Trimming a door.

[Andy Kev.]

As a result of having some tiles put in, the height of my bathroom floor has risen a bit. I therefore need to take about 5 mm off the bottom of the bathroom door. For this I intend to use a circular saw on a guide rail.

The question I have is due to the outer surface of the door (I'm fairly sure that the inside is some sort of wooden construction). The outer surface is a very smooth, hard material which is probably some kind of plastic. It's certainly synthetic and definitely not metal. Not being in the building trade I have no idea what it is but I imagine that a few on here can guess.

I've been told that with a crosscut blade in the saw and progressing with the saw slowly, cutting it should be no problem.

Does that sound reasonable?

 

[mr rusty]

It will almost certainly chip with a standard circular saw - you might be OK if you take it slowly, but most likely not. Power alternatives are proper track saw with chip guard on the track, router with a long cutter (e.g. kitchen worktop cutter), or with a steady hand a hand held power planer.

However, the simplest way is probably to go get a new and sharp fine tooth hand saw (often called second fix) with 11tpi which will be ~£10-£15 and trim it by hand. e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Stanl ... B00UQ8HCWU

 

[MikeG.]

As well as the above, put a tape over the line of the cut and saw through that. It reduces chipping.

Edit.....the underside of the cut. The top shouldn't need it.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thanks for the replies. I should have pointed out that I have a Festool track saw with the associated track rail (circular saw to me because the blade is circular). Normally I only use it for rough cuts e.g. cross cuts or getting the waney edge off boards. I'm fairly clueless about power tools and their capabilities, which is part of the reason for the question.

 

[Rorschach]

Don't bother with the tape, it won't help. Sharp blade, don't go too fast.

 

[Setch]

Can you post a picture of the door, just so we can see what it appears O be made of? I can't recall coming across melamine or laminate faced doors on anything other than furniture, despite working in a very door-centric job for 10 years. If nothing else it'll satisfy my curiosity

 

[Marineboy]

Could be a plastic skin over a cardboard honeycomb structure. If so I’m guessing there will be a narrow wood lath running round the edge of the door. Just taking 5mm off should be ok. And if you’re using a Festool track saw you needn’t worry re splintering. The other week I used mine to cut a large sheet of acrylic and it was fine.