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DOORS 101
— WHAT IS A DOOR?
Door
(dôr, do¯r) noun. A moveable structure
used to close off an entrance, typically consisting
of a panel that swings on hinges or that slides or rotates.
It sounds simple enough. You are looking
for doors - or you would not have found this website.
The sad reality is that you need quite a bit more information
before you can actually order a door. We are here to
help clue you in to the correct terminology and to help
you make sure that you can order what you need.
First you need to determine if you require
an Interior door or an Entry door:
Interior
doors are typically 1-3/8” thick
and are used on doorways that do not typically exit
the home. Interior doors do not have a threshold –
the part of the door frame that you step over to when
going through the doorway. Some people like a thicker
door on their interior doors and you can order a 1-3/4”
thick interior door.
Entry
doors are typically 1-3/4” thick
and are used on doorways that typically exit the home.
Entry doors usually have a threshold that you step
over when going through the doorway. Sometimes an
oversized entry door can benefit by being up to 2-1/4”
thick.
The next item you need to investigate
is whether or not you need a slab or a prehung unit.
A prehung unit
is a complete door with a door jamb. A door jamb is
the frame that a door is hung in. If you stand in
a doorway and look around you, that frame that the
door shuts into is a jamb. The pieces of wood that
the door closes up against to are called door stop.
Interior prehung units include the jamb, the hinges,
and the proper boring for the hardware (handles or
knobs). Entry prehung units include the jamb, the
hinges, proper boring and includes a threshold across
the bottom of the jamb. Entry prehung units also include
weather stripping that helps seal air from entering
or exiting around the door when it is closed. For
new construction or remodeling where you have created
the door opening - you typically want a prehung unit.
A slab
is just the door by itself - no jamb is included.
When you are just replacing doors – using the
existing jambs – you want to order slabs only.
Slabs require a little more work in that you will
have to prep the door for correct hinge placement
and you will have to bore the door for the handle
or knob hardware.
There are all types of special kinds of
doors, each of which are listed under the correct category
– Interior or Entry.
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