old door frames out of whack

:eek:
hi there !
i'm about to start some extensive renovations on my old 1920's bungalow(hovel). 3 of the door frames are out of square and in poor condition.
i've bought the replacement timber including enough baltic pine floor board for the entrance to each doorway. i'm assuming i'll have to firstly cut out the flooring that fits between the frame, remove the old frame and install new timber.
i'm a handy man that does make mistakes(but not disastrous ones)
could anyone give a step by step on how they have/or would approach this job ?
kind regards
blockhed
:eek:

If the bungalow was tradesman built the doors would have fitted properly so maybe the stumps have gone and the door frames are all over the place.

I assume you mean the bottom of one jamb has moved perpendicular to the wall, so the door would have to be warped to fit the 'ole as it currently stands? So you're talking about bringing the base of the wall back into alignment? ie. it's not just a case of repacking the jambs square and trimming the doors?

Better still, any chance of some pix clearly showing the problem? It'd save a lot of questions and maybe a few headaches...

:eek:
thanks for the reply guys !
i should've been a little more informative.
after having a closer look, the door frames are vertically straight.
but the door frame above the door is tapered.
when you look above the door, the gap from frame on right hand side is about 18mm that tapers down to 6mm on left hand side.
it's an old sandstone place that had storm water pouring over the foundations on "that" end of the house for 70 years, which obviously has dropped a bit. i could get away with just shaving about 10mm off bottom of door and installing an additional tapered frame on top of existing one.
i'm replacing all the architraves anyhow so it might be easy than i first thought. what do you think?
regards
blockhed
:eek:

Well... a normal door-frame is just boards packed & tacked to the subframe. (By subframe I mean the wall's frame, not to be confused with the door-frame which is the jambs & header. :rolleyes: ) I say "normal" 'cos there's always an exception to the rule. ;) Once the architraves come off, you'll probably see what I mean unless you're unlucky.

If both jambs are plumb (ie. one has simply dropped 12mm... usually a sign of a more fundamental floor problem! :eek: ) you should be able to trim the top 12mm from RH jamb and pack between the RH end of the header & frame to bring it down to meet the jamb. This'd give you an even 6mm gap across the top; personally I wouldn't worry about closing it up any further. I really recommend having the underfloor structure (the slab or stumps, bearers & joists or whatever) thoroughly checked out first, to work out exactly why it's all gone wonky. Otherwise this may prove to be a band-aid cure: fixing the symptom and ignoring the real problem.

If the jambs are leaning one way or t'other, the job becomes more involved. You'll need to remove the jambs before replacing 'em with packers to bring everything square again. This can be fiddly, but worth getting right. This often also entails trimming a bit off one side of the door to fit the "new" jambs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

If the jambs are leaning one way or t'other, the job becomes more involved. You'll need to remove the jambs before replacing 'em with packers to bring everything square again. This can be fiddly, but worth getting right. This often also entails trimming a bit off one side of the door to fit the "new" jambs.

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thanks for the info Skew ChiDAMN !!
this looks like the best option for me.
it's an old solid brick/sandstone place, but there has been no movement in over 10 years since i took care of all the storm water runoff.
i've got to tear down a ceiling in one room, plaster/paint and then get stuck into this little project. it's good to know what lies ahead on new projects. muchly appreciated.
regards
blockhed