Beefing up door: Frame to Stud question
Posted: Mon, 2020-Jul-20, 18:16
At some point in the future I plan to beef up a door in the manner of the Rod Gervais superdoor. I mentioned this on my build thread and Stuart mentioned the requirement of strengthening the studs the door frame is attached to, to deal with the extra weight. He posted some photos of examples in that thread, very useful;
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8&p=1359#p1359
That's a bit in the future, but in the meantime I took off the door architrave to optimise the seal and also to see what lurks beneath. I should have done this before, as it revealed some gaps right through from one side of the frame to the other. The architraves were on pretty flush so sound leakage probably not as bad as it could be, but still, doh! I misunderstood the method of how door frames are attached to studs. I thought the frame would be screwed flush to the studs, but of course it is not. There is a tolerance gap most of the way round. You live and learn
I'm going to stuff the gap with insulation and seal both sides with backer rod & caulk. I've already fitted a drop seal at the bottom. The gap at the top is almost an inch wide so I'll pad that up a bit with some wood to get a smaller gap to caulk. In the UK the caulk should be intumescent stuff as it's a fire door. No worries there.
Here's a photo of the door. The blue masking tape indicates the position of large screws holding the frame to the stud. According to a construction document about fitting these, 5 is the correct number for a door of this type (mass 45kg);
It brings to mind several questions that would be useful to know before I seal these gaps up:
1) If I beef up the door by adding mass, should I add some extra screws of this type? The current screw threads are at least 5mm in diameter, and if done properly will penetrate 70mm in to the stud.
2) The fitting document (generic) said there should be a "packers" of similar material to the frame in the gap between frame and stud. These should be positioned with the screws going through them. At the moment there are some bits of plastic serving this purpose at two points, not five. Worth doing properly do you think?
3) The fitting document showed two screws in the top of the frame going to the stud above it. This door has none. Should there be? As a starting point I intend to have a look at this part of another door to see how it is done there.
Any thoughts would be most gratefully received.
I eventually intend to improve the wall by adding resilient clips and hat channel. So the frame will presumably have to be widened on one side to bridge the larger cavity. It might mean breaking one side of the aforementioned backer rod & caulk seal to avoid a tiny wee triple leaf, but that's no big deal. It's some time away and I'm happy to enjoy the improved isolation in the meantime
Cheers and thanks again!
Jennifer
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8&p=1359#p1359
That's a bit in the future, but in the meantime I took off the door architrave to optimise the seal and also to see what lurks beneath. I should have done this before, as it revealed some gaps right through from one side of the frame to the other. The architraves were on pretty flush so sound leakage probably not as bad as it could be, but still, doh! I misunderstood the method of how door frames are attached to studs. I thought the frame would be screwed flush to the studs, but of course it is not. There is a tolerance gap most of the way round. You live and learn
I'm going to stuff the gap with insulation and seal both sides with backer rod & caulk. I've already fitted a drop seal at the bottom. The gap at the top is almost an inch wide so I'll pad that up a bit with some wood to get a smaller gap to caulk. In the UK the caulk should be intumescent stuff as it's a fire door. No worries there.
Here's a photo of the door. The blue masking tape indicates the position of large screws holding the frame to the stud. According to a construction document about fitting these, 5 is the correct number for a door of this type (mass 45kg);
It brings to mind several questions that would be useful to know before I seal these gaps up:
1) If I beef up the door by adding mass, should I add some extra screws of this type? The current screw threads are at least 5mm in diameter, and if done properly will penetrate 70mm in to the stud.
2) The fitting document (generic) said there should be a "packers" of similar material to the frame in the gap between frame and stud. These should be positioned with the screws going through them. At the moment there are some bits of plastic serving this purpose at two points, not five. Worth doing properly do you think?
3) The fitting document showed two screws in the top of the frame going to the stud above it. This door has none. Should there be? As a starting point I intend to have a look at this part of another door to see how it is done there.
Any thoughts would be most gratefully received.
I eventually intend to improve the wall by adding resilient clips and hat channel. So the frame will presumably have to be widened on one side to bridge the larger cavity. It might mean breaking one side of the aforementioned backer rod & caulk seal to avoid a tiny wee triple leaf, but that's no big deal. It's some time away and I'm happy to enjoy the improved isolation in the meantime
Cheers and thanks again!
Jennifer