By Doors Direct
The most important thing to bear in mind when installing door frames is to ensure that once the final floor levels are obtained, the inside height of the door frame remains as close as possible to the door height (a standard door is 2032mm high).
It is not uncommon to see doors which have had to be excessively trimmed to fit into a door frame. The reason for this is normally that the contractor has not taken the final floor levels into consideration when building in the door frame, and he has buried the door frame into the screed and then tiled or laid carpets on top of this. Whatever the original height of the door frame was, it is now effectively a lot smaller, because the door frame is now sunken into the floor, by sometimes as much as 75mm. The only way to now fit the door is to trim the door by this amount. This excessive trimming of the door reduces the structural integrity of the door.
It recommended that when building in door frames, a 75mm nail is punched into the bottom of each of the door frame stiles. This results in the following three things:
- You can set the door frame to the correct height.
- You can ‘plum’ the door frame level by merely tapping on either side of the frame.
- The door frame does not absorb moisture from the concrete through the exposed end grain.
Another option is to order the door frames slightly longer than the doors.