Planing a Hollow-Core Door
Our house, gut-renovated before our arrival, has these crap hollow-core doors, the panels of which appear to be some pressed-fiberboard or such, almost like a plastic. We recently bought a new area rug for our son’s bedroom (the rug is gorgeous and feels great and he loves to lay on it to read) but now…
Our house, gut-renovated before our arrival, has these crap hollow-core doors, the panels of which appear to be some pressed-fiberboard or such, almost like a plastic. We recently bought a new area rug for our son’s bedroom (the rug is gorgeous and feels great and he loves to lay on it to read) but now the door won’t close because the rug is so plush. What’s the best way to trim some material off the bottom of the door? How much can I remove without risking exposing the void in the door? Thanks.
There is very little fillet in the bottom of modern hollow core doors, certainly less than 1″.
I would recommend a careful cut of 1″ off bottom, with the intent of peeling the veneer off front and back of fillet, and re-inserting it back up into the hollow with wood glue on both sides. Clamp and when the glue dries you are good to go.
Yeah, I have those sucky doors all over my house and have shortened them as much as possible and they still can’t deal with a plush rug in the way. Even my bathroom rugs have to be moved out of the way. Good luck.
As Bond says, it is closer to 1.5″ – also depends on if its already been trimmed. I would be prepared to try to peel the skin off the old bottom after cutting it or make a new bottom. Glue the old one or new one back in. There may be some cardboard baffles inside, butthey will push out of the way. It’ll ad a few minutes to the task.
Steve
The last time I had to cut one of those doors down, the margin of error was a lot smaller. I’m thinking it was closer to 1″- 1 1/2″. It’s pretty easy to cut another piece to fit the gap though and glue it back in if you have to go deeper. If you don’t have access to a table saw to cut a new piece, you could probably just soak the cut off piece and remove the pressboard, or whatever it is your door is made of, and stick it back up there with some wood glue, I doubt if they used exterior or waterproof glue, so it would probably come off fairly easily. The cardboard webbing that they use inside the door to stiffen it may be in the way, but you can just push that back up into the door a bit.
If it’s only a small amount to take off, I’d use a plane. I would score where I wanted the cut to end up with a utility knife then just use the score mark as a guide, planing up to the score line. Be careful not to go past it though or you will get tear out especially if your plane is not razor sharp. A low angle block plane would probably work best if you have access to one due to the cross grain situation.
As dibs said – but also put tape on either side of where you’re cutting (front & back of door & above & below cut line) which will minimize tearing.
I think using a plane might tear the veneer off of the surface.
Usually there’s about 3″ or so. remove the door, clamp a straight edge on it allowing for the saw setback and use a circular saw with a fine tooth blade.