Welcome again to Saturday Morning Home Repair blogging, where we talk about fixing houses, the things in them that are supposed to work for us, and fixing them up. An ad hoc cadre of building professionals and gifted amateurs attempt to answer questions that arise from readers, and offer encouragement and advice for those inclined to do things for themselves, if they can. We all do a lot of things, collectively, and can probably help out with insights from our vast experience.
Or sometimes, we just gab.
I had put a metal frame door in a CBS building some 20 years ago. Someone helped me & we used plywood to form around the door & the wall & poured it with cement.
So when the doors needed put in at drakestone I still was clueless how to do it. David got a quote for 5K for 4 36" steel doors. He got online & found 4 doors for 1600 bucks delivered ! I didn't take pictures of how those doors went in.
The backroom where a sink, tire machine & balancer, sand blaster ect. will go was going to get two 3' doors, but the sand blaster wouldn't fit right. so we decided a 4' door would be better.
this is the 6' opening
the studs were 20 gauge, I got 16 gauge studs. the door must weigh 100 pounds !
here is a picture of the door frame.
that frame is the same frame as the 36" doors on the outside of the building. How do you install them in a steel stud wall ? I called the manufacture way back & they really didn't have an answer other then welding something in. I had already made brackets to do just that but thought I was crazy welding on the frames. SO
this time I did a much better job of putting in the frames.
the first time I used self drilling #12 screws. to me it was so so, the doors are in but I've never been happy with how I did it.
on this 4' door I used 8 1/4 bolts on each side of the door frame.
I cut a piece of 3 1/2" x 1/8 strap 84" long. I then drilled 1/8" holes in it spaced out.
we made lots of plates with that hole pattern !
I forgot to take a picture of the plate with the steel crush lock nuts welded to one side.
anyway I used my template to drill holes in 4 studs
then I used the template to weld the plates to the frames.
again that is a heavy door so Adam cut short pieces of tubing. I then did this so I could weld them in.
I could get the mig gun in there to weld the tubing. I didn't take a picture of that step :(
more plates! I welded the 2 studs together also. When I did that it bowed the stud a little & I had to straighten them. no biggie it worked !
then we put one of those welded together studs in & got it level in place.
then we screwed the frame together & bolted one side in.
when we had the frame ready for the other stud to go in I realized I wouldn't be able to get the frame out to paint it. I needed a spacer to make the studs wider then the door frame.
so I cut 3" x 3" x .090 plates. we took the door frame back off & carried it over to the welding area & welded plates those plates on.
then we were ready to bolt the other stud onto the door frame.
we cut a short piece of track & got everything lined up & put studs into the floor.
so now the door is ready to see if it fits !
the 4 outside doors didn't work out very good & had to be adjusted. Those were a learning experience for me. You couldn't trust the manufacture to cut everything perfect ! I had to take the door frames back out & spread them 1/16 to 1/8 at the top to make the door shut with out hitting the frames.
This door I figured that out & it is much better. the weight of the door makes it tight on the bottom if you look at the crack on the hinge side. BUT it doesn't strike the frame at the top of the door knob side so........
the reason the room needed a 4' door ? The tire cart for the late model is 38" wide ! It needs to go into that room !
the door & frame are in the paint booth building at this time. I'm sure they will be painted in the very near future.
Door Album