this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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For what it’s worth, this would be intentional. They would have had to buy a blank door panel and make the lockset holes and hinge gains themselves. The handle holes aren’t center in the door, and the hinges aren’t equidistance either.
So not an idiot, and at least a little handy if they didn’t just pay someone to intentionally do this as well. Most people would just buy prehung doors, especially the front.
My first gig was construction. The foreman and another guy were talking about how pre-hung doors were the best thing ever made.When I asked them why they believed this they worked with me to hang a door. Fuck that, pre-hung doors are like the 4th greatest creation of the 20th century.
I literally just replaced all the interior doors in my house myself, its not hard if you use a jig, two routers, a faceplate jig, strike plate jig, impact driver, two drill drivers with one hooked up to a portable drill press and the other with an augur, another drill driver with the hinge pilot hole gadgets, saw stands, door stand, track saw, and air bags to lift the doors. Oh, ohhh
Except firedoors, fuck those overweight mother fuckers and their stupid hidden self shutting chains
I had to do one with just hand tools. No power tools allowed on site, and dragging the door inside outside was a 15 minute ordeal each way. And had to do the frame by hand anyways…
So hand cranked hand auger for the lockset, and a chisel and hammer for the hinge gains. Took me a whole damn day to do that one door.
Yeah there is good reason to my madness when it comes to the number of tools I used, no faffing about changing bits or resetting jigs or manual measuring. I would reckon about an hour a door from unpacking it to having it fully trimmed and hung. Would have been a bit quicker but I went with magnetic latches so they needed a 80mm back box and my 1/2 router only does 70mm deep so I had to use the drill press with a Forstner to get the remaining 10mm clearance needed.
I have done doors by hand, thats about 3 to 4 hours for me if I do not have to make a proper square backbox and I can get away with a round one via an auger. I do not like the bite of an auger if the backbox depth is even remotely close to the edge of the frame for the door due to the bite you get dragging you in further than you intended even when turning by hand. I much prefer a Forstner, but I will be fucked if I am going to hand crank one of those into oak.
Its decidedly longer if my chisels aren't sharp, having to hand sharpen them is a PITA when its more than once a day, I wish I had the space for a wheel to speed that up. Other dream thing is a 360 degree door vise that holds the entire door and lets you spin it 360 degrees without having to take it off your stands and hand rotate it. Would make switching from hinges to mortise to handles a breeze.
I worked as a Carpenter for a GC (employed, not contractor), so it was always a fine line between keeping us busy and being efficient by using the right specializations. Yeah I can do some drywall taping and mudding, but god if we aren’t busy, please sub that crap out, it’ll look better anyways. But I’ll also take the 3 days of pay instead.
Plastering I will only ever do for myself, and then only to save money as I am too tight to pay someone else to do it, much the same reason I do tiling or plumbing. They are one of those jobs like fine carpentry that is always better done by an expert with the years of just doing that.
Plasterboard layup often gets left to the builder in the UK, assuming they can actually level it properly.
You mean lath and plaster? They still use that? I mean installing drywall panels and taping the joints and skim coating. But yeah plastering is more like concrete finishing, an art, and definitely left to the professionals.
Would rather place and finish concrete over mudding and taping though, better on my hands.
I would still call it layup as we still use the same plasterboard panels in the UK if they are having a skim or a proper multi coat plaster finish, regardless if they going onto framing or dot and dab onto breeze blocks. We do have old houses that are basically brick on the interior so have render and then plaster on top of that, like nearly 20mm of it.
Its always my shoulder joints with plastering or large tiling that go first, always have too much gear on my board I guess.
Just like those self sealing stem bolts
Yeah they should be sued for false advertising for that claim!
I've hung exactly one door from scratch myself. In the time it took me to do that, I could have put up 8 prehung doors.
That's not even a little bit of an exaggeration.
The only catch is that door we made is the only door that 35 years later has no gaps and closes and opens perfectly according to the current owner (grandson of the og owner).
That makes sense, yeah. The one I had to do was for a frame that was basically built into a house that was made at some point in the 1950's so there wasn't any choice but to cut it and chisel it all out and measure and align everything manually...
It did open and close pretty nice though.
I suppose it doesn't matter much in the US where those are more rare, but in the rest of the world where there are a lot of old buildings where absolutely nothing is straight in any direction whatsoever, installing a door or window properly is a major endeavour if you want it to be properly balanced. Hanging the door on is a minor part of the whole affair.
Hanging a door isn’t placing the door on it’s hinges, rather, it is making the frame that the hinges are attached to. Making a frane that is the correct size, fits perfectly and leaves little gap with the floor is a lot of work.
My point stands, aligning the damn thing in all directions and managing to integrate it with walls that definitely aren't straight is a lot of work.
And doors are the hardest part to do that with. A grown man can hold most windows together with their hands whereas no human can by themselves hang a door. It is harder to do doors from scratch than any other normal part of a home’s interior.
I’ve installed hundreds of frames and hung accompanying doors by myself.
Tools exist for this purpose
And it’s funny you mention windows by yourself, that’s the one task that actually requires more than one person because of their size… even if you use a crane, there’s a second person for the crane. You also need someone inside to wedge and shim it, while it’s attached from outside, it’s not secured from the inside.
If you are constructing your own frame, which in the USA is going to be wood you don’t need a crane. You only need a crane if you are installing massive windows.
these homes were built without cranes how do you think they got windows to begin with?
With a crew of 6-12 guys… not by themselves lol.
Huge bay windows were popular decades ago, but now we know how incredibly inefficient they are, so they use smaller panes and make a design.
And no, wood frames aren’t used in the us, they rot, almost exclusively vinyl or metal, and if wood, it’s metal clad wood…. Wood expands with the tempature and moisture, cracks windows like nobody’s business. There’s a reason why they haven’t been used for a couple decades now.
Ok you keep talking about modern construction and Im talking historic construction. Not every home had bay windows because many could not afford them. The standard bedroom window in several of my homes over the decades were entirely constructed of wood as metal clad windows weren’t a thing pre-Civil War.
Im guessing your construction experience is limited to a specific part of the USA and it’s mostly newer construction. Im not talking about those homes.
Unless the building is a registered heritage site, they aren’t going to put the same type of windows back in, they would modernize it, the cost savings on the insulation alone would recoup the cost in less than 10 years.
You might be surprised what people were willing to do to preserve the illusion of an old home.
I too prefer drafty homes that you need to pay out the nose to heat or cool…
Living in the past ignoring modern convenience's isn’t a thing to parade around… there’s a reason dedicated heritage sites aren’t just handed out, it requires proper contractors, you can’t do that stuff yourself.
Where are you getting your information from? You’re arguing with a red seal carpenter of a couple decades who has worked from modern homes to actual heritage sites where you need to mill down a hand made door to be an EXACT as you can replica.
Keeping with the old times isn’t something that’s done unless you got money to burn, or are quite frankly a fool.
Im getting my information from my own experience as I have repeatedly stated. I don’t appreciate the suggestion that I don’t know what I am talking about because my experience differs from yours. Your apparent qualifications don’t make you an expert in other’s lives.
You might be surprised what wealthy people are willing to spend money on.
A fool and their money is soon departed…
I’ve done those jobs, but going back to your original claim, a window isn’t a single person job, and a door can be. So yes a wealthy person would spend a lot of money to have MULTIPLE install an incredibly inefficient modern window that’s wood, just for looks. But they also know they’ll likely be fixing them every 5 years. Fools and their money make me more money.
If I hired a contractor to install windows on any house and they showed up themselves I’d send them packing, but not a door installer.
But those people are the edge cases, you can’t talk generically about something like they are gospel, that’s just foolish and will be called out.
Again having done this IRL it is possible to do a wooden framed window by yourself. It isn’t advisable but it can be done.
What does wood have to do with it?
You can also do any other frame material as well.
Is this what your point was? That wood alone could be done by yourself…?
Because this all started talking about how some windows are still framed in wood. A single person can in fact carry everything to construct a wooden window without the assistance of a crane or forklift.
My point initially was with older wooden homes, like you find in America particularly on the East Coast where I worked, you can do windows by yourself but it is harder to frame and hang doors from scratch by yourself.
HoAs can require using historic or approved replacement materials.
Many cities have warehouses of replacement materials that you can peruse, good will operates some even.
I can go get a replacement window for my 1920s home for dirt cheap at the warehouse whereas the replacement modern version is very much not dirt cheap.
I can put the old window framed window in by myself in an afternoon.
The person you’re talking to is literally saying old hats say the introduction of a modern building technique is amazing, idk why it’s in doubt.
If you’re installing old stuff like that, you’re throwing money away… a modern window will pay for itself in a matter of years.
It’s not saving money… freaking lol.
And modern to ancient, nothing changes, windows still aren’t a solo job, while doors can and are…. Yes you can install a window by yourself, but it’s not the correct way to do it, it takes half a second and the window tips and cracks. You mind as well buy a second while you’re there. Anything is possible, that doesn’t mean that it’s not being an absolute fool to do so.
You might not realize this but a lot of people are unfortunately unable to buy the best thing for their scenario because they are not wealthy enough to afford them.
Which is why many homes to this day will not get the best option for them despite it being available.
Again idk what this has to do with the original statement that newer building techniques and modern fabrication has made things easier.
No I do realize, I’m trying to point out to you, that maybe those foolish decisions are what are leading to not having money…? Don’t go pick a dumpster window out, then be shocked when you find out your heating/cooling bill is 400% your neighbours. Or if you can’t afford home ownership and need to make your house a shithole to live in, go rent. What a self centered attitude.
Yes it’s expensive to be poor, this isn’t new.
Your take is really gross.
What that people aren’t willing to adjust their circumstances instead of spiraling into debt? A couple of years of hardship and you can get back to normal. It’s foolish to think your situation is ever going to change without effort or hardship on your end. Are you seriously relying on someone else or society to bail you out? How incredibly selfish ignorant, and shortsighted.
But sure perpetuate that making continual foolish decisions is somehow the norm.
Jesus Christ, yep just grab their bootstraps and pull themselves up, right?
No, adjust your situation, you don’t need to work harder, but accept that you can’t buy a coffee everyday, buy a coffee maker and make your own.
How conceited how you?
You have got to be trolling at this point. Hilarious.
Well, that's because you guys have tiny windows...
When I was a kid, my dad had a friend who had been a carpenter, and retired, but he would still hang doors. He said the amount of money he could charge for that made it worth doing them.
No doubt, if your home is older you need a door guy to fix problems. In my modular shitbox you can just rehang a new prehung door.
When did prehung doors become a thing? This was in the 70s
1956 is the patent but loving in the Northeast USA most houses were older than that.
What the heck is up with that door handle anyway?
Looks like a keg tap handle….
Would have been a lot less effort to install a normal door normally, then install a window in the bottom of it.
I dont know, I know how to install doors, I dont know fuck all about windows. This is how I would have done it lol.