Internal ledge and brace ash doors - recommended thickness

[MikeG.]

Steve,

what you describe (dry vertical joints) is how I would do an external door, but internally, in a stable environment, and with kiln dried timber, the construction technique I described has been no problem at all. There isn't a single crack in any of the doors. Out of interest, I have just gone around and sighted across them, and they are all straight, to0, with no bowing.

As a matter of interest, these doors traditionally aren't t&g, but half-lapped. Also, as they were traditionally made with cut nails folded over on the ledge, there was no allowance made for any movement.......and they tended to use much wider boards "in the old days" than we do now.

If you were in a house with a less stable internal environment than mine, I might still glue the board joints but dry-fit the ledges with elongated holes for the screws (which are then pelleted).

Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

OK MIke, thanks for that.
S

 

[mpooley]

thanks steve for asking that as I was going to ask same thing

and thanks mike for your reply - I thought that the boards had to be able to move - but if your experience is otherwise i'm very happy to accept that

while I'm here I also am thinking of pinning beading to my face frames -
Id like to use my nail gun :shock: but am worried about the nails staining.

do you think i should just glue them with no pins or do you think they will be ok?

thaks again

mike

 

[RogerS]

John...it's a modern refurbishment that we've done and where the doors are going into. Will try and post some pic's.

Look forward to seeing that Roger. Thanks. I shall probably have to use sapele-veneered mdf and just re-face the doors I have! At least I can get away with oiling them instead of painting, which is a pain in the rear for me.



:lol:

Pictures as promised...

 

[disco_monkey79]

Mike,

you don't even need ledges to stop the doors "drooping".

Imagine edge joining 3 or 4 boards together as in a normal table-top. If you then hung that vertically you wouldn't see any droop, however long it hung there.....as long as the glue holds.

Glues these days don't give up (indoors)........but if you were nervous you could put a dowel in each joint. This would have to shear to allow any sag.

The ledges give a stiffness to the door, and prevent the outer board from being broken off by clumsy users (and as such, protect the glue-line, and thus help prevent sagging). My homemade 4-ledged no-braces oak doors haven't sagged a millimetre in the 10 years they've been up.

Mike

Hi

Apologies for dragging up an ancient thread, but I stumbled across this whilst investigating brace and ledge (or just ledge doors).

I intend making some, but read with interest that braces aren't necessarily required on internal doors. Mike - do you have any pics (or can you point me to a thread) with pics of your brace-less doors?

Many thanks

 

[MikeG.]

Sure. Work your way through this thread and there is an internal ledged door in oak.

 

[AJB Temple]

My view...the house we recently bought to refurbish had about 25 internal doors. Ledged and braced. Face planks were 19mm and the ledges and braces 30mm. Looked horrible. Doors looked and felt flimsy.

I replaced the whole lot with oak planked doors. Mostly three planks wide, some 4 planks. Finished thickness of face planks and ledges was approx 30mm. I nailed the ledges on with hand made nails. These doors look and feel a great deal better than the originals. To me 19mm looks and feels weedy. Clearly this is just a subjective personal opinion.

I would say to make these doors out of well seasoned English oak (I bought the oak even though I have stocks, as I found some lovely wide planks at sensible prices and it saved me days of time) cost me about £120 a door. Takes me 2 hours to make a door, including machining the beading. Takes me much longer to reframe and hang the darned things!

 

[disco_monkey79]

Sure. Work your way through this thread and there is an internal ledged door in oak.

Thanks for that. Can I also ask, on the toilet door, are those 15 or 18 inch hinges? Lovely work, by the way.

 

[MikeG.]

They're 18" hinges. It's a seriously wide door......over 900 wide.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Thanks again