# Cutting down engineered/veneer doors to size



## Krome10 (9 May 2013)

Hi all 

We are looking for an internal door and the height needs to be 1942mm. We like the look (and price!) of some oak veneered/engineered core doors. But they all seem to only come in standard sizes, the heights of which are 1981mm. 

We've made some enquiries and it seems that taking 40mm off the height would invalidate the guarantee. Fair enough. 

What I wondered though was whether it will make the door unstable or cause other issues? We plan to paint the door. 

Cheers 

Max


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## Random Orbital Bob (9 May 2013)

its only just under 2" you want to remove. I would take 1 inch off each end to keep the symmetry. It wont affect performance as the rails are much deeper than that.

The real question is why would you want to paint over oak??


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## Krome10 (9 May 2013)

We are not set on oak..... Would be happy with other woods (pine etc). The trouble is that we have not seen any pine doors (or non veneer doors) that are cheaper. We are after something half glazed..... Any suggestions would be great!

Also, I think that the veneer in the doors we are looking at is more like 10mm thick at most. Maybe less.... So cutting down would mean cutting into the core....

Cheers


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## Lons (9 May 2013)

It won't harm the structural integrity of the door and as it's internal, as long as the edges are sealed you should be fine though you'll need to fill the rough core before painting.

Not necessary on your case but I needed to do something similar to a maple veneered door which was being varnished so I rescued the solid ends which were only 20mm thick. routed out the core to suit and glued the strips back in. It worked very well but was a real pita and took me ages.

Bob


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## Togalosh (9 May 2013)

If it's a quite heavy, solid core door like I used to help make (in my fisrt job after leaving school) then the core is stable all by itself & the veneer & lipping is just cosmetic, however you say it's glazed so this might weaken the core depending on how that's been done (how big & how close to the edge/s the aperture is)... but if you cut the lipping off it won't look so good & it would expose the end grain of the core but there's no telling how thick they are so if it's for internal use I'd cut it off the bottom...but if it's part glazed you might have to balance it out a bit or else it might look odd. 

..hmm..decisions, decisions


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## MrYorke (9 May 2013)

I'd say chop 1 1/2 inch from the bottom and 1/2 inch from the top. In my opinion taking an inch off each rail would be too much for the top rail and look a little odd and out of balance. 

Have done it many times and you shouldn't find a problem with structural integrity. 

The idea to stick pieces into the core is a good idea especially a bathroom door


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