Doors with lower ceiling

dstylez · 03-09-2009, 01:36 PM

Hey everyone,

I'm framing up my basement right now, and have got to my first doors. Turns out theres a metal beam that runs right across where I want to put my door, and the clearance from beam to floor is roughly 82 inches. The smallest pre-hung door I can find is 78", which doesn't really give me enough room if I need to leave 3" on top for 2 studs, plus moulding around the door.

Has anyone ever seen pre-hung doors with a height of less than 78"? If not, how hard is it to make my own door frame? Home Depot says they can special order a 74" door with a frame that I have to assemble myself, but its double the price..anyone have experience with this??

Thanks a lot in advance guys.

windowguy · 03-09-2009, 01:55 PM

sort of had a similar issue with my basement remodel. first of all don't even worry about the moulding across the top of the door its un-noticeable that the tops of my doors don't have the moulding.. just run the vertical ones right up to the ceiling.

i had to shave the top of my doors about 3/4 of an inch to accomodate the drop ceiling. you can't even notice it when the door is closed. I suppose if i needed a larger shave, say 2 inches then i would still trim the top of the door 2 inches and then put a new piece of wood across the top of the door jamb to fill in the hole when the door is closed.

dstylez · 03-09-2009, 02:42 PM

^ Do you have any pictures?

Thanks.

jpsmith · 03-09-2009, 03:26 PM

I have a similar situation and I'm thinking that you don't need to turn two studs on their sides to build a header for the door. The wall is not bearing any load, so the header needn't have the same strength as a header in a load-bearing wall, I think. In fact, I think you could get away with having no header at all for a door mounted under the beam. The beam, itself, can serve as the header. The door jamb can be fastened to the jack studs on either side, which run from the sole plate all the way to the top plate, which is right up against the beam. The top of the jamb could be right up against the beam. The attached image is what I'm thinking. Perhaps someone could chime in to say if this is acceptable...

gma2rjc · 03-09-2009, 04:36 PM

We had the same issue with putting pre-hung french doors right under a beam in the basement. We unscrewed the doors from the hinges, cut them to the height we needed and then cut the bottom of the two sides of the door jamb to the height we needed.

jpsmith · 03-09-2009, 04:38 PM

...just keep in mind that if you cut pre-hung doors to height, and you cut from the bottom, your doorknobs just got lower. It's not the end of the world, but you need to be aware of it before you hang the doors, reach for the handle, then say, "Crap."

dstylez · 03-11-2009, 02:59 PM

Anyone know if jpsmith's way is acceptable?

I ordered a custom cut 76" door the other day from HD to see how it fits.