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Doorway
Now that the instructions for the construction of a partition that spans between two walls has been covered, I will now move on to explain the procedure of building the same partition, which includes a door opening that will accommodate a lightweight internal door. If you intend fitting a very heavy door, such as a fire door, read the variation to the instruction at the bottom of this page.
Before commencing, the instructions for forming a partition in the first section of this article should be followed up to the point of 'Fitting the first stud'. The only real difference between the two projects beyond this point is to do with the initial setting out, and the procedure in forming the doorway opening itself. Other than this, everything else remains the same, which includes the sole plate, which is installed in one length as with a partition without a door opening, the cutout for the opening is made later. |
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Before a start can be made, there will be a few things that will need to be done beforehand, such as determining the position of the opening within the partition, and the acquisition of the door casing itself, which should be made-up in readiness before work commences. Detailed information about door casings is covered in the section 'Internal Door Casings'.
The first step is to mark the sole plate with the position where one side of the door casing opening will be, and after measuring the door casing itself, transfer its width from this mark to form the opening width, and square them from the edge as shown in Fig 1. It is suggested that 6mm is added to this width, which will allow for adjustments when fitting the casing. The first of the two studs that will form the opening can now be installed. |
| Select a straight length of timber, and cut it to the required length, ensuring that it's not so tight that it bends when in position. Set it in position on the sole plate so that it's face is up to one of the two lines, and adjust until it appears to be vertical before skew-nailing it to the sole plate. (Avoid nailing in such a way that the nails would obstruct the cutting of the sole plate at a later time). Before it can be secured to the head, the upright must be re-adjusted so that it is perfectly vertical, which is best done with the aid of a straightedge at about 1900 mm long, and a spirit level. |
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Starting at the base, place the straightedge and level against the upright, and check and adjust for being plumb. Then slide the straightedge and level up to the top of the piece to ensure that this is maintained to its full length. When satisfied that this is perfectly straight and vertical, mark the position of the stud onto the head plate, and skew nail it in place. I cannot emphasize too much the importance of this particular piece, as the accurate positioning of the remaining studs that make up the entire partition are taken from it. The next step is to position the second stud with its face up to the outside of the second mark as shown in Fig 2, which is the width of the door casing + 6mm, and nail it in position in relation to this mark, again ensuring that the position of the nails do not cross the path of the saw cut that will be required to remove this section of sole plate later. |
Now measure across the top of the two uprights, and adjust the second stud until it measures the same at the top as it does at the bottom. Before nailing, double check for accuracy and for being parallel by measuring the distance from the outside edge of the first upright, to the inside edge of the second, top and bottom, which, if correct, will be equal to the width of the opening.
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Head
The cross member that forms the head can now be cut to the same width as the casing +6mm and its position marked onto the first upright, by measuring up from the floor the height of the door casing + 25mm. Using a square, square this mark to the edge and face of the stud, and by using the straight-edge and spirit level, level across to the second stud, and draw a square line onto both face and edge. The cross member that forms the head, can now be fixed above these two lines by nailing through the studs horizontal into the cross member, so that is in position as shown in Fig 3. |
As mentioned earlier, this method of forming the opening is adequate for most light internal doors, but if a heavier type of door, such as a fire door is going to be used, the opening should be strengthen to accommodate the increased weight. This is done be doubling up on the studs that form the opening, where two studs fixed together form the door casing opening rather than singles. Because the additional studs are fitted after the sole plate is cut out, proceed to form the opening as described above, but add the thickness of two studs to the opening width for the casing onto the sole plate. Rather than marking onto the sole plate: the width
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| of the door casing + 6mm, measure and mark: the width of the door casing + 6mm + the thickness of two timber studs. After the sole plate is cut out, the additional studs are fixed onto the inside face of both studs that form the (wider) opening, from the floor to the underside of the cross member that forms the head. |
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