Joined
·
489 Posts
House was built in 1943. Has a walk-out basement and the door needs to be replaced. It is wood and has now come apart to where during the summer, warm humid weather, it swells so bad at the bottom I cannot get the door shut.
The foundation is block and it looks to me that the door frame here is actually a hollow metal that was filled in with concrete to set it, but am unsure.
As you can see in the picture of the hinges, they are not mortised in, they are instead embedded in behind the metal door frame through a slot designed for them and, I assume, were also in place when the concrete was poured in.
Why can't I just replace the door itself and keep the frame you may be asking? Well, there is a reason. 2 of the hinges are not longer secured in their slot and move in and out and I see no way to reasonably correct that problem, unless there is something I could do that I am not thinking about.
I have no problem removing the door and frame completely and using some 2 x 6 pressure treated to build out a new frame. However, I want to be absolutely sure what I am going to need to do before I start as I need to start and finish in a single day as I have a lot of expensive stuff in the basement that I don't want to be just open to whomever.
I am thinking that I will just need to rotary hammer and chisel out the concrete frame (being careful to not damage the block around it) and then frame in the door. Is this the correct assumption?
I suppose I could pull the hinges out and clean out the hinge slots then use some sort of cement and pack it in there and reset a new door with new hinges in there. My concern with doing this, though, is that I have no opportunity to shim the frame and make sure it is all square (due to settling). Though, I suppose it is worth me checking plumb, level, and square and I might get lucky. If I went this route, should I use like a quick drying cement or some other type of strong epoxy.
(Interior Shot)
The foundation is block and it looks to me that the door frame here is actually a hollow metal that was filled in with concrete to set it, but am unsure.
As you can see in the picture of the hinges, they are not mortised in, they are instead embedded in behind the metal door frame through a slot designed for them and, I assume, were also in place when the concrete was poured in.
Why can't I just replace the door itself and keep the frame you may be asking? Well, there is a reason. 2 of the hinges are not longer secured in their slot and move in and out and I see no way to reasonably correct that problem, unless there is something I could do that I am not thinking about.
I have no problem removing the door and frame completely and using some 2 x 6 pressure treated to build out a new frame. However, I want to be absolutely sure what I am going to need to do before I start as I need to start and finish in a single day as I have a lot of expensive stuff in the basement that I don't want to be just open to whomever.
I am thinking that I will just need to rotary hammer and chisel out the concrete frame (being careful to not damage the block around it) and then frame in the door. Is this the correct assumption?
I suppose I could pull the hinges out and clean out the hinge slots then use some sort of cement and pack it in there and reset a new door with new hinges in there. My concern with doing this, though, is that I have no opportunity to shim the frame and make sure it is all square (due to settling). Though, I suppose it is worth me checking plumb, level, and square and I might get lucky. If I went this route, should I use like a quick drying cement or some other type of strong epoxy.


(Interior Shot)
