# How to close off hall with French door



## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

I've got a project coming up in Dec to convert a sitting room into an office by enclosing one passage with drywall and adding a French door to another. 
The walls are 12" thick and because of the width and height of the door and the opening I will have to do drywall work to make the rough opening smaller. 
So my question is about how to jamb and finish the door in the thick wall. Should the jamb be 12" wide with casing on the inside and outside of the thick wall or should I do the drywall so the jamb is only the normal 4.5" thick, preserving the existing shape of the exterior of the passage?
Note the other opening will be enclosed with a 4.5" thick wall, flush on the inside of the office with an indent on the foyer side of the wall.


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## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

This project also includes adding a French door between the dining room and another common area central to all the bedrooms. I'll be doing the same thing in this wall. 
The rough opening for the bedroom passage is just barely larger than the RO for the door. So I'll pretty much have to make the jamb the full 12". Or I'll need to order a smaller door. 
The floor transition is centered on his wall, so I'd prefer to put the door over this transition from carpet to tile. 

The office door transition is closer to the inside of the passage so that door won't be centered in the wall but pushed closer to the office side.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I'd probably put the door flush with the front of that opening (side toward us in the pix). Then you have about 8 more inches you could turn into a book case, or a concealed storage area for guns or other valuables. Or a narrow bookcase might fit there. I am fond of French doors. Not sure of the wide opening size, but we have a 60 inch wide set of double french doors that really look great. Then you could put another French door or a conventional door in the other entrance. Install some sort of curtain behind the glass so you have a little bit of privacy, or in case you have trouble keeping things tidy. 

You have to be very careful aligning the doors on a double door set. The installer we had couldn't get it aligned correctly and kept installing screws through the same opening, which was what was pulling it out of alignment. Getting the frame plumb is critical. If I were installing double doors, I'd set them back further into the opening, That recess will really set the room apart and be very inviting.The other side of the opening should be flush with the outside wall and gives you space for a built-in book case. Nice to have an office.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

your door...
add jamb extensions to one or both sides/edges to either center or offset the door depth wise in the RO...
single door - add lites to one or either side of the door to take up the space...
double door - raised panel surround or an extend depth (thick) make up box frame out of the same material as the door's frame...
think Tudor and the door as a panel...

since that appears to b a marriage line don't do any framing/'DW work on the closure....
fill the hole w/ a bookcase...
a single facing one way...
two - back to back...
a deeper bookcase facing one way and an art or nick knack display the other...

you may want to back out of this later and doing it this way you haven't ant transitions to adjust or play w/...

you may change your mind later...


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I like Stick's idea for a double sided display/book case rather than filling in that gap.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

you have a double wide...
you may want to back out of what you do...
I also took the less work/mess/time/money/problem route


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## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

Stick486 said:


> you have a double wide...
> you may want to back out of what you do...
> I also took the less work/mess/time/money/problem route


Huh?

This is for a customer, in a $500k house they just bought, not a double wide. The house they bought didn't have a ready-made office so he's converting a formal sitting room off the front door into an office. He won't be undoing the project, and if he does someday, that's a new job. I don't build projects so they can be easily undone. 

Custom built in bookshelves is more expensive than drywall, maybe less mess but that's what drop cloths and sheet plastic is for.

There are other recessed spaces in the drywall along the hall, so these two will match what's already there with the recesses on the hall side. The floor transition for the office is set 2" in from the inside wall of the office so the door needs to cover this. 

I thought I said it clear in the first post, if not, the doors will be French doors. I did order them today, for the office door, I ordered two 28" slabs. I'll make the jambs to match the thickness of the wall ~12" with casing on the inside of the room and the hall. The other door into the bedroom common area will be two 18" slabs, this one I'll need to create drywall returns, centered in the 12" wall. This one needed drywall returns (rather than 12" jamb) because the carpet-tile transition is centered in the 12" passage. Centering the door on a 12" jamb would not allow the door to open 90 degrees and also the 24" slab was the next larger size I could get as a french door, it would be too wide for the rough opening of the hall passage.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

my bad...
thought it was your personal project...
in the the case of being a customer's, they get what ever they want...


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## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

Stick486 said:


> my bad...
> thought it was your personal project...
> in the the case of being a customer's, they get what ever they want...


Where'd you get double wide? Did you see the two colors in my logo and think it looks like a double wide?


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Everend said:


> Where'd you get double wide? Did you see the two colors in my logo and think it looks like a double wide?


no on two colors...
got it from the pictures... 
there are characteristics in them that indigenous to double wide and modular home construction...


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## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

The double wides in this neighborhood look really nice from the outside


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

those pics still show characteristics to having modular construction...


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

You should have ordered them prehung. Too late now but you can't compete cost wise with a door shop's assembly jigs and production routines. It'd take them 5 minutes to do accurately what it'll take you to the morning to do. A good door shop makes what you _want_ not what Big Box thinks you need.


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## Everend (Mar 15, 2013)

Normally I do order prehung, for the one door I did order that way. The office door I ordered without because I had the choice of 4-9/16" then add jamb extensions or make it myself, starting with a 1x12". I've got the jigs to cut mortises to hang the door, it will only add about 90 min. 
Way more time than a door shop mfg floor, but this way no seam.


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