Hanging Interior Doors

[Kent Brobeck]

Hey I was hanging interior doors today and was wondering how quickly you guys can hang. I thought I did ok today and am wondering how well I stack up. In about 7 3/4 hours I hung 2 regular jamb 6' - 8", 1 split jamb 6' - 8" and 7 double doors that where all 8' tall for a total of 10 doors. three of them where in an existing part of the house so I was working around stuff. I also had to repair 4 of the jambs as the head jamb came loose from the legs.

[wjffineww]

I'm not strictly a finish guy, but that sounds pretty damn good to me. Those double doors are a real pain. Were you alone?

[SteveC]

If you charged a price that covers your overhead and made a profit, that should be be the main concern.
Did you trim and install locksets ?
Speed, price, quality - pick two.
BTW you hung 17 doors ! :)

[Top Notch]

Yep that sounds about right if not above average. What was your technique for the doubles? Strings then shimmed casings? I tack a trim nail in each corner of the jamb un shimmed then muscle the frame in its best place before finish nailing. Works for me.

[David Meiland]

You're faster than me.

[steve demetrick]

That's respectable in my book. I estimate an hour/door. That includes unloading from the truck through cutting shims and clean-up of packing materials, etc. With no obstacles and good framing it's 1/2 hr./door. Or in the case of the job we are on now, it's well over 1 hr./door between the bad framing, cutting back lots of plaster (and cleaning it up), working around the painters, and the jambs aren't very straight, needing 5 pairs of shims/side to straighten them out. Fixing the problems from the manufacturer (as you mentioned) can also add time. Hanging doors and installing hardware are separate tasks in our area.

-Steve

[Overbuilders]

I estimate an hour/door.

Same here, not an hour per opening. Double doors take about 1 1/2 hrs. About. Depends.

[Bruce B]

Kent, that is excellent time !

I'm assuming all your rough openings were co-planar, that is the jambs were not "cross-legged". Especially on the double doors where any deviation in the jambs is magnified.

The first thing I would do on double doors was to "cross string" them and see if the strings just touched in the middle. If they were off only a little bit I would "gently massage" the out of plumb jamb at the bottom plate with an 8# sledge hammer. (you all have one in the truck, right ?). If that didn't do it then it was time for the saws-all, with no money made on that door !

How do you guys deal with cross-legged jambs ?

[Al (Ca.)]

Years ago a guy in this forum claimed he could install 5-7 prehung doors an hour, having each door waiting next to the opening prior to installation.

I think Gary K was able to scribe and install 4 interior doors an hour during his prime time in life, when he was in shape and doing it every day.

[Bob scott]

I think you did well on time. As was said earlier it all depends on the site.
The last door job I did took way longer. We had to rework some framing, cut down a door (from 6/8 to 6/6) and the jamb widths were all off.

Split jambs that weren't wide enough for the openings. In case you've never had to deal with this, it's a huge pain in the butt . Would have been alot cheaper to use solid jambs
and case myself.

Bob

[Alaskan Son]

That's excellent time in my book. Unless you didn't case them out in which case I think it would be a little slow to average. Not unrespectable though.

[Kent Brobeck]

Yes I was alone. The framing was very good. At least I can't blame the framer since I framed the addition :). Seriously though good framing make a BIG difference. Regular height doors are no big deal but 8' are a pain, particularly 8' double units. I hang double units using what used to be referred to as the plumb bob method. Only I use a laser. You cut a spreader the same width as the head jamb mark the center, force the jamb legs against the spreader with shims at the bottom. Set the laser plumb over the center line and then find the center of the head jamb and align with laser shim and nail. I then use my level to shim and straighten the jambs. Hang the doors on the hinges final adjust and nail off.

On my first go round with the shims I shoot one nail at each shim but never through the shim only above or below so I can still adjust. I nail off only after door is just right. I don't use a level to level head jamb. Instead I draw a level line about 5 1/2 ft off the floor on the drywall on both sides of the RO and measure up of subfloor to find the high spot and then measure down from the head jamb to level head.
As for cross leg jambs...I try an adjust the jamb legs to compensate. If its to bad I will persuade with a sledge. You'll only get so much with the persuader. If its still bad I'll cut the drywall below the base level and pull the nails and fix it.

[Kent Brobeck]

Double post

[hdrider_chgo]

Production trimmers here generally do about 5 pre-hungs per hour, 10 minutes per door on average. That includes (pre-assembled) casing both sides, margins close to perfect, door hitting the stop evenly, and aligning head jambs on adjacent doors, but does not include stocking or unpacking the doors, or the locksets. If you couldn't get close to that, you could pretty much consider yourself fired.

I used to be able to do that, but couldn't now without getting back into practice.

Not that I'd want to. It was great training, but I've moved on.

[Alaskan Son]

Production trimmers here generally do about 5 pre-hungs per hour, 10 minutes per door on average. That includes (pre-assembled) casing both sides, margins close to perfect, door hitting the stop evenly, and aligning head jambs on adjacent doors, but does not include stocking or unpacking the doors, or the locksets. If you couldn't get close to that, you could pretty much consider yourself fired.

I used to be able to do that, but couldn't now without getting back into practice.

Not that I'd want to. It was great training, but I've moved on.

That sounds crazy.