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Making a Front Door heads the to do list

A  new year and fresh resolve to get some jobs finished.  I’ve bought the timber for making my sliding sash windows and got pressed in to another job. 

Whilst I was getting a big order for timber together, the wife asked me about the front door I said I was going to make. So I added a few extra length to order and now I’ve got another job on the list.

Never mind, I’ll enjoy it when I’ve started.   The trouble is starting, I’ve spent hours trying to get my head around Sketchup and only managed a visual representation.

Victorian style front door half glazed

Sketchup of Front Door

After spending ages creating this I literally went back to the drawing board. Within half an hour I had got all the proportions right and all the dimensions for the timber sections.  Paper and pencil, a fantastic combination.

Link to the full details Timber Front Door design details. Includes- using the Golden Ratio to get the proportions right.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 6:34 pm and is filed under I do DIY stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Making a Front Door heads the to do list”

  1. Hi Andy,

    That door’s looking quite good. I have a couple of points you may want to consider…

    What will you be making this from?

    If it’s softwood, you may want to alter your dimensions depending on the sawn sizes – eg. 4″x2″ gives a finished size of 95mmx45mm for the stiles and muntins (that’s what most joinery firms do). It saves wasting extra wood… Then again, it can be beneficial to have that extra – in case the boards are badly bowed or you have dead knots on one edge.

    Bottom rails would typically be between 170mm-195mm finished. Mid-rails slightly narrower; between 145mm-170mm.

    You’ll also want to look at where you’ll be positioning the handle. I think 900mm is generally about right for most people (or was it 1m?) but, I’ve seen many doors where the handles are awkwardly low. Some people will centre these on the mid-rails and chop in to the mortise and tenon joint; others will design the door so they’re only cut in to the stile above.

    Have you checked out the FENSA regs?

    http://www.fensa.org.uk/

    I look forward to seeing this one progress. Should be a good work out for your router!

    Olly.

  2. Hi Olly,
    We’re on a similar hymn sheet with the dimensions.

    Have a look here

    I cut the stiles and muntins from 50 x 175, as I needed the off cuts for my windows. They ended up 105mm, bottom rail 175 and mid rail 140.

    I’ll be fitting a rim latch (so not having to cut in to the mid rail mortise and tenon) mounted at the mid rail height. But as I can’t find these with 5 lever locks, I’ll fit a 5 lever deadlock in the stile below the joint.

    Thanks for the FENSA link, as far as I can tell the if it’s less than 50% glazed I can ignore officialdom.

    The router got it’s work out, see my head cam post on the blog, or it will be on the web site soon.

    Cheers
    Andy

  3. Well it’s coming along nicely. The door is ready for painting now. There will be pause before it’s fully finished as the other half is going to working on the leaded glass.

    That will give me a change to catch up on the coverage. So Far I’ve posted:

    Timber Exterior Door Design

    DIY External Door Design and Proportions

    Door Tenon Theory and cutting

    Door Mortise Marking and Cutting

    Timber Door Fox Wedging mortise and tenon joints

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