Door Fitting in Prestonpans

Hanging a door is assumed to be an hour’s work, and inside a Prestonpans house it turns out to be a lining job, because the lining is what has moved.

George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989, holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation and is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the same team that handles a bathroom renovation in Prestonpans hangs the doors.

Send George a count of the doors and a photo of one opening and he will come and measure them.

Door Fitting Services

The assumption is that hanging a door is a small job that anyone can do in an hour. Once you are inside a Prestonpans house it turns out to be a lining job, and the lining is what has moved.

In the older stock round Preston Village and New Street the linings have been skimmed more than once, so the opening is narrower at the head than at the floor and out of square either way. The leaf is scribed to that. Hinges are let in by hand to a depth that leaves the leaf central in the reveal. The stop is reset to the closed door rather than left where it was nailed. Clearance is two to three millimetres at head and sides, with the foot set to the floor covering that is going down.

Replacement Doors and Door Hanging

Replacing the internal doors through a house is the least invasive joinery work there is, and it changes how finished a house reads more than most decorating.

Old leaves come off, new ones go on, usually a floor at a time. Ironmongery is set out from a rod so handle heights match through the house, which is a dimension nobody mentions and everybody notices when it is wrong. Existing linings are checked for square and packed where needed rather than replaced by default, because a sound lining is worth keeping. Dust sheets go down, rooms are finished one at a time, and the waste leaves with us. The same standard runs our garage conversion designs in Prestonpans.

Fire Doors and Compliance for Prestonpans Homes

A fire door is an assembly rather than a leaf, and the rating belongs to the whole assembly.

Leaf, frame, intumescent strip, smoke seal, hinges and closer all carry the rating together, and swapping one for a part that does not carry it takes the rating with it. Hinges are rated and there are usually three. Gaps are held to the tolerance the assembly was tested at. In this town the flats along the High Street and off common stairs are where they most often apply, along with any habitable room opening onto an escape route. A loft conversion normally brings them in. The same specification runs a door fitting company in Tranent job.

Door Supply and Installation for Prestonpans Homes

Door sizes here are not one thing, because the housing is not one thing.

The Victorian tenement flats on New Street and the older properties round Preston Village were built to imperial sizes, and stock leaves are metric. A stock leaf can sometimes be trimmed within the manufacturer’s stated allowance, which is limited and printed on the door itself. Where it cannot, the leaf is made to the opening in the workshop. The 1950s High Street flats, the 1962 Cuthill housing and Harlaw Hill Gardens generally take standard leaves, which makes for a quicker and cheaper supply. Which of the two you have is established at survey rather than on delivery day.

Internal and External Door Types

Weight and exposure decide the specification, and they pull in different directions.

A hollow core internal leaf takes two hinges. A solid core or glazed leaf takes three, because two will let it drop inside a year. External doors need a weather seal, a threshold that drains rather than only seals, and ironmongery rated for the exposure. On a coastal elevation the ironmongery is what corrodes first, so it is specified for salt air rather than for looks. Glazing within a defined distance of floor level has to be toughened or laminated, and that applies to internal glazed doors as much as external ones.

Materials and Door Styles

Style ties new work to the age of the house, and the moulding profile does most of that.

A four panel leaf suits the older core and can have its profile matched to the existing architrave, which is a workshop job rather than a catalogue choice. A flat slab leaf suits the later estates. Engineered cores are more stable than solid timber in a house with variable heating and are worth specifying on a wide leaf. Finishes run from factory sprayed colour to clear lacquered veneer, and a factory finish is always flatter than one applied in a hallway.