Two Large Doors

Saturdays work involved hanging two large doors - 3ft 6in wide and 7ft high.

 Luckily they weren't glazed otherwise I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have been able to hang them on my own, as it was they were near the limit of what I could handle (they were 56mm thick as well).

 They were hung on parliment hinges and the doors were at the top of three steps. This meant that before I could hang each one I had to build myself a little platform to work off. With parliment hinges you have to be careful how you set them or it can all go horiblly wrong as you can work off the knuckle of the hinge like you can normally, luckily mine went on with no problems.

One door on and the other on the benches being cut and planed to size

By the end of the day I had both doors swinging and the locks drilled out, but by then I was loosing light and had to call it a day.

Funky Cupboard Doors

I fitted some cupboard doors that I made today. I was quite impressed with how they look.

 This is a simple set of three MDF doors, hung with kitchen hinges. The doors have lines scored across them that are 3mm deep, painted grey to contrast the white finish, each individual door has one line picked out in a different colour and some of the lines pass through two or three of the doors to tie them together.

What the doors are hiding

I think these look a little bit more like art than simple cupboard doors and I'm pleased with how they came out (I didn't do the painting).

This shows that a low cost material with a bit of time spent on it can give a great finish.

Charpentier

The last week turned out to be a bit of an adventure.
After a few phone call, someone going to Liverpool passport office for me and a ferry ride, I ended up going with a friend to work in France for the week!

Leaving England behind

 The job was to fit a flight of stairs, handrail out a balcony and to second fix as much of the house as possible. We got loads done over some really long days.
Unfortunately the stairs were a nightmare to fit. Whoever had measured them to fit had given absolutely no tolerance to get them in. They had winders round a complete 180 degrees so things became a little difficult. It would have been much easier if they'd had gone in before the house was boarded or plastered. We got them in in the end but we did have to cut the wall in a few places to make them fit.

These stairs were the most awkward I've ever fitted

Not much space to get them in

 The balcony handrail also took some thinking about, this went in easy once we decided on our method and looked really smart when they were finished

Balcony to be hand railed off

 The only difficult with them was clamping the handrail to the newel posts as the glue went off. Tom and me managed to quickly knock together a wooden clamp that could be wedged up so the glue could go off over night, leaving a perfectly tight joint in the morning.

Clamping the handrail together with a quickly built clamp

The adjustable end of the clamp

Balcony handrail finished

 Tom and me worked really fast doing the second fit together, I think we were both impressed with the amount of work we got done in the time. We had a good system going and each stuck to a certain job to increase speed and keep the quality high.

Tom routing hinges out of the doors

Oak doors, pine linings and MDF architraves and skirting fitted.

All in all it was an interesting experience. I enjoyed working with Tom Weston again - who is an excellent carpenter (I think we both learnt a lot from each other) and made good friends with the plasterer, Rick, who came out with us. We worked hard and did a serious amount of hours, but I was missing my family by the end of the week so I was glad to come back to a rainy UK yesterday.
I learnt lots and got some good stories to tell, not much more you could ask for really!

Hanging A Large Oak Door

Yesterday I hung a 3'3" wide oak door delivered by the joiner.

 I think this is the widest single door I've hung. But there's a 3'5" one to do yet.

It's nice to work with some oak again as we seem to be using lots of sapele lately - which is not my favourite by any stretch of the imagination! I've got to glaze it yet and add the ironmongery but it's a smart looking door leading to the orangery, I hope the customer likes it.

Repairing Old Doors

Some low quality photos on this post sorry! 

Last week was pretty cold, not getting above freezing for most of it and I had the pleasure of being out in it everyday except Friday where it hammered down with rain all day. Installing gutter in the rain is a job even I draw the line at, so I went on to repairing some doors that the other carpenter and I had hung previously.

These door weren't the easiest thing to hang in the first place with big cast hinges to remove & fill and frames where the wood seems too thin to hold the new screws needing splicing. On top of that some have got panels that are split and need replacing.

I first removed the beads from one side of the panel, on doing this I discovered that the panels are also fitted into a grove in the door. There is no way I could split the door apart and expect it to go back together (things would fall apart), instead I had to cut right round the panel (the multimaster came in handy again here) to remove it.

I then planed some boards to 10mm thick and fitted then in the door and replaced the beads I saved.

Now the painters fun starts - they're going to need quite a bit of prep work before they're ready to paint! Still doing this work preserves some of the character of the house rather than just buying new doors.

Loft Hatch and Door Hanging

Nice job today.

Changed a moulded door over to a 15 panel glazed door to start with.

Then added in a loft hatch in the garage as there was no access to the roof.

Fitted lining made on the job with stops and architrave - looked like it had been there from the start by the end. I did however notice that Wimpey Homes had only put 50mm of insulation above this customers utility room and being the nice soul I am I offered to fit the insulation while I was up there fitting some flooring at no extra charge if they got me the insulation.

A nice little job working for nice people - Good way to start the week!

Hang That Door

A light week for work (for what I hope are obvious reasons) but I did go and finish a job I started last week, changing 6 doors over.

I removed some tired looking flush doors that had been filled one too many times and replaced them with some new 6 panel moulded doors supplied by the customer. I chipped away at the layers of paint on the hinges and had the old doors off in no time, but then the fun began.

The linings (frames) were all different shapes and nowhere near level or even straight. This made the job a much longer process as I basically had to scribe each door to fit each frame.

To make matters worse the doors supplied (naming no names - B&Q) must have been stacked on a pile of bananas as they were completely warped out of shape ("Oh yes we've had a lot come back" - they said). You might have to open the picture to see how bad.

I added an extra hinge to each door and made sure they were fixed firmly so hopefully they will pull back into shape (they were all working sweetly by the time I left). When I finished hanging them I chopped in all the locks and loose fitted the handles.

Then to make sure the doors wouldn't warp due to atmospheric change (heating) I gave each a coat of primer, helping the customer get that bit closer to finishing.

Off to hopefully finish the job on the hotel tomorrow (yes a Sunday!) as very few bookings mean good access to rooms.

How to fit a Door Closer

Or more to the point, how to fit 40 door closers.

I think I've got it down to a fine art now. The tricky bit is removing the old perko door closer (door closers are fitted here due to building regulations and stopping the path of a fire - not sure if you guys have the same rules in the states) these are fitted in the back edge of the door, sprung loaded and can be nasty if your finger gets caught. I've been using a pair of needle nosed mole grips (you'll get them back dad I promise) to hold the chain while I take out the screws (many have had to be drilled out due to the last carpenter rounding off the heads). When I release the mole grips it snaps together and makes you wince at the thought of your finger being in there (or at the height they're fitted at something worse)!

Then I fit a new overhead door closer (the setting out measurements are forever in my head 68mm, 105mm, 16m, 46mm) pretty easy things to fit if you read the instructions and use the templates - practice makes you faster.

Later I've got to drop back and repair all the doors where the perkos were, but access in a hotel can be a problem and it does hold me up a bit when rooms aren't available. Still the chamber maids are a good laugh and not many carpentry jobs you can wear a t-shirt in January.

Sorry if this is a boring post!

New Back Door

Sorry this isn't a more interesting post!

My week at work has not been very taxing on my brain, but we've got quite a bit done fitting out shelves in 18 different cleaners cupboards along with some other jobs so its gone quite fast.

More jobs at home again! I decided that this weekend I would change the back door from the kitchen as its always looked a little rough and is single glazed.

Bread and butter work again for a carpenter but I've grown to enjoy hanging doors and chopping out hinges. I've also stained some more windows and started to paint the landing up stairs - I've been quite busy with all these jobs but I can't say why just yet, but it will make for a more interesting blog in the future if it all comes off!

More door hanging and holding a bricklayers hand

Yesterday didn't really go as planned. I had a job to go hang one pair of 15 panel glazed doors, a 2'9" 15 panel glazed door and alter a boundary fence and install a gate. I thought it would take me just over half a day but in the end it took the whole day. Still it was no great shame as they were nice people, it just means the the lawn wont get mown this weekend!

The pair of doors were the trouble (they always are) as the one side of the lining was out so it took a bit of messing round to get it looking right, the other door went on no bother at all.

On my main job (Summerfield Park) I think we've nearly found all the problems and we can go full steam ahead with the rebuild (I need to with only a month left of the program). We have had problems this week though - I decided to take out a rotten wall plate to replace on the single storey extension and the wall under it was so weak I made the decision to knock it down and rebuild it. That roof is going to need a bit of work next week - I think I'm going to get the wall plate installed a little lower as I need to extend the rafters and currently they don't have any birds mouths (more on this another time).

The bricklayers on this job have been driving me crazy - one because he doesn't turn up and the other because I have to hold his hand (not literary). Every job I have to tell him where to put the props and what order to take things out and install them (none of it is straight forward but he's got 40 years experience)- I might as well have had the trowel in my hand! He even had the nerve to tell me he wasn't paid enough to think! So I had the awkward job of getting rid of him Friday for someone new to come on Monday (all agency labour).

Who'd want to be foreman!?!

Garage doors and nuts

I've had another varied week. From demolition in Birmingham, to changing kitchen hinges and putting up notice boards in an office, to hanging a pair of garage doors for a neighbour across the road. Still keeps me on my toes.

I was quite please with the garage doors, a pair of door is always more of a pain than hanging two doors separately. Getting an even gap down the middle whilst keeping the gap even round the outside is enough to make you swear (especially if its an old frame your fitting to, like the one today). Still he was happy and I enjoyed hanging them, although it would have been easier if he didn't want butt hinges and would have had T-hinges instead. I even applied the knotting for him (as I could tell he probably wouldn't have bothered) and filled the nail holes in the door stop.

At wood turning this week I turned a Banksia Nut, my wife popped it in my shopping basket when we were in Axminster last week as she thought it looked interesting.

Interesting it was, but I'm not a hundred percent convinced, I think I like symmetry too much for me to love it. It was also dusty and horrible to turn, still it's something different and I'll get one over on my brother when I ask him what it is (unless he reads this first!)

Ash Bowl and a Hobbit Door

I had a small job this week to make a pair of half sized doors for an outside shed, which houses a pressure washer. Nothing very fancy, just ledge and braced door made out of TG&V, the job was made a little bit harder by the left hand side block work being (very) out of plumb. They looked good when they were done and it was a nice job in the February sunshine.

A more fun project this week was turning my first bowl with the grain running across the piece. This has been a little project at wood turning classes for the last couple of weeks and I managed to finish it on Thursday night, it's made out of ash, sanded to 600 grit and finished with Liberon finishing oil. I quite like the shape but it's not a very practical bowl because of it!I also managed to obey the main rule that my wood turning teacher preaches which is to have no evidence of how the piece was held on the lathe.

A Heavy Project

Before Christmas I was asked to make a FLB gate (Framed, Ledged & Braced) for a customer who I'd been working for. With the snow and Christmas getting in the way I only managed to get the timber from the saw mill the other day (sapele).

The cost was quite high because they wanted it to match their existing gates which were 55mm thick.

The project took a little longer than I would have liked due to the fact that the stiles were 125mm wide - more than my little morticer could handle, they all had to be finished off by hand.

The gate looks nice sanded up, but it's so heavy and difficult to move - I'm not sure I'll be able to hang it by myself (or even get it to the job in my little van)!

Door hanging

I'll just share this because it made me laugh.

I went to a job yesterday for someone I do quite a bit of work for to take out a door and frame and replace it with new ones. When I got there the door was locked (I could get to both sides of it though) so I rang the boss for the keys. He says to me "Oh yeah, you've got to break into it first!"

Talk about moving the goal posts!

Still, after grinding off the hinges it was quite a nice straight forward job (besides having to plane the frame down to get it to fit in the opening).

Door hanging

It's funny how the jobs people are really pleased with are sometimes your bread and butter work like hanging doors.

Yesterday I hung a door in the opening I'd cut through a brick wall the week before. The customer was really pleased with the result, and so was I as we'd managed to install lintels without damaging the plaster or wall paper on the other side - not an easy task.

The door itself was reclaimed so I had to make up the frame from scratch to suit it (the wall was also an odd thickness). Then I wedged the lining to suit the door.

There is always a bit of messing around when hanging an old door (packing out hinges, filling old holes) but its worth spending the extra time as they look good when they're done and in keeping with the property. Next week I've got to make up some architrave from scratch to match whats in the rest of the property