Internal doors

[melonfool]

Hi

More in adventures of Mel-land.

I have cheap hollow doors in my new house, so the guy who is doing the decorating and laying the patio was due to replace them. I asked him for solid wood doors, but I want them painted white.

The doors he has bought don't sound solid to me. How would I know?

They are from Wickes called Skipton interior, and say they are 'composite construction'. The only ones I can see on the Wickes site with that name are these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Skipton- ... m/p/206690

- which do appear to be solid, but the ones I have sound really hollow, just the same as the ones that have been taken out!

How can I tell?

ta

Mel

[redsturgeon]

Hi

More in adventures of Mel-land.

I have cheap hollow doors in my new house, so the guy who is doing the decorating and laying the patio was due to replace them. I asked him for solid wood doors, but I want them painted white.

The doors he has bought don't sound solid to me. How would I know?

They are from Wickes called Skipton interior, and say they are 'composite construction'. The only ones I can see on the Wickes site with that name are these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Skipton- ... m/p/206690

- which do appear to be solid, but the ones I have sound really hollow, just the same as the ones that have been taken out!

How can I tell?

ta

Mel

The one linked to looks solid wood to me. Note the weight, 18kg. Weigh the doors you have, if hollow then they will weigh less.

John

PS "composite construction does not suggest solid wood.

[melonfool]

Hi

More in adventures of Mel-land.

I have cheap hollow doors in my new house, so the guy who is doing the decorating and laying the patio was due to replace them. I asked him for solid wood doors, but I want them painted white.

The doors he has bought don't sound solid to me. How would I know?

They are from Wickes called Skipton interior, and say they are 'composite construction'. The only ones I can see on the Wickes site with that name are these: http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Skipton- ... m/p/206690

- which do appear to be solid, but the ones I have sound really hollow, just the same as the ones that have been taken out!

How can I tell?

ta

Mel

The one linked to looks solid wood to me. Note the weight, 18kg. Weigh the doors you have, if hollow then they will weigh less.

John

OK, says 18kg on the packaging. But it says it is composite with pine veneer, so not solid wood? Or is this just the modern version of wood?

The old ones do seem to weigh less, I just went out and lifted one up, but it's hard to tell (I'm not bringing it in and putting it on the scales!). The old ones you can tell are hollow as you can feel it along the tops.

But these still *sound* hollow in the middles, I still don't think I'll be able to put nice hooks on them

Mel

[AleisterCrowley]

You could drill a hole through one...

[melonfool]

You could drill a hole through one...

I couldn't, well, not unless I had a drill, which I don't!



I have a blanket box, made of solid wood, when I knock on the lid of that it sounds like wood. When I knock on these doors, they don't.

Four have been hung, three still in packaging.

Mel

[redsturgeon]

From the website:

Constructed from mixed materials including solid and laminated timbers
Engineered construction for greater resistance to warping, twisting and splitting than traditional timber doors.

So solid but made of ply or mdf probably for the panels.

John

[melonfool]

From the website:

Constructed from mixed materials including solid and laminated timbers
Engineered construction for greater resistance to warping, twisting and splitting than traditional timber doors.

So solid but made of ply or mdf probably for the panels.

John

Hmm, half solid!

Grrr.

Not solid 'wood'! I will need to speak to them.

Mel

[AleisterCrowley]

It's probably 'solid' in that it isn't hollow, but not a single piece of wood.
I think they have to do odd things with doors anyway, to stop them warping/expanding and sticking in the frame

[melonfool]

I am starting to suspect that the doors in my last house were all, technically, fire doors as they were good and heavy.

Mel

[redsturgeon]

I am starting to suspect that the doors in my last house were all, technically, fire doors as they were good and heavy.

Mel

What do you want from your internal doors, is it the weight or something else? It is unlikely that any builder would have fitted fire doors in any location that they were not necessary for regulatory reasons.

The following is the guidance:

The guidance requires that a building is divided into compartments, protecting escape routes, such as
corridors and staircases.
In domestic dwellings above two levels, every door leading to the stairwell (at all levels) must be a fire door,
where the door leads to a habitable room. (i.e not a bathroom or w/c). Fire doors are also required in loft
conversions; between house and integral garage.

So in your last house any of these situations would have probably had a fire door fitted.

My friend is a cabinet maker, he has just fitted custom made solid oak door to a house, I think he charged something like £500 per door. If you want to paint a door then the wood it is constructed from is not that critical and in many cases using ply and mdf (in fact mdf is probably heavier than pine) will produce a more stable door.

I still have the original pine doors in my Edwardian house. They are traditional panel doors where the thin panels are made of pine. Several have split over the years, if they were not a sheet of solid pine they would not have split. Since my house is three stories then I guess I should really replace all the doors in my house for fire doors since I believe every single one opens onto the hall, stairs and landings.

I would say that the doors you have would probably meet the description of solid wood though.

John

[bungeejumper]

I wouldn't necessarily reject your new doors just yet, even if they are some sort of composite with a wood veneer. (Certainly, at 18 kg, they're not your usual cardboard-stuffed skinny-ply things.) They'll probably turn out to be a good balance between quality and cost.

You could probably get good quality solid wood doors, but at a fairly substantial price. Whereas, on the other hand, cheaper solid doors these days are rather prone to warping, because they're made from cheap Siberian larch (or suchlike), and even the pine ones will be the quick-growing varieties that mature in 25 years - not the fine close-grained 60 year timber that the Victorians used in our house, for example. Thirty years ago the market was full of cheap tropical hardwood doors, but even those weren't well made and would swell or warp. I doubt they've got much better in the meantime.

Whereas your 18 kg composite doors almost certainly won't warp. Because, of course, they don't have a grain running through them!

If you want to test the quality of your doors by knocking, do it at the top and especially the bottom of the door. Cheap hollow doors will have only three or even two inches of "solid" wood in the cavity sandwich, whereas better doors will have six or eight inches of solid, and full composite may have no cavity at all. And you'll hear that quite distinctly. The same will go for the area around where a lock might go.

Good luck!

BJ

[bungeejumper]

What do you want from your internal doors, is it the weight or something else? It is unlikely that any builder would have fitted fire doors in any location that they were not necessary for regulatory reasons.

The last time we fitted a new door in a rented property, a fire doors (from Wickes, incidentally) was so little extra in terms of cost that we went for it without much hesitation. And we were very pleased with the weight and the quality. Of course, a door isn't properly fireproofed until it's had the architrave either replaced or at least reinforced. There's no point in having a 30 minute door in a 5-minute architrave made of flammable ticky-tacky!

BJ

[DrFfybes]

I still have the original pine doors in my Edwardian house. They are traditional panel doors where the thin panels are made of pine. Several have split over the years, if they were not a sheet of solid pine they would not have split. Since my house is three stories then I guess I should really replace all the doors in my house for fire doors since I believe every single one opens onto the hall, stairs and landings.

John

Hi John,

this is a lot of work though as you need to change the rubbing strip as well, and regs change over the years.

The 3 storey 1930s I did a loft conversion on simply required closers on all the doors except a fire door to the kitchen and to the loft, PLUS a means of escape from the loft. More recently they required fire doors on all rooms, but nor closers (presumably as they realised people just removed them).

Paul

[Gaggsy]

...the ones I have sound really hollow, just the same as the ones that have been taken out!
How can I tell?

If you look at page 4 of the Premdor download linked below, you'll see a 4 panel pine door weighing 18kg (very similar to the Wickes ones you've bought).

http://www.premdor.co.uk/pdf/download-c ... _doors.pdf

The descriptions suggest the stiles and rails are made from 'Laminate and Finger Jointed Pine Core' which is then covered with a 'Clear Pine Veneer'.

So, yes it's made from solid wood, but each component is not necessarily made from a single piece of wood.

[melonfool]

Thank you all - I clearly have delusions of grandeur or something!

The doors in the last house were much heavier and more solid and I think they would all have been fire doors, so maybe that is why. Three storey house, all first and second floor doors opened onto the landing except the two en-suites, but I guess they probably didn't bother to order different ones?

Ground floor was different, the doors were two sets of double doors, then one into the study, one for the loo and one little one under the stairs.

House before was 1930's and the door were, I think, original, they certainly had the original well worn, round, wobbly handles on (which I loved).

I just want them to feel solid and make the house feel more cozy, warmer, more sound-proofed. The new carpet will help that too. If I can't hear the dishwasher from in bed that will be good!

I shall let them carry on, which is just as well as they have said they can do it tomorrow now instead of Thursday.

Many thanks all - I now know a lot more about doors!

Mel