Dismantling doors: step by step instructions

Every owner who has started a major overhaul in an old apartment is faced with the problem of dismantling interior or entrance doors. It would seem that it is difficult to remove the canvas from the hinges and “uproot” the box. But not everything is so simple. As practice shows, if you want to get an even and beautiful doorway, you must remove the old structure correctly. We will talk about how to dismantle doors in this article.

Many inexperienced self-taught builders mistakenly believe that removing an old door is as simple as picking the jambs off the wall. But in practice, everything is not so simple. Often, with improper and aggressive dismantling, not only the door structure is destroyed, but also part of the wall. This situation is especially common in old Soviet houses, where fragile gypsum boards were used for the construction of interior partitions.

If you do not want to lose part of the wall when dismantling interior doors, you need to be creative in your work. First of all, decide whether you need an old door or are you going to take it on its last journey - to a landfill. In the first case, dismantling must be carried out carefully so as not to damage the components, for example, if you want to rearrange the door from the apartment to the dacha. If you don’t need the box and all its elements, there is a faster and “merciless” way, which we will talk about a little later.

But no matter what method of dismantling the old doors you choose, the work must be carried out as carefully as possible so as not to damage the wall. Otherwise, after removing the box, you will have to spend time and money on puttying and plastering.

But first, some theory. Any such design consists of two vertical posts, one horizontal crossbar on top and the door leaf itself, sometimes there is also a lower horizontal - a sill. Often, old doors have survived 5 or even 10 painting sessions in their long life, becoming several millimeters thicker, and therefore heavier.

The paint has long hidden the slightest hint of the location of screws, nails and other fasteners, but on an intuitive level, you can still recognize where everything is. So, usually a wooden bar is located between the wall and the door frame. Its thickness was selected in such a way that the vertical posts were located strictly perpendicular to the floor surface. Large nails 120 or 150 mm long were driven into this beam: two into the left vertical rack, two into the right, and one (sometimes two) into the upper horizontal bar. If the doors have not been changed for 30-50 years, then these nails must have rusted, so you won’t be able to just remove the box.

In order not to uproot part of the wall with the bars, use a nail puller or a mount. You will also need a hammer, an ax and a saw (hacksaw).

Gentle way

In this chapter, we will explain how to remove the door and frame so that they can be used later.

Working process:

We have described one of the most problematic door removal options using large nails as fasteners. If you see that the elements are fastened with screws, then disassembling such a box is not difficult - just use a screwdriver.

A video about dismantling the door will help you to carry out the work more accurately:

Fast way

If you plan to get rid of the old door and are not going to install it elsewhere, use the easier and faster way to dismantle the box.

To work, you will need the following tools:

• axe;
• hammer;
• crowbar;
• wood cutter.

How to quickly dismantle the door:

We remind you that if you do not need the old door frame, then the remaining wall will still be useful for installing a new door, so do the job as carefully as possible.

Dismantling the plastic door

Plastic and metal-plastic doors have long ceased to be a novelty, and it is much less common to see a high-quality massive canvas made of wood than a familiar structure shining with pristine whiteness. However, for proper operation, repair and adjustment, you need to know some secrets that are not known to all owners of plastic doors.

The most important thing is to understand the device and the functioning of the hinges on which the door rests. Then you can use all its potential to the maximum, repair or remove the entire structure yourself. The hinge consists of several elements: a steel tab, a frame with fixing pins, a spacer located between the tab and the frame.

Dismantling the door on the balcony

If you try to dismantle the plastic door according to the above instructions, you will not succeed. The fact is that such structures have their own installation and, therefore, dismantling features, so they need to be removed in a special way.

Dismantling the balcony door:

Front door dismantling

The device of the plastic front door is different from the balcony door, so the dismantling is a little different. The main difference is that the entrance doors have a reinforced structure, and they do not have double-glazed windows.

The structure of the hinges is also different - they are more powerful, reinforced and have an anti-burglary system. The entrance plastic door has as many as three hinges, the balcony door has two. This is due to the fact that the door is quite heavy, and two hinges would not have coped with such a load.

In principle, the dismantling procedure follows the same scenario as at the balcony door, with the only difference that you will need help - it will not work to remove the front door alone. When you lift the door off its hinges, it must be held firmly, and only two people can handle this.

Dismantling a metal door

In most new buildings, apartments are put into operation with metal entrance doors, but, unfortunately, they seem reliable only at first glance. In fact, this is an ordinary sheet of steel, not strengthened by anything, and even more so without insulating properties. The owners of such apartments prefer to replace the structures with new ones or insulate the existing ones, but first you need to somehow remove the canvas itself.

Dismantling a metal door is quite simple:

1. Chip away the plaster near the door jamb to expose the door lug attachment points.
2. Since modern metal doors are fixed with anchor wedges or anchor bolts, try unscrewing them with a wrench or a screwdriver.
3. If the fasteners do not lend themselves, gouge them with a perforator chisel.
4. Between the wall and the door frame is a layer of mounting foam - cut it with a knife to free the door.
5. Raise the door leaf and remove it from the hinges when open.
6. Then you can take out the door frame and install a better door.

As you can see, dismantling an old door is not difficult at all, whether it is wooden, plastic or iron. The main thing is to do everything measuredly and carefully so as not to spoil the opening in the wall, which is still useful for installing a new door.