Buying internal doors

[Adam]

Sort of OT, sort of General. I'd like to replace all the internal doors in our house. Currently they are softwood, and badly warped and very very poorly finished. They've also had a nasty finish applied, which makes them look very bland. I'd like to buy some new "nicer" ones, does anyone know where to source reasonable quality softwood ones? Can you buy hardwood internal doors? Having decorated the whole house, the doors are really letting the entire place down, so replacing with £15-25 B&Q doors is a bit of a waste of time. Any ideas?

I know, I could make them, but I've got too much else on at the moment.

Adam

 

[Scrit]

Yes you can. Many small manufacturing joinery firms will make to order for you and there are quite a few door specialists, just Google "hardwood doors" and you'll see what I mean. Even companies such as Magnet, Howdens, etc have a limited range available, but expect to pay £120 to £250 per door plus VAT for a hardwood door.

Then again, you could always make your own. If you substitute loose stub tenone for through tenons the job becomes feasible with reasonably basic equipment

Scrit

 

[beech1948]

We replaced all of our internal doors about 7 yrs ago. Bought them from Doors of Distinction somewhere near Bournemouth. Cost including hardware,hinges and delivery was about £950.

Number of doors was 12.

Style was 6 panel. 6 were hardwood and fitted downstairs. 6 doors were softwood ( pretty much identical to hardwood doors) and used for upstairs.

I hired a local chippy to fit as hardwood doors were v.heavy and my skill levels on doors were low.

regards

alan

 

[Alf]

I can't recall the details (I can ask) but when the old man changed all the doors in the house he was able to get knot-free ones from Focus? Homebase? one of those anyway, despite there not being a word about them on the display, so might be worth an ask.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Colin C]

You can also get the knot free one's from wickes too

 

[Pecker]

Hi all, a word of warning about these cheap and knot free doors. I've hungs loads and loads of them. Nowadays they are just a very thin veneer over the whole door. The substrate is a biscuit jointed rough as hell wood in strips. Now all this is fine, until you have to plane a load of one side - especially if happens to be the leading edge, when you end up with a cheap rough looking front edge to the door.

If left untreated with varnish/paint, they quickly swell up or distort.
SWMBO bought 5 from Focus last year so I've got them in my own house too.

A customer about two weeks back had got some new ones from somewhere that was even worse. it appears the veneer was almost sprayed on. Awful!

They're OK, but don't expect to much from them!

mark

 

[woodbloke]

I've just got around tuit replacing our old sapele faced flush doors with those 'clear' pine doors from Wickes (or Homebase or B&Q) and true enough, they are veneered but the ones I've handled have been done using quite thick veneer so it hasn't been a problem. Best way I found to trim them to size is with a router and straight edge to take of most of the thickness and then turn the door over and use a bearing cutter to remove the rest. Some careful sanding follows and 3 coats of Homebase matt acrlyic varnish (seems to be the only place to buy matt acrlyic) and they look quite acceptable - Rob

 

[Alf]

Tsk, is this veneer thing recent? Just asked the old man and he says the ones he had weren't. Honestly, you can't trust anything these days, can you? :roll:

Cheers, Alf

 

[jasonB]

I've just spent the last four days replacing the downstairs doors of a house with oak ones, just short of £3500 for ten doors inc one FD30 and six glazed ones inc the beveled glass.

Even at that price they were a chipboard core with oak veneer

If you fancy them I have a spare 6'6" x 2'6" one thats going free as I can't make it fit into a 2'3" opening, shouldn't have taken an elastic tapemeasure when I went to measure up It's the 12M

Jason

 

[nickson71]

All this make you think that it may be a good idea to leave the doors and make your own at a later date............

 

[Adam]

Jason,

Thats very kind, but I think at the moment I'll wait and replace the whole lot in one go, that way I get them all matching.

Thanks everyone else for the tips, its definately food for thought.

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

My normal wood supplier has a load of doors at £35.00 each. The local door manufacturer has just moved operations to Midlands and he bought excess stock from them. Normal retail price £195 each. He is here in Lowestoft.

Koolwabbit

 

[pidgeonpost]

Not sure where in the country you live, or what style you are looking for, but a couple of places advertise in The Hereford Times making solid oak internal doors (ledge & brace) for around £120 a go I think. can check if you're interested.

 

[engineer one]

according to the supplier i have seen in amersham, bucks,
his come in from the far east, and are all hardwood,
he has to get softwood ones made in the uk, at about 50 % more

glazed and all that they were from about 350 per door,
but solid. :?

paul :wink: