How to add two doors to metal door jamb?

[dchur]

Hey team,

To kick off our laundry renovation we are looking to add some doors. Currently there are two hinges in the interior of the (metal) door jamb as shown below, and we were thinking to put the two doors on the exterior of the door jamb whereby they will swing outward rather than inward into the laundry.

We feel that this will help us capitalise on the small amount of space in the laundry by not blocking it by two doors opening inward.

The door jamb has dimensions 690mm wide and 2040mm in height.

Each of the doors is 320mm wide and 1950mm in height, so we're 50mm short in width and 90mm short in height.

Some questions we have:

1) Is putting hinges in a metal door jamb whereby they'll sit on the outside and not be recessed in the metal a problem?

2) How do we make up the width/height discrepancies? do we need to glue/nail pieces of wood to each door (noting that we intend on painting them anyway)

3) do we have to worry about screwing into the doors if they have glass?

Any suggestions are welcome!

[Jewelleryrescue]

Hi @dchur 

You  can place the hinges in the reverse location on the other side of the door frame  I might change them to gold  color hinges to make then a stand out feature not an eye sore to match your timber look.

You can also screw in hinges in the traditional way on the door edge as you realise this will create a gap between the frame and the door.  The gap will be the width of one hinge flap.   I think you allready realise this as you are talking about gluing strips of wood to the door which I think wont be necessary as it is only 1mm gap increase. You may have to plane some wood of the door edge to get it to fit properly.  Double  check  which  door edge to plane as some doors dont have the same timber thickness internally If you plane the thin edge you might not have enough timber for hinge screws to bit into.

Another possibility is you buy double swinging doors  so the door can swing either way in or  out,  with a foot operated  door stopper to open door in or out.  If you go this  route you can buy dual swinging hinges that mount on the middle of the door frame flat area .  They will have a bigger gap as the hinges are thicker.  And dont buy the lowest priced hinges get the $100 version as there performance is critical cheap ones  cant handle bigger doors.

enjoy  your  project.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @dchur,

It's great to see you've already received a helpful response from @Jewelleryrescue.

Given the fairly large discrepancies in height and width, I feel the best option could potentially be to install a new timber door jamb within the existing metal one, depending on where you've taken those measurements from.

You could extend the door itself, but I suspect that would be a more involved process. If you do, care must be taken that any screws or nails don't contact the internal glass.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[dchur]

Thanks guys for your replies (and Merry Xmas).

@MitchellMc , we aren't too keen on adding a timber door jamb because the width of the frame is already quite small, and we don't want to exaggerate that.

Our current thinking is we either use the doors in the photo and extend them in height/width and paint them to hide the different timber used OR we get new doors.

Either way the one question remains, what're the difficulties with adding hinges to the metal door jamb on both sides? They wouldn't be recessed in the frame like the existing hinges on the inside of the jamb because we aren't too keen on using an angle grinder to cut into the metal, but is it possible to just screw them in to the metal door jamb?

I've seen posts online about this not being possible because of a cavity behind it where they're hollow but i'm not sure if that applies here because we have brick walls.

I've pointed out where the hinges would go below for reference.

Another option is we make them bifold doors.

[MitchellMc]

Merry Christmas to you, too, @dchur!

The hinges can be pop-riveted to the door jamb and don't need to be recessed into the frame. However, this might not look particularly aesthetically pleasing, well, at least not as much as the recessed hinges. If the bricks a close enough inside the frame, you could also consider using masonry fixings for the hinges instead of pop rivets.

Mitchell

[dchur]

@MitchellMc and we're back.

We are 90% of the way done with the laundry reno. With the doors above we ended up extending them width and height wise with some wood and then painting them white. They are good to go and look the business too.

Now we're onto mounting them. I've discovered that the metal door jamb is hollow. A handyman has suggested we could use metal screws to affix the hinges directly to the door jamb, which seems to be about 2-3mm thick.

Would this be a wise decision? We're thinking three hinges on each door to spread the load since the doors are solid wood with glass and weigh a good 4.5kg each.

The other question is what hinges. Since we are unable to recess them into either the door jamb (metal) or the door itself (too thin) our only option is a non-mortise hinge. It seems that unfortunately the requirements we have are not completely available at bunnings. We're after black, non-mortise hinges with a loose pin. The door itself is 23mm thick and the door jamb usable space is 40mm. 

https://www.bunnings.com.au/lane-100mm-black-matte-easy-fit-hinge-2-pack_p0096967 seems to fit the bill but it's not a removable pin.

Any suggestions and feedback is most welcome. Thanks.

[MitchellMc]

That's great to hear @dchur.

Metal screws should work for fixing the hinges, or you could potentially use pop rivets.

I've looked at the range, and there don't appear to be any hinges that suit your needs exactly. Would you be able to use a hinge with a non-loose pin?

Mitchell

[dchur]

Thanks @MitchellMc ,

unfortunately I think we do need a removable pin because once these doors are installed, the washing machine cannot be removed without removing the doors, which we won't want to do beacuse of threading the timber door.

this leaves us in a bit of a bind, so I'll need to research if i can find some hinges that match the requirements.

[EricL]

Hello @dchur 

Is it possible to delay the installation of the doors? If there is still a fair bit of renovation to be done, I suggest doing all of it first and installing the door the very last. This will save you from having to take the door on and off. 

Eric