Replacing bathroom door
Does anyone have recommendations on replacing the 84"x 27" bathroom door? My contractor recommends getting a standard 80" and filling in the rest with a section of beam, the same kind of beam as supports the house.
Any thoughts appreciated.
thanks,
Bob
rubbish. custom doors aren't hard to source. i've replaced two bathroom doors in as many years (on two different eichlers -- ours and a friend's). if you're down to the studs and need to replace the siding adjacent to the door (as we did on our house), you might consider a pre-hung exterior door in solid-core luan. this way it comes well-sealed against the elements. then you can artfully trim around the exterior to resemble something authentic. in order to keep the interior look the same, you'll need to hang the door further to the outside as generally pre-hung doors have a wider jamb than original. the pre-hung will "eat" up some side-to-side space, so if it's really 27in, this might not be an option. i recall ours was a wee bit wider. if you just want to replace the door itself, order a solid-core luan door from a door shop in your area (i ordered the one for house #2 from dolans lumber in concord -- a bit over $150 + 3 weeks to make/ship). then you can match the door yourself or have the door shop match it when the slab comes in. (matching means mitering the hinges and drilling for a door handle). you might consider adding a deadbolt to the door as well -- easy to do at this stage. on house #2, it took less than a day to match (myself), hang and trim the bathroom door, including cutting a new threshold. make sure to seal the door with a good, good primer/sealer. zinzer 1-2-3 is a good choice as well as keep coated with a top-quality exterior paint (sherwin-williams duration). also make sure to keep a drip-lip on the bottom (generally comboed with a weather strip) and a cap on the top. use a paintable caulk to ensure a good seal (OSI's quad is a good choice).
photo of inside of our pre-hung door: http://redneckmodern.typepad.com/redneckmodern/2010/07/bath-and-beyond.html
photo of "exterior" of our garage door... hung in a similar way as the bath door: http://redneckmodern.typepad.com/redneckmodern/2008/01/what-a-differen.html
(Bob: I just noticed you're in Terra Linda. The friend's house I'm working on is on Archangel. If you'd like, drop me a line and I can show you next time I'm up there.)
Upon closer examination, I now question whether 84" is the door height that I should be using. The current door is, in fact, 84" high, but the height from the bottom of the door to the beam is 86 3/4". It seems pretty clear that the space between the top of the door and the beam was not part of the original design. I'm considering taking that out peculiar wood structure and filling that space with the door itself, since the door will have to be custom cut anyway.
The local door shop can cut a fiberglass door at a reasonable price to any height I'd like.Since this door is very exposed to sun and rain, I believe fiberglass is the way to go, at least so I'm told.
As to pre-hung, the width is 28", hung between 4x4 posts. The 4x4 posts are exactly that -- 28 inches apart. So the idea of getting a pre-hung door seems impossible without cutting into the 4x4 posts, right?
I appreciate the feedback.
Bob
As to pre-hung, the width is 28", hung between 4x4 posts. The 4x4 posts are exactly that -- 28 inches apart. So the idea of getting a pre-hung door seems impossible without cutting into the 4x4 posts, right?
yes, and no... in both our's and on the archangel house, the posts are 28in apart. on ours, we opted for a pre-hung door to fit in that opening giving us a 26.5in wide door. we did this because of the un-squareness of this part of our house and the fact that we wanted it as weathertight as possible with all of the built-in thresholds and weatherstripping. on the archangel house, we ordered a 28in door to hang on the posts as original. both work fine. mine has built-in weatherstripping. on his, i had to bock fit decent (and decent-looking) weather stripping, bottom doors sweeps, threshold, etc which cut down the true width a bit as well. hanging the archangel door was tricky (and heavy) and i had to be pretty damn precise matching the hinge mortising -- something that was not an issue with the pre-hung door. both of these doors are solid-core luan-faced with the exterior and edges primed and painted.
we got our door from yardbirds before home-depot closed it and we got the archangel from dolan's lumber in concord, but every locality has a door shop, so custom door of nay size should be easy to source. fwiw. i think the archangel door was taller than 84in.
in your house, the posts were meant to be the jambs and the real beam was the header. any alteration of this was done after the fact, methinks.
we'll likely be up there tomorrow finishing off a project if you want to drop me a line via email.
Just an update on this. I did replace the outside bathroom door with a custom made fiberglass door, cut to the original Eichler size. It was a little pricey, however. The first price quoted was $265 for a 9 foot high, standard width door. But I needed a slightly wider door, so the price was $365.
Bob
