How to Install Heavy Interior Doors | This Old House

Now that the doors are made and shipped to the Westerly house, Tom Silva and Jeff Sweenor show Kevin O'Connor how they are installed.

Jeff Sweenor uses a laser to plumb the door opening. His story pole locates the hinge locations. With a heavy door such as this, he uses solid shims and longer screws. They add the jamb tight against the shims on the hinge side, making sure the header is level before nailing it off. They screw in the hinges and pins and hang the door. Then they shim the other side of the jamb and tack it down. The solid door swings effortlessly.

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How to Install Heavy Interior Doors | This Old House

[henrygonzalez]

Plumb bob is king, I've been watching since episode one, 41 years ago. And Tommy is right the plumb bob will never stop functioning

[djfglobal]

I’ve installed most doors with a long level and a shorter one for the head, I think it’s pretty open minded of Tommy to do a task he’s done countless times with a new technique- I just wonder if he gets home from a long day of work like me and watches tradespersons videos ....

[brockturner]

Honestly for me and I'm sure many other people, I would rather see Tommy do it with his old process. I don't know about most other viewers, but I don't want to buy that laser system.

[barneygordon]

I only put shims on one side. I first mount one side to the 2 x 4, because you can make the 2x4 plumb.

[nickliovich]

I purchased vintgae solid doors to replace my 2014 purchased pre hung, hollow core doors. Was planning on just exhanging them using longer screws bc of the massive weight difference. Anything else?

The heavy vintage doors were hung on 2 hunges. My newer hollo2 doors on 3 hinges. Does it matter?

[tkjazzer]

Great video. Need more like this on various topics

[robertlanglois]

I like to check the head jamb for level first just in case I need to shim the hinge side before securing it.

[chaseweeks]

@1:40, yeah, nobody's gonna notice that chewed up screw-head.

[PrimalEdge]

TOH on the weekends, TOH on YT, I'm getting my fix!

[chelseag]

Crazy that you uploaded this today because my husband is currently installing solid core slab doors into our old door frames. It is proving to be a very frustrating process... do you have any videos/articles about the process? Thanks!

[fireblaster]

It’s easy when it’s plumb and level before you start

[roccoconte]

What kind of wood are those doors made from?

[imawizardfools]

Needs more explicit detail and visualization for each step. You leave so many questions unanswered.

[harambetidepod]

Does anyone else think the laser gut sounds exactly like actor Peter coyote?

[barneygordon]

you didnt tell people where you started your height calculation. or the possible height differences and what you would have to do with high carpet turning to low hardwood refinish or vice versa

[wadup]

I am a HUGE Tommy fan, but how after all these years can he not keep the bit in the screw? I cannot count on two hands how many videos they have where you hear the bit jumping out of the screw. I hear they screw jump once, I look and reattack so it doesn't happen anymore.

[rawbacon]

Probably Similar to Installing a Heavy Exterior Door.

[jt]

The guy using the laser is probably a working tradeperson.
Pull out a Plumb Bob for about 99.99% of anything on a jobsite and you'll get the boot on Thursday

Also striped screw at 1:43, use a stronger drill push harder or pre drill 😂

[ClownCarCoup]

They never say how they used the laser level. Maybe its obvious but you’d think show it. They went straight to the story pole and horizontal level...

[bradojacko]

So, all you really need is longer screws? Not a stronger hinge or anything?