How to align the doorway: do it yourself

To make the door with your own hands, or to order it in the workshop, it is very important to “take measurements” correctly. Inaccurate measurement of the doorway of the entrance door, at best, will lead to the formation of large cracks, which will have to be sealed and insulated. In the worst case, you will have to think about how to increase the doorway, which will cause even more trouble.

Sometimes it is necessary to build a partition or a wall into which a door of a given size will be inserted. But sometimes it is necessary to solve more serious tasks - for example, building a doorway where it has never been.

Openings for door installation

On request: “Preparing video doorways”, you can always find a suitable video clip where the masters share their experiences. For our part, we will try to theoretically shoe you, relying on building rules and technologies - after all, the opening must not only be calculated correctly, but also qualitatively leveled.

So:

• The easiest way, of course, when the construction of the house is, as expected, under the project. The documentation has a scheme for filling doorways, an approximate version of which you see below. It shows the dimensions and types of doors, as well as gaps in the walls, where they will be inserted.

• As a matter of fact, when building walls, masons immediately make such openings as they need - the main thing is that they have accurate information on the door markings that will be installed in the load-bearing and self-supporting walls. But as for partitions, then for interior planning, most often today it is not masons who are invited, but gypsum board specialists.

The device of the doorway in the GVL partition (see How to make a doorway from plasterboard) - the procedure is not so complicated, and can be performed independently. But, of course, work should be approached with understanding, and try not to make a mess of anything regarding the size of the opening.

After watching the video in this article, you can quite cope with the task. We offer you further small instructions on this topic.

The opening in the frame partition

The thickness of the wooden door frame is 5 cm on average - this is the distance, together with the size of the leaf, to make the full size of the door. All the instructions for measuring the doorway for installing the door are to add along its perimeter the size of the mounting gap, which should be within 3-6 cm.

It is then sealed with foam. Deviations of a few millimeters are not critical, but it is better if they are in a big way.

Note! Maybe not everyone knows that in the marking of doors, in decimeters, the size of the canvas is encrypted, taking into account the thickness of the box. If it is required, for example, to put a door mark DG 21 * 9, the minimum doorway under such a door should be 2,160 m in height, and 0,980 m in width. This principle applies not only to doors installed in partitions, but generally all doors.

• Since the plasterboard partition is a frame construction, the opening in it is formed at the time of installation of the bearing elements. Wooden bars can be used for manufacturing, but more often, aluminum profiles are used for this purpose: a guide and a rack. Its dimensions are selected depending on the dimensions of the partition and the weight of the installed door, for example: ПН75 / 40 and ПС75 / 50.

• First, on the floor, ceiling and walls, the perimeter of the future partition is scribed, along which, a back profile to the base surface is mounted. Its shelves form a groove, into which vertical stands and lintels will be inserted. Before mounting the bottom rail, it is necessary to mark the place of the opening position on the chopping line, because in this place, the profile is not mounted.
• Of the vertical bearing elements, the first ones are those that form the doorway. The distance between them, as already mentioned, should be 8-10 cm greater than the width of the door with the box. Then, a cross member is mounted between these two uprights, which will limit the height of the opening.
• They cut it out of the PN profile, and assemble it so that the shelves are turned towards the ceiling. Depending on the way of installing the gypsum board around the door, one or two short intermediate posts will be inserted into it, which will stiffen the passage. With the same purpose, in the groove of the side posts, to which the box will then be attached (see How to assemble the door frame without problems), insert wooden bars of the corresponding section.

• How about looks like a partition frame with an opening under the door, can be clearly seen in the previous photo. How to cut the profile correctly, carry out the method of bending the attachment, how much distance there should be between the elements of the frame, and other necessary information, look in articles specifically devoted to this topic, as well as on request: “Preparing the door frame of the video”.

We only talk about this in general terms, since our story is devoted to the process of leveling the opening. Although just in plasterboard partitions and nothing to align. Usually, the thickness of the partition is made in accordance with the thickness of the door frame.

If no errors were made during the installation, all that remains to be done is to putty the surface of the walls adjacent to the box, to finish them and to close the joints with the casing.

Forming a smooth opening

It is quite another thing - repair of doorways in the bathroom, or near the front door, which will be discussed further. There are no drywall partitions in these places, but rather thick bearing walls.

The entrance door is often filled with either one box with two linens or two bindings, as one door, for example, can be metal, and the second is wooden.

The space between them is called a dummy. If we consider that the thickness of the bearing wall can be quite impressive - say, in two bricks (51 cm), then it is natural that even a double cover does not completely fill the opening. Most often, the outside of the door is set flush with the wall, and inside the slopes are obtained.

Sometimes they are stitched with wood, or MDF, but most often they are plastered with cement plaster. In any case, after replacing the door, or in the process of overhauling the walls, when the plaster has to be knocked to the ground, the geometry of the slopes is significantly broken, and you have to think about how to align the doorway.

Slope leveling methods

Here we come to the most difficult stage of repairing walls. By the way, the invited craftsmen charge some money for plastering slopes, and the price, I must say, rather big - about 250-300 rubles per linear meter.

Thus, the slope of one door the size of 2.1 * 0.9 m, will cost at least 1300 rubles. Although, such work may not take too much time - it all depends on the initial state of the opening.

• Try to do it yourself, especially since you can use a variety of available materials for work. The alignment of the side walls of the opening without a door is performed according to the same principle as plastering rectangular columns. On the sides of the slope, adjusting by level, two long aluminum rules are fixed on both sides, pushing them beyond the surface of the surface by the thickness of the plaster.
• The rules, in this case, serve as beacons, but in principle, you can do without them. The role of the rules with the same success perform the usual profiles for drywall, which are mounted on screws or dowels, backs to the side surface of the aperture. In the same way as the rules, they must be pushed forward by the thickness of the tie.

• If the door is in the opening, the lighthouses are mounted only on one side. In the first case, the excess solution is removed short rule, pulp, or a wide spatula. If there is a door in the opening, it is necessary to make such a template from the materials at hand, which is shown in the picture above.
• It can be made of a piece of plywood, hardboard, drywall or even thick cardboard. The main thing is to make a recess on the template, just like a tight protrusion of the door frame. This will make a clear line of plaster around the perimeter of the door. After the solution is set, but not yet hardened, the beacons are carefully removed, and an angle is formed, cutting all that is unnecessary with a spatula.
• When the leveling screed, which is performed by the base mixture with a coarse dispersion of components, dries, a perforated plaster corner is mounted on it. And then putty. If there is no major damage on the slopes, then a thick layer of plaster will not be needed.

• In this case, you can do without lighthouse profiles, and immediately mount the area. By the way, when plastering walls and slopes with plaster mixes, you can simplify the alignment process using the same drywall. If you cut the narrow long strips, and stick them on the putty along the racks of the box, you get a perfectly even junction.
• Level-aligned, these stripes will serve as beacons for the leveling layer. You do not need to remove them, because after the starting layer dries, the gypsum plasterboards will be hidden under the putty. The upper slope, too, by the way, it is more convenient to level the drywall.

Plaster mixes, especially when you have to put a thick layer, do not stick very well on horizontal surfaces. We have to mount the grid, apply several layers, and each time wait until they dry.

A drywall wall itself has a thickness of at least 12 mm, plus a thick layer of glue, which allows you to level the slope at a time.

Openings where they were not

Sometimes, when major repairs or redevelopment of apartments or houses, the owner decides to change the size of the doorway, or at all, about its transfer. If the walls are bearing, such actions are preceded by obtaining a permit, if it is just a partition, then the housing commission will be informed on the fact of the work performed. But now is not about that.

The openings are made in different ways, the choice of which depends on the structural material of the wall. Accordingly, slopes are formed differently. In brick, foam concrete and asbestos-cement partitions, cut openings. These materials are quite soft, so the high cost of cutting aperture is not required.

Naturally, this is done by preliminary marking, after which alignment and finishing are performed. If you just need to expand the opening, it is easier to do it only on one side. Although, planning does not always make it easier, and you have to cut openings on both sides.

Cutting and reinforcement

Diamond cutting of openings, performed with the help of specialized wall-cutting equipment, although more expensive, can solve the problem with a wall of any thickness and strength.

So:

• At the same time there is no dust, since such equipment is equipped with a dust collecting device. Dirt, of course, happens, but from the fact that the working blade of the wall saw machine has to be cooled with water in the process. But, with such equipment, everything is done exactly in size, quickly, and without unnecessary noise.
• Since in the process of cutting the integrity of the structure is violated, and the fragment that assumed certain loads is removed, the openings are necessarily reinforced by rolled metal. In the curtain walls, the perimeter of the aperture is tied with a steel angle of 40 * 40 mm and connecting plates.

• In multilayer walls - for example, frame houses, the reinforcement is carried out by a square tube, which is embedded inside the wall and fixed to the ceiling. For partitions in a half-brick, a channel of the desired size is selected, mounted U-shaped on both sides, and fixed to the ceiling and floor.
• In general, the amplification options can be different, and they are determined by the project, without which such work is not performed (see How the doorway reinforcement is performed). Strengthening of openings is also carried out in cases where the strength of the structural material of the wall is insufficient to withstand, for example, a steel door.

Whatever the finishing of such openings, their slopes necessarily plastered with cement plaster. To hide metal structures, a thick layer of mortar has to be applied, and this is done necessarily on a coarse steel mesh mounted on the surfaces of the aperture.

After the plaster is completely dry, the opening can be lined with polyurethane stucco - and no one would guess that there are metal structures under it.