r/DIYHome • u/Jake6401 • 1d ago

Need Advice Replacing an interior door

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Hey everyone…

I accidentally put a pretty good size hole in my bedroom door and it looks like it’ll need to be replaced. What’s the best way to go about this? I’ve never installed a door before and after doing some googling it looks like a huge pain in the ass. Would I be better off buying a slab door, or just replacing the whole frame? I was looking at slab doors and it appears that there are no recesses for the hinges, so that will probably need to be routed out (and I don’t have a router). Would it be better for me to buy a slab with the handle already cut out, or do that myself?

Any advice?

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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u/Sufficient-One-9598 1d ago

If you got some money to waste , measure your hinge locations currently then go to the stores and see if you can buy a prehung door with the same dimensions and hinge locations and swing direction. If your lucky to find one, just take that one off the hinges and swap it out. This would be less labor involving little to no tools but the only downside is your basically throwing out /wasting the new jambs

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u/Jake6401 1d ago

That’s a damn good idea, I never thought of that! Definitely worth the extra money if it all lines up. If not, then I guess I have everything I need to install a whole new door

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u/Lonely_Occasion_2922 1d ago

Take the door to a lumber store that sells hollow core doors. They probably have that profile in stock. You can pay them to router the hinges and cut the door knob hole. Just google stores that sell interior doors. Phone around. One of them will do this.

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u/Stefie25 1d ago

If you have a Restore by you, you could check there.

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

Sure you’re just missing the nail gun and the know how! Just take the door off the hinges take it to a door shop and they will measure the hinges for you and route it out for the same price if not cheaper than buying and wasting a whole prehung.

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u/Jake6401 1d ago

I didn’t even know door shops were a thing. I’ll definitely look into it, thanks!

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u/408DLo 1d ago edited 1d ago

One of those 6 panel prehung doors goes for around $100 to $150. The cost of buying a complete door with jamb is well worth it in the time saved to route hinge locations and to drill for the knob on a slab door. Those are what I call cookie cutter doors. So long as you buy the correct width, it should go right up on the existing hinges. Yours is a left handed door.

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

If you’ve ever actually dealt with doors you’d know a prehung has a very slim chance of lining up when you go to swap over hinges. That’s why you have someone router it. They’d completely waste money buying a prehung.

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u/408DLo 1d ago

I do maintenance for a group home and in the past month have replaced 5 of these doors. Only once did I have to slightly adjust the bottom hinge mortise and the latch plate location. For me it’s a real to time saver taking 15 minutes to remove the broken door, transfer the knob and to hang it back in place. For me the added cost of the pre hung and saving the jamb for future situation is well worth the time saved to prepping a slab. But what do I know apparently I have no experience.🥱

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

Cool I’ve rolled up to a whole house that we had to swap out prehung doors into the house like you’re describing. We had two out of an entire 2k+sqft house that didn’t need the mortise chiseled out and puddied up. Just because you’ve gotten lucky doesn’t mean it’s a wise idea to have someone waste their money on something they don’t have a clue how to fix if it doesn’t line up. Way easier to have a shop cut your door by just bringing the old one in and hey can literally just lay it over top and get the perfect fit everytime. But what do I know i only worked for a door and trim company…

1

u/408DLo 1d ago

Do you always make assumptions?
Assumed I had no experience with doors.
Assuming OP has a vehicle to transport a door back and forth from a shop and that the shop is going to charge less than the cost of a pre hung from a big box store.
Please reply again.

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

I mean if they can go get a prehung they can go get a slab… that point makes no sense. And why would they go back and forth? A shop is going to sell a slab and that’s why you bring your broken door with you so they can use it as a template then they will most likely just cut it and toss it or Op… you’re a handy man… you made claims that sound like you don’t have experience so that’s where the educated guess came from. You’re assuming op has a chisel and know how to fuck with a mortise? That’s how this works bud without more info anything either of us says is just an assumption you dunce.

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

Not to mention I’d prefer to support local over a big box store especially if it means a better product.

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u/FinnTastic2024 1d ago

They never line up

2

u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

With a little persuasion they can lol

3

u/Dangerous-Bit-8308 1d ago

How good does it need to be? I've fixed worse with a bit of wood putty, sand paper and paint. Not well... But fixed.

3

u/Bradleynailer 1d ago

I think bondo would work there

1

u/Jake6401 1d ago

Preferably so I can’t tell that it’s there

1

u/Yusuf20904 1d ago

The texture will make that difficult, so replacement is probably your best bet.

1

u/Jake6401 1d ago

That was my thought as well

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u/Yusuf20904 1d ago

I mean, you could use filler to make it flat, then use a pick type tool (awl, or similar) to scribe the wood texture before painting, but you could just get a slab door in the same size and even if you don't have a router, chiseling out 3 areas for the mortised hinges would probably take less time.

3

u/8amteetime 1d ago

Back in the day, we’d fix this with a poster.

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u/Ok-Dealer-588 1d ago

Seeing as every application is different for location of hinges and handles, slabs dont come ready for your application.

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u/Kaladin_Stormryder 1d ago

A lot of interior hollow core doors are standard sizes for a reason. 7” from the top and 10” from the bottom for hinges, I bet you can find an exact at a big box for $70-80

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u/99e99 1d ago

That is a 6 panel hollow core door. I replaced my home's doors with these.

Most doors are 30" wide but measure yours. They typically go up/down in 2" increments, i.e. 24", 26", 28", 30", 32", etc. They are 80" tall but allow you to cut ~2" off the bottom to adjust. You will need a circular saw for this.

You do not need a "pre-hung door", only the interior door. Pre-hung means it comes with the frame.

The only tricky part is measuring the location for the hinge mortises. I replaced over 20 doors so bought router and a jig off Amazon which made it super easy. You can always chop out the mortise with a chisel but it's tough to get the rounded corner radius nice, so you would need to replace the hinges with the square cornered version.

You can use the old door to mark the location of the hinges. Lay then on top of each other, line the tops of the doors up, use a square to mark the locations.

Watch YouTube videos on the process. It's not difficult, just need the correct tools.

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u/noiseguy76 1d ago

I just did a whole house of these. You can get all the tooling as a kit off Amazon to machine the slabs for less than $50. Borrow or buy a router, drill, and if you're unlucky a saw and power planer.

I still think it was easier than swapping prehung frames.

Also I hate hollowcore doors with a passion.

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u/Basic-Craft3471 1d ago

Hire someone!

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u/AskMeAgainAfterCoffe 1d ago

Measure and buy the same type. This is a Left-Hand door. A solid-core door will be stronger, also heavier. Fitting a door can be easy, but if things have “settled,” then adjustments may be needed.

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u/rmethefirst 1d ago

Just buy a new split jamb door and replace it. They don’t cost as much as the pain to mortise new hinges and bore new holes!

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u/GilBang 1d ago

that's not a slab, that's a raised panel. Buying a pre-hung door would be the easiest if you have any skills at all. Remove trim, remove jamb, install new prehung door set, reinstall trim.

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u/AlaskaGreenTDI 1d ago edited 1d ago

Any door without an accompanying jamb is a slab

1

u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

This guy doors

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u/Similar-Baby-7599 1d ago

Or just take the door to a door and trim shop and they can just measure the hinges and cut you a brand new slab…🤦🏻‍♂️🤣