Help for Door Construction

This is kinda :oops: but I'm sorta lost... I've been looking at door construction on this site and even in Rod's book. What I'm basically unsure about is securing the hinges into the jamb/studs on a 2x4 single frame. From my understanding of the construction, once you get to the point where you need to level the door, you are suppose to put shims between the jamb and the jack stud. Let's say for an example you have to shim 1/2" on the top of the the door frame and 1/4" on the bottom of the frame to level the door. Are you suppose to put whatever size shims you need BEHIND the jamb at the hinge location? If this is the case the screws would slide through the hinges, screw into the jamb, into the shims, then into the jack stud (and King stud for a heavy door?) Also, on all the drawings I've seen the door/jamb looks to be parallel with the drywall (pg. 94 & 96 in Rod's book). If I am putting 3 sheets of drywall on my wall how is the door still parallel with the drywall on the wall and still able to be screwed into the jack stud? The further the door comes out to be parallel with the drywall, the farther away from the jack stud the hinge will be. The only way I see to do it like this is to have the jamb as the only support the hinge screws into. I thought the screws were suppose to go into the jack stud (and possibly the King stud) no matter if it's a hollow core door or a "super" door. Is the 1st pic below correct at the hinge side? The second pic seems wrong unless the jamb is the only wood the hinge screws into even for a heavy door. Thanx

And the answer to the question is here... http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding ... c=ts&ra=fp

Cami, the bottom drawing is the right one. 1srt off - you won't be able to get all screws into the jacks..... so you'll want to be finding 5x5 heavy duty balll bearing hinges...... that will allow you to get the inner 2 screws into the jack studs - Next - that's one of the reasons I specify a full 5/4 stock material for the jambs (thus they are 1 1/4" thick). Standard jamb stock winds up dressing to 5/8" - and isn't strong enough to support the door weight..... The first drawing (the top one) would be a disaster - the first time the door was opened carelessly it would be ripped from the jamb........ Sincerely, Rod

Ok Rod! :) Thanx for the help. BTW, I saw in another thread where you were suggesting the 350 series perimeter door gaskets from Pemko. Do you have a recommendation for an automatic door bottom from them or someone else? As far as the perimeter door gaskets, I was looking for something with a neoprene bottom or "bulb" on it (if that's advisable). Thanx for any assistance!

Hey Camistan, You are building your studio in your basement, right? How are you going to handle the flooring where the concrete transitions to whatever flooring you choose (wood laminate?). Will you do this right at the door opening? I'm not sure what i'm going to do about that!

Tom, As far as the floor itself, at present I just plan to use standard underlay for laminate flooring. I had thought about laying a plywood "subfloor" but I'll have to look at my FLOOR notes to see if this is recommended. I'll post this for you as soon as I take a look. (In the next day or so unless someone else answers it for you) If you're asking me what I plan on doing with the flooring under my door(s) and leading up to them this is what I plan to do at the present time...Basically, I'll run the laminated flooring under/up to the door as normal. I'll mount a threshold under the door and either mount the threshold to the concerete floor and laminate around it, or somehow fasten the threshold to the flooring. It's all going to depend on the overall door height-to-floor. I've been researching these things and writing posts in the last week or so concerning things along this line. Every door in my studio will be a double door so I DO NOT plan to connect the flooring from 1 room to another. I'll find some type of transition where the flooring won't touch but won't look "tacky" coming together. Hey, I won't forget ya...Hopefully someone in the know will stop by this post with some good advice. If not, I'll find SOMETHING out & I'll be sure to let you know! :) Hope "some" of this helps, for the moment!

camistan wrote:

As far as the floor itself, at present I just plan to use standard underlay for laminate flooring. I had thought about laying a plywood "subfloor" but I'll have to look at my FLOOR notes to see if this is recommended. I'll post this for you as soon as I take a look. (In the next day or so unless someone else answers it for you)

Cam- Is the subglooring going to be 1/2" or less? If yes - then I have a sweet detail for you for the twin doors....... Let me know....... Rod

Rod, I would say that would be fairly close to the thickness of anything I would put down as underlay. I haven't had a chance to research my floor notes, but I'll have "clear sailing" when I get off work to check into it. Right off the top of my head, I could tell you my thoughts were to: 1.) Put standard laminate floor underlay under my laminate floor 2.) put 1/2" plywood under my laminate I'll need to check and be sure nothing else is recommended to lay the laminate on a concrete slab floor. I DO know this...I don't want to eat up a lot of head-to-ceiling space with a lot of thick underlay! In any case, go ahead with your thoughts/recommendations... There may be something you'll recommend I didn't think of and I can make plans for possibly using your suggestion/thoughts. Thanx!

Rod, *EDITED* The underlay I plan to use is listed below, but is approximately 1/8" thick. This is WELL below 1/2". Now, your "sweet detail" is ????... Also, below are the final diagrams of my door construction. Tom, Here's some info you may or may not need but I thought I would share with you. Unless the price is outrageous, I plan to buy this underlayment to go along with the laminate flooring I will choose... http://www.flooringunderlayments.com/floormuffler.html *EDIT* The underlay is also a moisture barrier, so no need to add another. BTW, here's a link to explain about the different types of flooring underlayment... http://www.fastfloors.com/articles/Unde ... s_Uses.asp Also, here's some info from the NRC about controlling impact sounds on floors that was helpful to me... http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/pubs/ctus/35-print_e.html I will be putting my walls up first (including drywall) then the flooring inside those walls. When I build my soffit, I will not have the laminate flooring/underlayment under it/inside it. The reason for that is I plan to build a concrete block support for both of my speakers and it seems it would be better having them decoupled from the the floor and soffit frame. The laminate flooring will come right up to the soffit frame. I don't plan to have the flooring touching any walls at all. I will probably use trim in certain areas on my walls, but the trim will not actually touch the floor. As far as transition of flooring from room to room I'm still not sure how I'll do this yet. I only have 2 rooms, so I only have to worry about the double wall transition and the transition as you enter the studio. I thought about possibly installing a small carpet strip between my control room and my vocal booth but we'll see. Most likely, I won't even worry about this issue until the time comes for me to actually put the floor down. However, I will be looking to see if the question is raised or researching it more later on. Hope this is helpful! :)

Cami, Try this, you can put under whatever you want for the underlayment - the door jamb and threshold can sit on it....... just break the underlayment at the expansion joints in the floor....... this is a nice base detail - best I've come up with yet - and handles well the transition fom side to side without creating a well that you have to worry about tripping over....... Rod

man o man.... Rod... your the man!!! i asked that question about a month or so ago on my build post... about 2/3 down the page... http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... c&start=15 Thanks for the detail. kevin

Sweet!!! 8) Here's what the safety mat looks like... [url=http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=H-1326]Uline Model H-1326 38" x 64" x 7/8" Safety Mat ($157)[/url] I imagine one would need to use band saw to trim it to size...? :roll: --Keith :mrgreen:

That's it Rod! Believe it or not, just as Sandlefoot said, people have asked about a transition piece like this for a L-O-N-G time!!! High five on this one Rod... :wink:

camistan wrote:

That's it Rod! Believe it or not, just as Sandlefoot said, people have asked about a transition piece like this for a L-O-N-G time!!! High five on this one Rod... :wink:

They make a variety of mats - but this one is the right thickness for that particular threshold so that it doesn't create a trip hazzard........ It's also great because it doesn't create a coupling mechanism between the 2 wall/slab assemblies.

I've often wondered how I would handle the area between my doors, and now I know! 8)