New Doors, slab or Preframed? How do you fix your doors?

Question

Hey Everyone, I have done all kinds of door replacements.  I like using preframed doors and try to just save the trim around them to use again.  Awhile back I bought some doors and just removed the hinges and using a wood chisel put the old hinges on them at the same spot as the old doors and rehung them.  For the first time I am buying slab doors and have drilled out the knobs for them.  The kits are pretty handy.  Nothing came close to the what I needed so I had to mix a few colors of stain and again put the hinges from the old door on the new slab door.  What method do you use for replacing doors in your rentals?

If you use the slab doors and stain them do you put a clear coat over top of them when you are done?

I have used some unique methods of patching doors too.  In one house all the holes were about the same level to I cur out sone thin plywood and stained it and cut a fancy design in it and glued it over the holes in the same spot.  I have had great feedback from folks over it.  It is a house I bought and wanted to to get up and rented as soon as possible.

How do you fix or replace door?

Account Closed · Answer

I use Home Depot or Lowes off the shelf 6 Panel hollow doors, (I don't even paint them) slab if possible and pre-hung if necessary. It ain't the Taj Mahal! It's a rental. The time to correct for variations in door openings, color, trim etc just isn't worth it. I've got too many properties and to rebuild every one isn't worth it and it doesn't increase the rent. At one time in Wyoming I'm told, people lived in cabins and got by.

Pat L. · Answer

Biggest issue I have had with the hollow 6-panel (cardboard) doors is humidity. They swell in the summer & will stick even with the required tolerances. So many of the older circa 40-50's homes we have rehabbed have interior doors under 30 inches. Some have front & back entry doors of about 31 inches that defy logic.

Pat L. · Answer

Agreed. I buy any slabs on sale that I know will fit BUT I prefer the solid doors slabs that allow a good size trim on the edge &/or bases.. The last house was exasperating every (9) old destroyed door was a different size (sometimes by just 3/8),  so I had to literally cut each slab to fit. Installing new hinges is also a major PITA. So I use the non-mortise hinges. Trust me they are an amazing time & grief savior.

Kelly N. · Answer

Jerry, we have done all of the above except slabs!

If time permits, replacing with prehung hardwood doors seems to be my husband's favorite.  They get stained to match (as closely as possible) the current trim in the home, then we poly them and rehang the trim.

One of the 4 unit places we bought had hollow doors for every interior door, and every single one in every unit had at least one hole kicked or punched in it (classy place).  In some cases, we didn't know there were holes until we removed mirrors or hooks (attached to boards) that were on  the doors, strategically placed to cover the holes.  Others we repaired with wood putty, stained and sealed.  And one we replaced with a door that looks like wood but is either fiberglass or vinyl with a Styrofoam interior (cheaper than hardwood, better than hollow, and we were broke at the time).

I got a text from a tenant (different place) once saying that the door was peeling and when I went out to fix it found that the previous owner had apparently patched a hole in the door with mesh and drywall mud, then just painted over it.  It is now patched with wood putty and will eventually be replaced with hardwood.

But pretty much, if it is already painted, we paint it again.  If it is wood, it is sanded, stained, and sealed.  I will NEVER spend money on a hollow door, since I have yet to see a solid door with a hole in it.  Plus, if someone decides to say, write on the door, a solid door can be sanded down whereas yuo'd be sanding a hole in a hollow door...

Wesley W. · Answer

I use the prehung solid core doors that come pre-primed and then I paint them and the trim gloss white for ease of cleaning.  I found that while the slab doors are slightly cheaper, the additional labor required to make them fit the existing frame was soooo not worth it.  Give me a rough opening anytime, nowadays.

Since I've gone to solid core, I haven't had to replace any doors on turnovers.  Not only do they hold up better to tenant abuse, but they are more sound-proof and present a "higher-end" feel during showings.

Thomas S. · Answer

Any method necessary to repair. I never leave any wood natural. I paint everything in a rental for ease of maintenance. Patch, sand, paint. It's a rental. Tennats don't know th edifferance as long as it appears "fresh".

Jerry W. · Answer

Account Closed, I actually had to look up what a non-mortise hinge is hehe.  They look pretty cool.  I will definitely be using those if I run into a similar situation.  The doors I replaced were actually a tiny bit smaller than the doors I took out, so I didn't recess the hinges on them.  if any of them are tight I will just take a wood chisel and recess them.

I never realized how many options there were on doing doors.  it was fun expanding my knowledge for new solutions.

Pat L. · Answer

@Jerry W. thanks for the tip. I have the same nice planers but a quick run over using the table saw with a solid door saves me a lot of planer stutter on cheap door edges. The problem with humidity is the cardboard 6 panels swell so much that planing them would be counter productive when it shrinks back. I also noticed some warping on the cheaper doors & found the solid pine inside was being replaced with moisture prone chip board. During the last hot/humid summer even too much paint on them (help over did the coats) caused warping. The other issue is hollow doors do not last long in rentals.

Jerry W. · Answer

@Pat L., I invested in a cheap $40 power planer awhile back.  it is simply awesome for fixing doors that don't shut correct or need a little taken off of.  It works best if you can pop the hinges and take the door off, but it possible on some to plane them while still in place.  You do have to be careful about getting carried away with it and taking too much off.  With hollo doors you must really be careful to not plane to the place you have no door support left.

Jerry W. · Answer

Thank you @Thomas S., @Kelly N., and @Wesley W. for the tips.  these doors are hollow.  They were only $25 per slab and they now match all the other doors in the house.  In hind sight I should have just upgraded to solid core doors.  this is my nicest rental and is next door to my personal residence.  It has been empty since mid November so I decided to fix several things up while trying to rent it.  then my carpet guy got thrown in jail, another worker had his mom pass away back east, etc., so I am doing a lot of the work myself.  My replacement carpet guy is horrible, i will probably have to redo some carpet seams.  it is looking like I may have to tile the bathtub as well.  With the time I now have invested in staining, adding poly coating, drilling out holes for the knobs, putting hinges on, etc. I could have just done hardwood doors and replaced the trim to match.  The current hallow doors have been there since the 1970s, so they held up pretty well.  We have had some pretty cold weather, some as low as 29 degrees below zero, so it is not a great time to get new renters, not a lot of folks moving in December, January and February, although I did redo another house that emptied in November and have it rented back out.  It has been fun trying out new things in the coring the new doors for locksets.

New Doors, slab or Preframed? How do you fix your doors?

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