Remodeling Project: Gimme some feedback!

[Cajungaltx]

Okay - my office is at the front of the house - here's a floor plan:



I'm at the front of the house. You can see that it's entirely 'open' all the way through the house, which translates to "Kids yelling in the background" while I'm working.

So - I found a set of gorgeous French doors on craigslist for $75. They are in my car right now. ;-) The doors are 24" x 81" each.

The opening to the room I work is about 63" wide x 82" high.

I know I'm going to have to frame in on the sides a bit. I have exactly ZERO experience framing doors - so the 1" clearance gives me a bit of worry. I called one of my brothers with more experience in that area, and am waiting for him to call me back. If any of you have done this - let me know!

The room currently has carpet in it - so, as I'm driving to get the doors, I start thinking... if I'm gonna be ripping stuff up, and framing for the doors, floating/taping sheetrock... I might as well paint the walls, then rip out the carpet and put in the laminate flooring I wanted.

The room is 12" x 14".

So my plan is this.

I'm going to have to cut the sheetrock out on the edges to give me a smooth float/tape - so I'm going to pick up sheetrock supplies, and paint.

I'll frame the door, get the sheetrock up, let that dry - and then paint the room/and the entry area.

Then rip up the carpet/pad.

Then hang the doors

Then install the flooring, and trim out the doorway/new wall portions.

Am I doing something in the wrong order? The flooring/door part is where I"m concerned.

And yes - I'll do 'before' & 'after' images for you guys to see!

[bondarnes]

I'm almost finished with a very similar project, but unfortunately I didn't take any progress shots. I put a French door set in a blank wall giving us access to the patio from our bedroom. The header clearance should be just about right and you really don't have to disturb the floor. You might need to either raise the door unit slightly or plane the bottoms of the doors for carpet clearance. You will need a little bit of clearance on each side that you will shim to keep the unit level and square. It's not a small project, but you sound like you can tackle it with aplomb.

[Mindy H]

Wonderwoman!

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Mindy H

Wonderwoman!

HA! HA! HA! It's divine intervention - I've been looking for a set of (cheap) french doors for ages to do this. The day after Brad leaves, I find them. Go figure. But, I'm not going to wait... I need doors on my office... little short people keep coming in... *grin*

[ronocnikral]

probably the hardest thing will be the extra 15" you have width wise. also the 1" does seem a little tight on top, maybe ok if you cut the sheetrock away and replace with a board. But as don points out, you may have to cut the doors for carpet clearance. so, you could maybe take a little bit more off if needed to get you some more room up top.

I would just add on to one side instead of ~6" or so on each. This will save you from doing essentially double the work. The carpet will need to be ripped up to properly frame the doors in. and additional matching baseboard will need to be added and the carpet set back down. You will be taking away space instead of adding, so you will just have to cut the carpet and do whatever they do to get it to stick the subfloor (you'll also need a little more tack strips).

i would estimate what you think your costs will be (less the doors) and then double it. Since you are going to be doing this sans man-o-the-house, I would plan for a month minimum. I say that not b/c of your capabilites, but b/c you will have rugrats running around.

good luck!!! i am admire what you are about to take on.

[Hogleg 44]

The doors are just doors, right? No casing/frame???? Are you going to center the new door unit or keep it to one side of the present opening?

You don't say what the present opening is like. Is it cased with wood or just a sheetrock opening?

If it's sheetrock, then you will gain 1/2 inch in the height when you remove the sheetrock.
The height of the doors really doesn't matter if you are going to have to build the casing for them because you should be able to trim off the bottoms of the doors to fit the height needed. (so long as they aren't metal) If the doors are presently cased, and the overall height of the unit is 81" it may be a little tight but probably just fine.

When you frame the opening on the sides the rough opening should be a minimum of 2 1/2" wider then the door measurement. Meaning 2x24" = 48" so the rough opening should be at least 50 1/2". This is to allow room for the casing and leveling.

On the sides where the new walls are built you need to cut away at least 5 1/2 inches of the carpet (if you decide not to rip out the carpet) so that you can nail down the new bottom plate of the wall to the bare slab. Then you can stud up to the underside of the current header, with whatever is presently under it, removed. Don't build it up to sheetrock, remove the sheetrock, or the casing if that's what is there now.

Good luck. You can do it!

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

probably the hardest thing will be the extra 15" you have width wise. also the 1" does seem a little tight on top, maybe ok if you cut the sheetrock away and replace with a board. But as don points out, you may have to cut the doors for carpet clearance. so, you could maybe take a little bit more off if needed to get you some more room up top.

I would just add on to one side instead of ~6" or so on each. This will save you from doing essentially double the work. The carpet will need to be ripped up to properly frame the doors in. and additional matching baseboard will need to be added and the carpet set back down. You will be taking away space instead of adding, so you will just have to cut the carpet and do whatever they do to get it to stick the subfloor (you'll also need a little more tack strips).

i would estimate what you think your costs will be (less the doors) and then double it. Since you are going to be doing this sans man-o-the-house, I would plan for a month minimum. I say that not b/c of your capabilities, but b/c you will have rug rats running around.

good luck!!! i am admire what you are about to take on.

Conor -
Thanks for the info. I'm thinking you might be right on moving the door to 'one side' versus having to frame in on both sides. I have a garage full of 2x4's - so I can frame it easily enough. I've also got the trim for around the door. I'll have to pick up a couple of pieces for the floor to match.

I'm going to rip up the carpet and put in laminate flooring - it's in the plans long term, so I might as well do it now. So there won't be an issue with the carpet. I'm going to have the doors open 'in' to the room, because there is ceramic tile foyer in the entry way.

Thanks!

[Coelus]

There may be a little more to the door casing than just a couple 2x4's. The hinges may need to be inset into the wood to close right, a strip of wood for a stop at the top so the doors don't swing in and pull the hinges out the wrong way, and if you add on the the wall you'll need to remove the flooring under the new section and possibly the sheetrock above so you can tie it all in. You may be able to gt a pre-fab door casing that you just set into a rough frame in the wall; and level square the casing with shims before you attach it. If you have any trim or moulding you'll need to match and tie that in too. And that goes for both sides of the new wall section.

[gardener]

Just an idea... Why not frame the doors for the current existing door size x 2 (plus necessary clearances) and add a panel to fill the extra width in the existing wall. While this is usually done on exterior doors (called a sidelight), it will also work on interior doors and look quite nice if done right. That way, you don't have to worry about framing to a certain size and frosted or pattern glass can be cut to fill the final finished opening for the sidelight.
If you have small rug rats around, and I seem to recall that you do, you should probably use tempered glass for the sidelight which is a bit more expensive but much safer.
As noted, just my 2¢ worth and even that should be adjusted for inflation and the poor economy.

[Peacock]

The whole place is going to be different by the time Hubby gets home! He will be in shock!

[Coelus]

Originally Posted by gardener

Just an idea... Why not frame the doors for the current existing door size x 2 (plus necessary clearances) and add a panel to fill the extra width in the existing wall. While this is usually done on exterior doors (called a sidelight), it will also work on interior doors and look quite nice if done right. That way, you don't have to worry about framing to a certain size and frosted or pattern glass can be cut to fill the final finished opening for the sidelight.
If you have small rug rats around, and I seem to recall that you do, you should probably use tempered glass for the sidelight which is a bit more expensive but much safer.
As noted, just my 2¢ worth and even that should be adjusted for inflation and the poor economy.

Or get that great '80s look and use glass blocks
Honestly a good idea.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Hogleg 44

The doors are just doors, right? No casing/frame???? Are you going to center the new door unit or keep it to one side of the present opening?

You don't say what the present opening is like. Is it cased with wood or just a sheetrock opening?

If it's sheetrock, then you will gain 1/2 inch in the height when you remove the sheetrock.
The height of the doors really doesn't matter if you are going to have to build the casing for them because you should be able to trim off the bottoms of the doors to fit the height needed. (so long as they aren't metal) If the doors are presently cased, and the overall height of the unit is 81" it may be a little tight but probably just fine.

When you frame the opening on the sides the rough opening should be a minimum of 2 1/2" wider then the door measurement. Meaning 2x24" = 48" so the rough opening should be at least 50 1/2". This is to allow room for the casing and leveling.

On the sides where the new walls are built you need to cut away at least 5 1/2 inches of the carpet (if you decide not to rip out the carpet) so that you can nail down the new bottom plate of the wall to the bare slab. Then you can stud up to the underside of the current header, with whatever is presently under it, removed. Don't build it up to sheetrock, remove the sheetrock, or the casing if that's what is there now.

Good luck. You can do it!

Paul - The doorway is currently sheet rocked (fancy curved edges, lol!). So that'll give me extra room at the top.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Hogleg 44]

Originally Posted by Coelus

There may be a little more to the door casing than just a couple 2x4's.
.

The door casing is not 2x4. It is made from 1x white pine (or better) material and needs to be the width that the wall is thick. In most cases that is about 4 5/8" inches. 3 1/2" for the 2x4 + 1 more inch for sheetrock on both sides, and a little extra for the texture. And the hinges do need to be morticed in flush with the face of the 1x.
Door Stop material is used, as mentioned, to have something for the doors to close against. Also you will need a bolt of some sort, top and bottom, on one of the doors to hold it in the closed position so that the door with the knob will have a solid unit to latch into.

Hogleg 44 added 6 Minutes and 13 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Donna. When you get into this, and you need advise, just email or call me and I will help you all I can.
I have done exactly this kind of thing numerous times. I have been in the home construction business since 1972 as a builder and remodeler.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Hogleg 44

The door casing is not 2x4. It is made from 1x white pine (or better) material and needs to be the width that the wall is thick. In most cases that is about 4 5/8" inches. 3 1/2" for the 2x4 + 1 more inch for sheetrock on both sides, and a little extra for the texture. And the hinges do need to be morticed in flush with the face of the 1x.
Door Stop material is used, as mentioned, to have something for the doors to close against. Also you will need a bolt of some sort, top and bottom, on one of the doors to hold it in the closed position so that the door with the knob will have a solid unit to latch into.

Hogleg 44 added 6 Minutes and 13 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Donna. When you get into this, and you need advise, just email or call me and I will help you all I can.
I have done exactly this kind of thing numerous times. I have been in the home construction business since 1972 as a builder and remodeler.

Paul - Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!

[jtillery]

Can I send my wife to your house to learn? I need a few things done around the house. Bad enough she stopping mowing the lawn and hired someone to do it for her.