Need advice on building an interior door

[Matthew Hinton]

I was trying to design a interior passage door for our laundry room.  Dimensions: Thickness is 1 and 3/8". Width is 32".  Height is 79".  

I've attached a rough sketch.  I was thinking of building it from 2x4's for the rails and stiles.  These would be planed down.  For the panels either MDF or plywood. The 2x4's would be attached to each other with pocket holes.  

Question:
Is the a way to use the Kreg jig to attach the rails and stiles to the panels?

[Doug]

You could drill pocket screw holes into the 4 sides of the panels. Then the panel will be screwed into the rails and stiles.

Or  you could cut slots on the rails and stiles with  dado blades or just a few passes on the table saw or with a router and then slide the panels in.  The existing pocket scews on the rails and stiles hold the door together.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/joinery/fra...

[Matthew Hinton]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for replying.  In addition to your suggestion I found on Kreg's instructional DVD: Ch.11 Edgebanding had the following.  I would drill a pocket hole into the panel starting two inches away from the edge.  Then a pocket hole every 6 to 8 inches. 

As to the latter, I've never used a dado blade, router or table saw before.  These tools are on my list to learn though.  

Thanks!       

[Ken Darga]

Matt,

Consider "louvered" doors, (or put a couple of grilles through the door), to your utility room.

It's advantageous to have louvered, since most utility rooms contain, furnace, water heater, washer, dryer, etc.

Heat and moisture are generated by washer and dryer, will build-up behind closed doors, creating future moisture problems.

The louvers are there to provide ventilation for the combustion of gas and to provide intake air for the dryer, water heater and furnace.

Using solid doors, they will need to remain OPENED during dryer usage. Closing them during usage will consume the closet air rapidly and smother the burner flames. That could cause a serious and possibly hazardous condition.

For the proper volumn of air for the combustion of the gas used by the burner, you would need at least ONE square inch of vent in the door for every 1,000 BTU'S.

Dryers have burners between 18 to 24 thousand BTU'S. Therefore, just for burner combustion air, the door vents need to be 18 to 24 inches of total open space.

Add in the dryers intake air and you can easily see that a dryer consumes a huge volumn of air.

Inadequate air means backdrafting and carbon monoxide.

NOTE:

Gas Code Defines "Confined Spaces"

The National Fuel Gas Code defines an confined space as "a space whose volume is less than 50 cubic feet per 1000 BTU per hour of aggregate input rating of all appliances installed in that space."

The most common way of providing adequate air to confined mechanical rooms is to replace the solid door with a louver door or to put a couple of grilles through the wall to connect other interior spaces.