exterior wood door

[Fred Odette]

Hi everyone . I am thinking of building a new front door for my home because it is an odd size and was looking for tips and ideas . I was going to use 1 3/4" Pine  for the styles and rails and actually purchase an insul. glass fancy insert with frame from a steel door for the lite.

Any ideas on constuction would be appreciated.

thanks

 

[Jay Boutwell]

Hi Fred, sounds like fun to me.  Not knowing your tooling I would strongly reccomend using the mortise tennon method for construction.  My reasoning for this is that there is far too much pressures applied to a large door line this and the need for strength in joints exceed that of a dowel system.  All the stiles and rails will be a strong joint using a good fitting mortise and tennon.  Depending on moisture I might even consider using an epoxy glue in the joints as well.  If this is going to be a panel type door once the mortise and tennons are cut you can use a table saw and dato blade to cut the panel groove in the rails and stiles.  Free float the panels if they are solid wood and use either rubber space balls that are 1/4 dia and made for building doors or at least some good spongy insulation to stop rattles and hold the panels tight but still allow them to expand and contract.  I suggest cutting the panels 1/4 inch less that the total width of the panel opening (including the debth of the panel grooves).  That will give you 1/8 inch on each side to the panel for expansion.  The panel height should be the same as the panel opening as the long grain will expand and contract very little if any.

Once the panels and the door is built you can further accent the panels using applied moldings, just do not attach them to the panels.  Attach only to the rails and stiles.  That panel will have to move or it will split apart the door when they expand.  Use a minumum of three hinges and I suggest using the 4 inch hinge rather that the smaller common hinge.

For insulation of the door to its frame you can make a 1/8 inch saw kerf around the closing side edge to except the ready made push in type of door seal.  This would be around the sides and the top.  Use a door seal found at the most home stores and fit it to the door allowing for threshold to seal the bottom.

 I think you will enjoy this project as you will have created a custom built door for your home.

 

[Rick]

Another quality finish is a penetrating sealer like TWP, often used for decks.  It will also provide UV protection, ans not look "plasticy" as varnishes sometimes do.  Coats of TWP can be built up over time.

[Robert Rea]

Hello Fred, I think there are some great suggestions already, but I would add a couple more. Myself, if I'm going to all the work of a project that is going to seen by many, I would use hardwoods. Something else to consider is that door manufactures today usually laminate their stiles to help avoid warping. Warping would be my biggest fear. I would not want to do all the work for it not to fit after the seasons change. I also had a professional tell me that your panels should be 2 parts, an outside and an inside that are free floating and not attached to each other. That way if the outside panel has more movement due to the weather it won't create a problem with the inside of the door. 

  I built doors for my shop years back and a problem I've had is that I did not seal the bottom of my outside panel. Water has worked its way in and rotted the bottom rails.

Good Luck.