Eight Steps to Shorten an Interior Door

Sometimes it is the little things that can irritate you when you are doing home improvement. For example, you have new carpet installed or a new tile or wood floor put in and all of the sudden your interior or closet doors no longer fit or they are rubbing against the carpet creating both wear on the carpet and aggravation to you. You can easily remedy this, regardless of what type of door you have (solid or hollow) by simply following these instructions:

First you will need to gather your supplies. This is a fairly simple job so you don’t need a whole lot of tools, most likely you already have everything you need already in your home.

The supplies you will need to sufficiently complete the job are as follows:

A tape measure, pencil, screw driver, hammer, circular saw, straightedge and clamps, saw horses, and wood glue.

Getting started:

One: First of all you want to measure your door while it is hanging in its place. Doors should have less than inch gap between the bottom of them and the floor but not be so tight that they rub against the existing floor, or worse refuse to move at all. To determine the proper size you would like your door to be, and subsequently how much of the bottom you will be shaving off, measure from the floor top to the place on the door where you would like the bottom of it to hang and make a mark with your pencil to denote it.

Two: Now you want to carefully take your doors down using your screwdriver and hammer to carefully remove the hinges. Once you have removed the doors, place them on your sawhorses. If you only have one saw horse, just do the job one door at a time.

Three: Clamp your door and place your straightedge in place as your guide line for cutting. Now use your utility knife to cut across the veneer of your door at the line you created so you will prevent the door from chipping or splintering when you put it under the circular saw. Be especially mindful of your cuts as the veneer may allow the utility knife to slice through faster than you are expecting it to, so you must use great care in your cutting to ensure your safety here.

Four: Place your safety glasses securely on your face and carefully cut the bottom of the door off with your circular saw, using the line you made when you measured (your pencil line) and your straightedge as a guide. Make sure that the pencil line is accurate, straight and that it goes far enough across that you are going to get an accurate door fitting from your cut. You want to be absolutely certain that you are not cutting too much of the door off because this is very difficult to rectify in hindsight, so make sure your measurements are correct before you begin the cut.

Six: Clamp your wood now and chisel the existing veneer from both sides. Apply wood glue to top and bottom and put it back into the door. Make sure you wipe off any excess glue while it is wet so it doesn’t mar the door or create unnecessary work for you. If you do not wipe it when wet the glue could remove finish or paint from the door or become very difficult to wipe away. Save yourself time and frustration by wiping it when it is wet and thus comes off with ease.

Seven: Allow door to dry for at least eight hours, untouched.

Eight: Rehang your doors and give yourself a pat on the back. You now have completed the job.