How to reduce the doorway?

Often, apartment owners have a need for redevelopment. The process is serious and time consuming, and the narrowing of the doorway is no exception. You should consider the reasons for which you may need to change the dimensions of the interior openings of the apartment, as well as get acquainted with the description of how to reduce the doorway in its width and height.

The main reasons for the need for redevelopment of interior door openings in an apartment or house may be the following.

• Custom sizes existing door arches or openings. In this case, there are significant difficulties with the installation of doors of standard dimensions. Installing too large a door is fraught with its sagging due to gravity, and simply undesirable appearance due to cumbersome dimensions.

• Making an existing opening in the form of an arch. Often the entrance to the living room or the hall the developer performs in the form of a large arch. This is not always desirable and may not correspond to the tastes of the owner of the apartment. In this case, the correction of the arch of the arch and the reduction of its width and height are necessary.
• The opening is combined with the wall. This is a very frequent option for planning, especially in small apartments. In this case, the door can not open wide enough, resting against the plowing of the adjacent wall. The door handle may interfere with the passage, clinging to clothes or things. Children are often injured and bruised by inadvertently bumping into the handle or edge of the door leaf during outdoor games.

• The need to increase the wall space. Often there is a need for a larger free area of ​​the adjacent walls, for example, for the placement of additional furniture necessary in everyday life.In this case, it is quite possible to sacrifice the width of the door space in favor of increasing the length of the wall.
• The need for insulation of the room. In some cases, excessively large dimensions of the door opening are undesirable because of the large heat loss when opening and closing an interior or front door.

Depending on the characteristics of the room and the dimensions of the doorway itself, the following reduction options are possible.

• Building up the side surfaces of the wooden beam. A big plus of this method is that the tree responds well to processing and dimensional fit. Having made the necessary measurements, you can adjust the dimensions of the wooden bars with maximum accuracy. The bars themselves are attached to the opening with long screws. The disadvantage lies in the properties of the material. Despite the naturalness and environmental friendliness, which is a plus, the tree does not tolerate a change in the temperature and humidity regime. Such a design may lose strength, deform, or squint over time.

• The narrowing of the opening foam blocks or bricks. These types of building materials are suitable for work in a room with walls of concrete or brickwork. Some difficulty is fitting the size to the depth of the opening.
• Door opening can be narrowed using plaster glue. This option is suitable in those cases, if the walls of the room were finished with plaster. It is possible to use plaster glue for slight narrowing of the passage. As much as possible, this method can reduce the size of the opening by 25 cm.

• Reducing the space of the interior passage using drywall. This is the most economical and fairly simple way to do it yourself. Drywall, like wood, is perfectly dimensional adjustments, so adjusting it to the desired depth of the opening is not at all difficult. However, in comparison with wood, drywall is not susceptible to corrosion, is not sensitive to temperature and humidity extremes. The design, despite the greater efficiency, will be more solid and durable.

The general sequence of actions that must be performed when changing the dimensions of interior passages is given below.

• Measurement of the existing opening. Produced with a construction measuring tape. This measurement is best done together, so that one person helps to hold the measuring tape.When slackening the ribbon in horizontal dimensions there may be errors. Measurements should be taken at each side of the opening and diagonally.

• Calculation and sizing future door design. Performed on the basis of measurements of the existing door frame.
• Calculation of the consumption of necessary materials. Preparation tools.

• Dismantling the old door frame. The space of the door passage must be cleaned to the very masonry or concrete blocks.
• The implementation of increasing the doorway selected way. Control measurement design dimensions. The implementation of the finish door frame.

Above, several ways to reduce the size of the doorway were described. Next will be described in more detail one of them. It is the simplest, involves the minimum cost and is available for independent implementation of almost everyone. You will learn how to narrow the doorway with the help of drywall. To do this, you will need some tools, as well as materials to complete the work.

Measuring tape; Knife for cutting drywall; Building level; Pencil or marker; Scissors for metal;Plumb; Aluminum rule; Construction glue; Metal profiles; Cement mix; Drywall Sheets; Primer; Putty; Putty knife.

After work on dismantling the old door frame and cleaning the opening, you can proceed to the following steps.

• Changing the width of the opening. The metal profiles corresponding to the measurements are fixed at the mounting points on the side surfaces and on the floor. Prepared sheets of plasterboard, slopes and working walls are treated with a primer. A layer of construction glue is applied on the walls and drywall. Sheets of drywall are applied to the metal profiles and edges of the walls, tightly pressed over the entire surface. Joints between the drywall and the slopes are plastered.

• Height change. The height of the opening with the help of drywall is reduced in a manner similar to that described above. The general principle of work is almost the same. After determining the desired opening height, marks are made on the side surfaces of the door frame. If in the future it is intended to install a door block of standard dimensions, then the height should be noted at the level of 205 cm from the floor.It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that for the threshold it is necessary to additionally leave 5 cm of height margin. So, it should be remembered and the thickness of the drywall.

• From the profiles according to the measurements, mounted frame, to which sheets of drywall will be attached. To increase the strength of the structure, you can add a few extra jumpers to the frame. This must be done if the frame and sheets of drywall are large. The frame is fixed on the top and side surfaces of the opening with screws.

• Next, sheets of drywall, cut to the required size, are fixed to the frame with building glue.
• When the glue dries well and the drywall is securely fixed on the structure, you can proceed to further cosmetic finishing of the doorway and installing the door unit.

How to install the box from drywall, see the following video.

You can reduce the width and height of the interior arch or passage in a simpler way, without involving the use of metal profiles. This option can be used in cases where the size of the opening needs to be reduced slightly,no more than 10 cm. The list of materials and tools necessary for work for this method is significantly reduced. You will need sheets of drywall, primer, glue.

Drywall is cut into plates equal to the size of the depth of the opening. These plates are first treated with a primer. After the primer dries, glue is applied to both surfaces. Sheets of drywall treated with glue, gently applied to each other along the side surfaces of the opening. Sheets are glued to obtain a layer of the required thickness. Similarly, by gluing drywall plates in layers, the height of the opening is also reduced.

This option is very economical, but the quality of its implementation depends on the accuracy and patience of the performer. Some difficulty is correct and even cutting of the foam block.Having no experience in this, it is better to practice beforehand and to tame one’s hand for accurate and even pruning. Also, when planting a foam block on glue, you need to carefully and accurately apply it to the surfaces of the opening, so that the edges of the foam block do not extend beyond its depth and do not collapse, otherwise additional cutting and processing with putty will be required.