DOORS in new construction ???

[r136dg]

I'm supplying all doors for the building of our house. What's the best way to do this? We've been looking in Global, Do House & Thai Watsathu. Nothing's pre-hung.

A friend of mine said they position &  brace all the doors and build the walls around them. Would I have to have all the doors hung in the frames with all the hardware installed? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance!

[longball53098]

Thai builders do not use pre-hung doors. Don't waste your time or money to get them fitted that way as they will just dismount the door and install the frame during wall building. AS already stated they install the frame just prior to building the walls and brace in place. They construct the brick walls and lentils around the door frame. And guess what? The frame gets knocked out of square during all this work. Later when they finish work is being done they custom fit the door in to the frame sono two doors are exactly the same. Some builders do a better job of this process and of course some are horrible. When they mount the hinges to the hardwood frame many of the screws holding the hinges are broken in the process

 

Their method for installing doors and windows is horrible IMHO

[Anythingleft?]

There is a better way to do this but you will not find any builders to change the way that they understand. The frames will be built around then the doors hung at a later stage. Have the frames orienteered the way you want them as Thais tend to swing doors opposite to UK standards if you wish (or care to) but then make sure the light switches are also installed to suit the swing of the door

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[juehoe]

Häfele has now high quality doors in their range. They are not cheap, of course...


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[dotpoom]

I replaced about 14 doors when I bought my house and renovated it.... different standard sizes. Bought them from a workshop that made doors.

[aussiandrew]

The question has got to be do you trust your builder to install the door frames correctly. You need to be asking him questions and showin you evident he's  done it all before to a good standard other wise you will not be sleeping at night. 

Building houses in Thailand can be nerve racking experience at times but also very satisfying if it all comes together at the right time. Good luck

[ThaiFelix]

We didnt have many problems with the builders fitting our wooden doors.  They did it as mentioned previously....they built the walls around the door frame and then hung the doors.  Of course every door had to be cut/planed to size.  I think you will have this "custom" fit with any wooden doors.  I always plane off a bit more than required (especially in the dry season) because all wooden doors/windows etc will swell and jam in the wet no matter how much you seal them.

 

Our problem was with the pvc/plastic? bathroom door.  Wooden doors are not a good idea for wet areas such as a Thai bathroom.  The pvc door frame had moved during the wall construction resulting in the door being too big.  You cant plane plastic doors off course but the builders assured me they could disassemble the side of the door, trim some off and put it back together with some "special" glue.  I found out too late that their "special" glue was just standard super glue!!  Needless to say the door sagged after a month or so and now needs to be lifted to close.  I cant buy a standard door to fit that size and a new one cant be modified to fit because I have found it impossible to get hold of a glue to suit.  I may have to go back to a wooden door and be vigilant about any swelling or warping.

 

I strongly suggest if you are having your house built by an Isaan farmer-builder type team you need to employ yourself, or somebody else you trust, to be a full time QC checking and double checking everything.  I did and even then I still found things afterwards that were not up to scratch too late.  Good luck.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, aussiandrew said:

The question has got to be do you trust your builder to install the door frames correctly. You need to be asking him questions and showin you evident he's  done it all before to a good standard other wise you will not be sleeping at night. 

Building houses in Thailand can be nerve racking experience at times but also very satisfying if it all comes together at the right time. Good luck

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2016 by scorecard

[jeffandgop]

We supplied the interior & exterior doors when we built our house 2 ½ years ago. The door supplier we selected was Thaweepan. All doors were custom built to spec. The walls were constructed first and the door frames installed almost immediately after (or during). 

As noted above the Thai technique for exterior doors is to swing outward as opposed to western style of swinging inward. If you want outward swinging exterior doors that has to be clearly understood by the design & installer so the frame is installed correctly. 

 

 

[r136dg]

Thanks everyone. I have faith in my general but of course I haven't met the subs. I try to get out there daily & will make more effort when the walls are going up.

Can wood doors be used in bathrooms with windows & exhaust fans. If so, should they be the vented ones (slots near the bottom)? Definitely would prefer solid wood doors.

Thanks!

[jeffandgop]

13 minutes ago, r136dg said:

Thanks everyone. I have faith in my general but of course I haven't met the subs. I try to get out there daily & will make more effort when the walls are going up.

Can wood doors be used in bathrooms with windows & exhaust fans. If so, should they be the vented ones (slots near the bottom)? Definitely would prefer solid wood doors.

Thanks!

Our bathroom doors are solid wood. We have windows in the bathrooms for air flow 

Edited December 7, 2016 by jeffandgop
Typo

[Deepinthailand]

My builders put them in the Thai way. put them in place and build wall around them. I was a bit concerned so I made up to right angled gizmos out or 4 cheap spirit levels and placed them in both top corners of door frame to ensure a perfect square in both corners. I checked them after each brick course and so did the builder. They were that impressed after they finished all doors I gave them to them for future use.

[bark]

3 hours ago, aussiandrew said:

The question has got to be do you trust your builder to install the door frames correctly. You need to be asking him questions and showin you evident he's  done it all before to a good standard other wise you will not be sleeping at night. 

Building houses in Thailand can be nerve racking experience at times but also very satisfying if it all comes together at the right time. Good luck

You cannot trust most Thai Builders. You must be on site 2-3 times per week.

If you are willing to do that; you should have a well built home.

[r136dg]

4 minutes ago, Deepinthailand said:

My builders put them in the Thai way. put them in place and build wall around them. I was a bit concerned so I made up to right angled gizmos out or 4 cheap spirit levels and placed them in both top corners of door frame to ensure a perfect square in both corners. I checked them after each brick course and so did the builder. They were that impressed after they finished all doors I gave them to them for future use.

Sounds like a good idea. Sure I can tune something up, but if you have some pics of that it would be much appreciated.

[rijb]

Be sure to check the door frames for wood-eating pest infestation.

[ThaiFelix]

8 minutes ago, rijb said:

Be sure to check the door frames for wood-eating pest infestation.

All wood in and around my house I personally treated with 2 to 3 coats of Chaindrite....good stuff, doesnt kill existing bugs but prevents chewing insects attacking it.

[eyecatcher]

1 hour ago, bark said:

You cannot trust most Thai Builders. You must be on site 2-3 times per week.

If you are willing to do that; you should have a well built home.

 

Just to correct your typo:

"you must be on site 8 hours a day, 6 days a week"

 

anything less and you will NOT have a well built home

[eyecatcher]

1 hour ago, Deepinthailand said:

My builders put them in the Thai way. put them in place and build wall around them. I was a bit concerned so I made up to right angled gizmos out or 4 cheap spirit levels and placed them in both top corners of door frame to ensure a perfect square in both corners. I checked them after each brick course and so did the builder. They were that impressed after they finished all doors I gave them to them for future use.

 

good; but the most important brace is one across the 2 legs at the bottom, otherwise they will twist, curl, bend in and out long before your Thai builder whacks in four big 4 inch nails. Which of course will be too long so they will be bent over and driven into the new frame hoping you wont notice!

[Deepinthailand]

1 hour ago, r136dg said:

Sounds like a good idea. Sure I can tune something up, but if you have some pics of that it would be much appreciated.

Sorry no pics I bought four cheap 1 ft long (sorry 30cm in new money)  drilled a hole in the bottom of both of them  and then just superglued  the non drilled ends at right angles using the other two to make sure they were spot on. then using small long sews attached them to the frame both sides then when we had squared it up screwdriver to the top of the frame.  you could make a couple out of wood or metal quite easy.

[Deepinthailand]

14 minutes ago, eyecatcher said:

 

Just to correct your typo:

"you must be on site 8 hours a day, 6 days a week"

 

anything less and you will NOT have a well built home

Not my experiance I trust my builders told them exactly what I wanted and told them if there was a problem to call. I went on site every day first thing in the morning and when door frames and windows went in. Had one cock up told them how I wanted both wet rooms ie pipes chased into walls and exactly where I wanted the pipes. unfortunately they didn't do as asked so they had to rip the wall down to do it right. No problems they did it there and then once they saw what I required the second wet room was a breeze.

[Deepinthailand]

15 minutes ago, eyecatcher said:

 

good; but the most important brace is one across the 2 legs at the bottom, otherwise they will twist, curl, bend in and out long before your Thai builder whacks in four big 4 inch nails. Which of course will be too long so they will be bent over and driven into the new frame hoping you wont notice!

That frame was already in place from shop we purchased frames from. No nails driven it frames once in place and wall built and dried were screwed in for added stability correctly.

[kurtcap]

As a project lead in the construction of 5+ star hotels i would suggest the following: firstly supply a sub-frame (basically a 3 quarter inch x the width of the masonry) as a template for them to build around ensuring that both the the sub-frames are braced to keep them plumb and square and also ensure they are correctly affixed to the masonry as it proceeds. Also please ensure a 10mm gap between external frame siz and internal sub- frame size for inaccuracies. This prevents the end product frame being damaged during construction and allows fore secret fixing of the actual finishe d door frame so as to allow both a standard door fitting and an asthetically pleasing finished product. please feel free to message me for more advice.

[r136dg]

13 minutes ago, kurtcap said:

As a project lead in the construction of 5+ star hotels i would suggest the following: firstly supply a sub-frame (basically a 3 quarter inch x the width of the masonry) as a template for them to build around ensuring that both the the sub-frames are braced to keep them plumb and square and also ensure they are correctly affixed to the masonry as it proceeds. Also please ensure a 10mm gap between external frame siz and internal sub- frame size for inaccuracies. This prevents the end product frame being damaged during construction and allows fore secret fixing of the actual finishe d door frame so as to allow both a standard door fitting and an asthetically pleasing finished product. please feel free to message me for more advice.

That's exactly what I've been thinking from the start. The sub frame with an RO a little bigger than the door frame & shim it in perfectly square. Then trimming the door to cover it all up. The only thing that's keeping me from doing this (besides the extra work), is the door frames always seem to be a few millimeters thinner than the finished stucco wall which would make trimming very difficult. A sharp carpenter with the right tools could make short work of it, but that's not me.

[kurtcap]

10 minutes ago, r136dg said:

That's exactly what I've been thinking from the start. The sub frame with an RO a little bigger than the door frame & shim it in perfectly square. Then trimming the door to cover it all up. The only thing that's keeping me from doing this (besides the extra work), is the door frames always seem to be a few millimeters thinner than the finished stucco wall which would make trimming very difficult. A sharp carpenter with the right tools could make short work of it, but that's not me.

iam far from an expert on thai standard sizes but the subframe should be used as a leveller for the stucco, if the stucco has to be applied thickly and increase the overall wall width excessively its due the masonry not being straight and plumb! 

[catman20]

16 hours ago, dotpoom said:

I replaced abou t 14 doors when I bought my house and renovated it.... diff

13 hours ago, bark said:

You cannot trust most Thai Builders. You must be on site 2-3 times per week.

If you are willing to do that; you should have a well built home.

andard sizes. Bought them from a workshop that made doors.

Have all your doors and frames made to measure and fitted after all the walls rendering and tiles are finushed. You can choose A non Stardard Finish this way.not cheap but you only do IT one time.

[catman20]

13 hours ago, bark said:

You cannot trust most Thai Builders. You must be on site 2-3 times per week.

If you are willing to do that; you should have a well built home.

2 or 3 times a day

[Crossy]

We got all our (hardwood) doors and fames from a specialist "door man", his catalog is posted somewhere on ThaiVisa, I'll see if I can find it.

 

More choice and better quality than the bucket shops, made to order so could be customised for size (we didn't), obviously not the cheap solution (Wifey doesn't do cheap).

 

Installed by an excellent Khmer chippie who also did our hardwood floors, railings / bannister and windows.

 

Good craftsmen who take a pride in their work are out there, but not always easy to find.

 

[wayned]

I was my own general contractor, plumber and electrician so I have no one to blame but myself.  All labor was done by locals.  You should have seen their faces when I had all the exterior and some of the interior door frames installed so that they opened inward but had some interior frames opening outward.  The inward opening doors were the exterior, the bedroom and bathroom doors.  The outward opening doors were the walk-in closest, the pantry, the storage room in the carport and the closet in the living area.  All doors were cut to fit after the walls were complete.  The closet in the living area didn't get a door, it got a 1 meter chain link gate as it became the  whelping room for the Golden Retrievers that we wore raising.  The security/screen doors open outward.

[bark]

15 hours ago, eyecatcher said:

 

Just to correct your typo:

"you must be on site 8 hours a day, 6 days a week"

 

anything less and you will NOT have a well built home

Yes, You are correct.

I rented another home 500 meters from where my home was being built.

95 % OK.

[Grubster]

If you are in your Lady's home town she should be able to get you a good contractor, I recommend going to see one of his previous builds and if he isn't interested in that, keep looking.