Interior DoorInterior Door Buying Guide
|
|
Buying an interior door can be a complicated process and only through being an aggressive, educated, and astute buyer will you be able to purchase the right doors for your house. Doors are available a number of places including mill work shops, lumberyards, home improvement stores, and directly from door manufacturers. Most interior doors are made by just a handful of companies like Premdor or Jeld-Wed. These larger companies have small regional branches which can construct and customize doors. It is these branch offices which give doors to local distributors and stores to sell.
To shop for an interior door you must know what size door you need. o measure an interior door you need to fist measure the door's actual width, thickness (usually 1 inch), and also the height (typically 6 foot 8 inches). You basically have two choices. You can buy just the interior door or you can buy a complete door system. Buying the complete door system means you will not have to hang the interior door yourself. It replaces the jamb as well as the door. If you are interested in buying a complete system be sure to measure the thickness of your existing jamb. Measure from the inside of the exterior molding to the inside of the interior molding. This will help you determine the wall thickness. Then stand inside of the door and mark down which side the handle of the interior door is on. If the handle is on the right you have right handed door and if the handle is on the left then you have a left handed door. Interior doors come in a number of high quality woods which offer a durable finishes – a must have if you have young children. This allows for the doors to easy be washed down and cleaned. Doors range from your basic model to something more intricate. The more involved an interior door is in detail the better the door is built. This is because the rails and tiles have to be wider to compensate for the added way. For example Nord's high end interior doors have 1 3/8 inch panels where as low cost doors have panels which are less then half an inch. Make sure if you buy an interior door system that all parts are from the same manufacturer. Many home improvement stores will manually put together a door systems and not all the parts will work together properly. Before leaving the store make sure your interior door is not warped. Buying an interior can be an overwhelming experience because of the variety of choices and styles. Be sure to make a list of the key characteristics you are looking for in an interior door before shopping for one. |
Interior Doors