Interior doors: DIY selection and repair

Recommendation points

• Types of interior doors
• By design
• By material
• Repair and maintenance of interior doors
• Sag fix
• Skew correction
• Repair of fittings
• Fitting the door in place
• Door leaf repair
• Door care

Interior doors. While they work well, they are not noticed, but if something breaks, then the operation of the doors turns into flour. How to choose a door depending on its purpose and location, how to repair it and what to do to make it last as long as possible, will be described in this article..

The door is where any room begins and ends with. They are external (entrance) and internal (interroom). Interior doors are primarily designed to divide the living space into zones. In addition, they also perform decorative functions. Therefore, skewed creaking doors, shuffling on the floor, with an unpresentable appearance can ruin the life of any person..

This article is about how to put the appearance of your doors in order, what problems arise when using doors and how to fix them. In addition, if you are just going to buy interior doors, then this article will help you choose the ones that will create the least problems for you during operation..

Types of interior doors

Let’s start by deciding which interior doors, generally speaking, are. The classification can be carried out on two grounds: by the type of door leaf and the material from which they are made.

By design

Swing.The most common type of door. Represents one or two door leaves, with the axis of rotation on the side of the door frame. There are single (with one door leaf), one and a half (as a rule, one leaf opens freely, the half opposite is fixed) and double (it is they who are often called swing doors – two opening canvases). Double are most often used in wide openings – the entrance to living rooms, dining rooms and similar rooms.

Pros: easy to install, reliable and unpretentious in operation, use the simplest fittings (in fact, only door hinges), practically silent when opening / closing.

Cons: Requires extra space when opening, which limits their use in small spaces.

Sliding or sliding doors.On special guides, the door leaf rolls to the side. Can be open (guides run along the wall) and hidden (guides are hidden inside the wall).

Pros: they do not “eat up” the useful living space in the open state, they are quite reliable in operation, it is possible to hide the door leaf when opening (for hidden ones, this was originally incorporated in the design).

Cons: they require space along the wall, where the door leaf will roll back, are difficult to install, hidden ones require arranging a niche in the wall even before installing the door itself, require a floor guide, which necessarily implies a sill that is quite noisy when opening / closing.

Folded or accordion doors.They consist of two or more canvases connected to each other in such a way that when opening they fold like an accordion, and when closed they form a single plane.

Pros: take up very little space in the open state, thus ideal in very small spaces (toilet, bathroom, pantry, and the like).

Cons: they have the most complex and capricious fittings in work, very difficult to install and set up, the most noisy when opening / closing.

Rotating.One or more door leaves rotating on a central axis. In fact, they are also interior doors, but they are rarely used in residential premises, therefore, they will not be considered within the framework of this article.

By material

Solid wood.The so-called paneled doors. Made of solid wood. Sometimes it is valuable wood, but more often pine or spruce, either of its natural kind, or covered with veneer. Weighty enough, therefore, require special attention to the accessories used. Possess excellent heat and sound insulation properties.

Panel doors.The frame is made of timber with face plates fixed on it from both sides. They look like solid wood doors, but the structure of the wood is imitated using laminated film – the simplest, cheapest and least durable, with the help of embossing and painting in a suitable color – the option is more expensive and more reliable than the previous one, and it looks more natural, and with the help wood veneer – in appearance almost indistinguishable from wood, but the most expensive. A lighter option than solid wood doors, therefore, allow the use of lightweight hardware options. They have poor heat and sound insulation properties.

Glass doors.Doors consisting entirely of glass (do not confuse them with doors made of wood or panel doors with glass). They are used most often in toilets, bathrooms and similar premises. Only special fittings suitable for this type of door can be used. Perhaps the most expensive option. With proper care, they have an unlimited service life. Possess the worst heat and sound insulation properties.

Plastic doors.Thanks to the ability to simulate any surface, the scope of their application is unlimited. Average in price (more expensive than wooden, but cheaper than glass). Only original fittings can be used. Thanks to plastic, the door leaf is not susceptible to warping, cracking and rotting, therefore such doors have a much longer service life than wooden ones, and even more so panel doors. Possess excellent heat and sound insulation properties.

Repair and maintenance of interior doors

Any mechanism during operation is prone to breakdowns. For an interior door, such a mechanism is door hardware. What can break down, how to repair it and how to prevent such breakdowns in the future will be discussed below. In addition to fittings, the door leaf itself can also cause a number of problems. How to deal with them and how to care for the door leaf – these questions will also be answered. Let’s start with the hardware problems.

Sag fix

A problem with swing doors. If your door starts to bump against the side or bottom of the door frame, or against the floor, and this has not been observed before, then your door leaf has sagged. As a rule, this is due to the weakening of the fastening of the door hinges or the failure of the hinges themselves. What needs to be done to fix the problem? Open the door and take a close look at the hinges. Try to swing the door by the leading edge (not in the opening plane, but in the vertical plane). If the fastening screws are loosened, you will see that the hinge has free play along the screws (looseness will appear). There are three options for fixing the problem:

• tightening old screws;
• if the previous action does not help, then try replacing the screws with longer ones;
• if it is not possible to replace the screws, then with the help of wood glue and wooden wedges, seal the old holes for self-tapping screws and fix the loop to the old place.

If you find that the screws are tightly wrapped, and there is free play inside the hinge itself, then this is a sure sign of the need to replace the entire block..

If sagging appears after a short time after the door is installed, then this indicates that the mass of the door leaf is higher than the permissible load on the hinges. In this case, you can either replace the hinges with more powerful ones, or install additional.

Skew correction

Sliding interior doors and folding doors often encounter this problem. The cause of the skew is imbalance, derailment of the guides or breakage of the guides themselves.

A sign of imbalance is the wedging of the blade movement along the entire length of the free stroke. To fix it, you need to adjust the roller height with the adjusting screw.

A sign of going off the guides – the door leaf hangs down in a plane perpendicular to the movement, when trying to move it immediately skews and wedges. To fix it, you need to raise the canvas above the lower rail, insert the wheels into the guides and pull the door to the side so that it falls into place.

Breakage of guides is characterized by the fact that the door leaf normally moves in one extreme position and wedges in the other. This may be due to a loosening of the top guide rail. Then, similarly to strengthening the door hinges, fasten the rail. If this does not help, then the rail itself is deformed and out of order. In this case, only its replacement will help..

It should be said that the listed problems are possible in the case of deformation of the doorway itself. This is due to the skewing of the door frame, most likely due to the too large mass of the door leaf. This problem can be solved by strengthening the fastening of the box to the wall (additional fasteners), or by replacing the door frame with a new, more powerful one.

Repair of fittings

We will not consider door locks and handles, but restrict ourselves only to door hinges – for swing doors, and guides – for sliding and folding doors. The fact is that the topic of handles and locks is very extensive, and therefore it is quite impossible to consider it within the framework of this article..

Hinges. The most common problems are the stem falling out, which leads to the separation of the loop halves and the skewing of the blade, and the erasure of the loop halves, as a result, the blade sliding down. In the first case, it is enough to return the stem to its place with a rubber hammer. So that it does not fall out in the future, you can fix any emphasis under it on the door frame. The main thing is that it does not interfere with the normal operation of the door. In the second case, replace the loops with new ones..

Guides. As a rule, the repair of guides is reduced to replacing the failed parts. Nowadays, you can easily buy the necessary parts in specialized stores. The most important thing is to identify the broken part..

Now let’s move on to the problems associated not with the fittings, but with the door leaf itself.

Fitting the door in place

If you just installed the door, and it touches the door frame, then you need to adjust it in place. For this:

• firstly, it is necessary to determine the places where the canvas rubs against the box. Take a sheet of paper, insert it into the gap between the canvas and the jamb and guide it around the perimeter. Where the leaf will not pass, mashing occurs. Mark these places with a pencil;
• next, remove the door and stitch the edge where you marked. If hinges or a lock interfere with you, dismantle them;
• After planing, reassemble the door to its original state and check if the problem is solved. If not, repeat the procedure..

Door leaf repair

The problem is typical for wooden or panel doors. Repair of the canvas is required in the following cases:

• a deformation has occurred – a violation of the plane. There is only one solution – you dismantle the door, lay it on a flat, flat surface, lay sheets of plywood on top and press down with a load. The straightening process is quite long and in each case is individual in terms of time, so please be patient and periodically check the progress of the process. Unfortunately, this is the only way to fix the deformed canvas, so if there is no time or desire to perform the described actions, then there is only one way out – replacing the door;
• scratches and abrasions have formed on the surface. The simplest thing is to paint the door. It is clear that before painting the surface must be prepared: degrease and, if necessary, putty the chips. You can paint with paint on the same basis as it was painted before the repair or with acrylic (it fits perfectly on any surface). The lacquered surfaces can be pre-sanded. The varnish, as well as the paint, must be used similar to that used in the original painting. In addition, you can decorate the surface in any way you know, thereby giving it a unique appearance..

Door care

In conclusion, it is necessary to dwell separately on door care. What you need to do to make the doors serve as long as possible.

The fittings must always be lubricated and in good condition. A broken one loop will eventually cause the second to break. The same applies to sliding and folding door rails.

In order to avoid decay of the wooden parts of the door, when inserting the fittings into the door leaf and frame, it is necessary to treat the installation sites with moisture-repellent antifungal agents..

During the repair, all doors should be carefully covered with a covering material..

The installation of new doors during repairs should be done last..

For wood, veneer or laminated doors, it is very important to use a special furniture care product when cleaning. If this is not available, then either a 10% aqueous solution of alcohol or a solution of household (in no case any other) soap will do. Once every six months, it is recommended to treat the surfaces with a polish – this will not only add additional gloss to your doors, but also prevent dust from settling on them.

Glass doors are cleaned with a window cleaner. Plastic – with soapy water or a special plastic cleaner. Glass and plastic doors do not need additional processing. The most important thing is to monitor the condition of the fittings of such doors..

It should be remembered that the need for repairs directly indicates inadequate care. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the prevention and maintenance of your doors..