinburgh in a similar aged property and have been through this scenario when we renovated. If you are not in a rush then regular skip diving is one of the best ways to pick up period doors, just take a tape measure to check you are not wasting energy on something that won't fit. Second option is the salvage yard, you'll pay for it but that's the way it is, and to be fair there are a lot of cheap doors on the DIY market that make anything seem expensive. New doors always look a bit wrong in period property IMO though, but it is a matter of taste. A period door will probably be a lot better made. Another option is the Gumtree or facebook upcycle pages, my neighbour just got a period door for free.
Eventually the size you want will come up, just be patient!
As I have found out there is a limit to how much you can cut doors down by, and it's not always very much
Every doorway in my house is a law unto itself. I would have loved nice clean white modern doors, but ended up having to buy reclaimed pine doors (decided to leave them natural stripped). It took me about 6 months to find the right sizes, in exactly matching colour/shade and style. I gave up trying to find one of the smallest size and bought a bigger door and then had it scaled down, which was quite expensive. I found mine either Ebay or local pine strippers who had reclaimed and stripped pine doors for sale, it was just a case of going along every other week to see what they had.
Do you have scope to move the architrave enough to have standard doors? If so I'd go engineered as they tend not to warp over time.
Measure to the millimetre and get doors the same or very slightly bigger to plane down to size.
Allow for locks/floor finishes in fact anything that will change as well as the doors
The frame themselves may be in twist or not and the current doors have moved with them - its not always obvious
Sand paper, filler and paint covers a multitude of sins.
They might not be as bad as you imagine.
They might not be as bad as you imagine.
These really are. The worst damange being were someone has attacked one with a chisel removing a solid chunk of wood for no apparent reason, on top of this the panels are split and we have huge gaps beteen the batons.
I did caulk and gloss all the doors in our old flat and they came up not too bad, though at the same time not perfect. These doors are in worse condition than any of those and I'm just not seeing we'll ever be happy with them if fixed up in a half assed fashion.
XL joinery will do you a bespoke door (engineered) for normal off-the shelf price but it's a lengthy wait, you'll also have to order them through a merchant.