January 28, 2013

After all the work on the walls, I had to switch gears. So work turned to re-hanging the door
to swing from the opposite site. First, I removed the door and the hinges, and used an
oscillating saw and chisel to deepen the original hinge pockets.

The deeper pockets allowed for a piece of wood to patch the old locations. These were trimmed
to size, glued with tri-poly urethane adhesive, and nailed in place.

Next, a coat of Plastic Wood cellulose filler was applied to fill the smaller voids.
In this photo, you're looking at the location of the old strike plate.

The patch is left to dry. Meanwhile, I replaced the original brass door hardware with brushed nickel.

Another view of the original strike plate. When I removed the old plate, I noticed an even older
plate location with a previous patch. I removed both, cleaned up the area, and created one new patch.

Work then turned to giving the walls their final sanding with 100 grit, to smooth the spackled areas.

After the door frame patches set up, I sanded them flush. Then I chiseled in the locations
of the new door hinges. You can see the new center hinge location at the top of the photo, with
the old strike plate patch beneath it.

A view of the hinge patch. Once painted, it should blend in well.

I find using the oscillating saw makes short work of chiseling hinge pockets. I use the saw to
create a series of cuts in a grid, then chisel out the grid squares.

The hinge pockets are ready.

...and the door is hung. I had to trim the top of the door to accommodate a crooked door header.
Such is life in an 80-year-old house.

A view of the door from the hallway. It no longer blocks emergency egress.

The new strike plate is mounted on the jamb. Notice I mounted it flush, and not recessed.

That's because the aftermarket door the previous homeowners bought wasn't quite wide enough
for the door jamb. So I needed that extra 1/8" to give the latch some bite.

The door now swings the correct way.

Work now returns to sanding the walls.

| Back | Top |