Kestrel Shutters & Doors – Blog

Posts Tagged ‘interior doors’

What Are Faux Louvered Doors?

With fixed louvered doors the louver blades are fixed at an angle and spaced far enough apart so that there is a gap.  This is so they provide privacy while still allowing airflow.  With Faux lovered doors the louver blades are shaped like a chevron and stacked.  This gives you the look of fixed louvered doors while blocking sound and airflow as well as sight.

Applications for Faux Louvered Doors

Since faux louvered doors give excellent privacy some of the applications are for guest room doors, bathroom doors and maintenance doors.  Keep in mind, however, that since faux louvers block all air flow they should not be used where ventilation is required such as around air handling, refrigeration and  media equipment.

Available Sizes & Costs

As with all of our other designs of shutters and doors, our faux louvered doors are available in any custom size.  We offer faux louvers in 3 different sizes; 1.7/8″, 2.1/2″ and 3.1/2″.  All of which can be installed as hinged, bifold, sliding or pocket doors.

If you are not sure if faux louvered doors will work for you please ask. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

What are the differences between Interior Doors and Closet Doors?

We often receive emails and phone calls asking us which doors can be used as closet doors and which can be used for interior doors between rooms.  Many people are concerned that there may be some reason why the same door should not be used in both places.

Hinged doors with wider stiles to hold knobs

Door Designs

The truth is that all Kestrel designs of closet doors and interior doors are interchangeable.   This means that you can have your interior doors match your closet doors throughout your home.    Something to keep in mind, however, is that some designs may be more practical for certain types of rooms or closets.   Operable and Fixed Louvered Doors for ventilation.  False Louver,  Tongue & Groove and Panel Doors for sound insulation.  Glass and Mirrored doors to help brighten dark rooms.  There are also doors that combine designs to offer a bit of each.

Door Thickness and Stile Width

The stiles of a door (not “style”) are the vertical frame parts of the door.    On interior doors between rooms it is not uncommon to see wider and thicker stiles.  This is because most  locks and door knobs require a hole drilled right through the door.  The thicker door and wider stiles allow this while keeping the door itself structurally sound.  On closet doors the overall thickness and stiles can be narrower since locks and handles are not usually required.

Door Hardware

There are 4 basic types of hardware for doors.  Hinged doors, pocket doors, bifold doors and sliding doors.  With closet doors all 4 types of hardware are used consistently depending really only on how you plan to use the closet.  While with interior doors we normally see hinges it is still common to use bifold, sliding and even pocket door hardware used.  Below are two good examples.

Traditional bifold door hardware is used to separate two rooms within a church.

Operable Louvered Doors use sliding door hardware to close off a lanai.

If you are not sure which door designs and options will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Arched Tongue & Groove Door

Tongue & Groove vs Beadboard for Shutters and Doors
While we are all familiar with flat and raised panel shutters and doors there are other choices when you are looking for something solid. Two popular alternatives are Beadboard and Tongue & Groove.

Profile of Beadboard

Profile of Tongue & Groove

Tongue & Groove
The name Tongue & Groove actually refers to the way the boards join together. If you look at the images above you will see how one end has a slot milled in to the wood (the “groove”) while the other end is milled so that part sticks out (the “tongue”). To join the the boards the “tongue” on one piece slides in to the “groove” on the next piece. The design we mill has chamfered edges that give it the look of a “V” where two boards meet up. The nice thing about Tongue & Groove is that it can be milled on to most any thickness of wood so that doors (like the one to the left) or board & batten shutters can be made without any frame.

Door style 6162H with partial herringbone pattern

We also offer doors and shutters where the tongue & groove fits within a frame like our 6162H shown to the right.  In this design instead of the tongue & groove running vertically we have it cut at an angle. This way when 2 shutters or doors are side by side they take on a Herrignbone pattern.

Style 6570 doors with Beadboard

Beadboard
Our Beadboard is really just a variation on Tongue & Groove. It uses the same joinery method, but instead of  a “V” channel there is a 1/4″ diameter bead running vertically on each face of the wood.  We tend to see more of  the Beadboard design with cottage style homes where it is matched up to Beadboard paneling and wainscoting.

Boards vs Sheets
Something to point out is that our Beadboard and Tongue & Groove panels are double sides unlike most of what is available on the market today. Where the industry standard is to just mill a “V” channel or bead down the face of plywood we still prefer the more traditional method where each board is milled individually to give a more authentic look and feel.

If you are considering designs of exterior or  interior doors and shutters that have Beadboard or Tongue & Groove, but are not sure which will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Tongue & Groove Doors

Tongue & Groove Shutters

Spanish Cedar Shutters are ideal for a Bathroom

Using Wood Shutters and Doors in a Bathroom
When it comes to using wood shutters and doors in a bathroom there are a few things that you need to consider; privacy, ventilation and humidity.

Privacy
Privacy in a bathroom is obviously important to many people. Most styles of doors or shutters will offer some degree of privacy. Louvered Doors offer line of sight privacy while solid interior doors with raised or flat panels, tongue & groove or even frosted glass have the added benefit of sound insulation. For bathroom windows operable louvered shutters have always been a favorite. They can be adjusted to allow as much light in as you want or closed for privacy. How much and what type of privacy you want is up to you but can also depend on whether you need ventilation.

Ventilation
In some cases ventilation is required. If your bathroom has an air return for central air conditioning then you need to to have a bathroom door with ventilation so that when the door is closed the air condition functions properly. Check with your a/c service company to see how much air flow you will need. If you want a door that has privacy with a bit of ventilation you may want to consider some of our combination doors of tongue & grove with louvers.

Louvered Doors for a Bathroom and Linen Closet

Humidity
If it is a full bathroom then you may need to contend with a build up of moisture from a shower as well as water spray landing on the shutters and doors. Having interior shutters and doors that are properly painted and maintained will help prevent any water damage. A better choice is to use wood shutters and doors that are made from Spanish Cedar which is what we use for our exterior shutters and doors. Yet another option is to go with our Faux Plantation Shutters which will not be affected at all by the moisture and also resists bacteria which could form in the bathroom.

Operable Louvered Doors for an outdoor bathroom

If you are not sure which designs of interior doors or shutters will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Closet & Door Openings Not Square
It is not uncommon to have the openings for interior doors or closet doors be out of square. The reasons could be anything from the house settling to an uneven floor to stud walls and header being twisted. The good news is that in most cases it is easy to work around these issues.

Rough Openings vs Finished Openings
If the opening for your doors is still rough (not framed out) then it really does not matter if your opening is square or not. When you frame out the opening you will have a chance to square everything up. This is also the case if you are installing pocket doors. If you are not sure if your door openings are rough or not here is an earlier post that explains the difference. Interior Doors: A Rough Opening vs. A Finished Opening

Measuring for your Doors
The first thing you will want to do is measure the framed opening where you want your doors. It is a good idea to measure the width and height in a few different places. This will help to show you where, if at all, your framed opening is out of square. Another check is to measure diagonally across the opening. If the measurement from the top left corner to the bottom right corner is the same as the measurement from the bottom left corner to the top right corner then your framed opening is square. Here is a link to our site on How to Measure for Doors which will help. If you do find that your framed opening is not square there are ways to work around this.

Uneven Header
If you the header dips to one side or another, or if it has a “bump” in the middle there are a few things you can do. You can try and correct it be removing and re-installing the header. Most likely this will be more difficult and time consuming than the alternative. If you are installing sliding closet doors or bifold doors you can simply shim out the track to make it level. Any resulting gap can be easily covered with a valence or corner moulding. If you are installing hinged doors you have a choice. If the header only dips an 1/8″ or so you may just want to leave it be. However, if the gap is more noticeable you should consider removing the door casing and straightening the door jamb.

Uneven Floor
If your floor is uneven there is not too much that you can do other than rip up and lay down a new floor. Thankfully an uneven floor will not affect the way your doors work. It will just mean that you have more of a gap at one end of the bottom than at the other.

Side Jambs not Plumb
If your house has settled you will mostly likely find that the side jambs will not be plumb. You will treat this similar to how it was explained with the uneven header above; let it be if the gap is small or remove the casing and re-plumb the jamb. If you installing sliding closet doors or bifold doors the simplest thing to do is to let the gap stay and then apply a simple quarter round or corner moulding right in front of the doors along the side jambs. This will hide the gap and not interfere with the way the doors open and close.

Hopefully this post has been helpful. If you still have questions on how to work with your non-square openings for your doors just ask. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Here at Kestrel we make our custom sized interior doors and closet doors in three standard thicknesses; 1.1/4″, 1.3/8″ and 1.3/4″. Since we build all of our doors from solid wood using pegged, mortise and tenon joinery, the doors will be very sturdy regardless of the thickness. However, a thicker door will have added stability which is something to consider if you need over-sized doors. For most doors the main reason why you might choose one thickness over another is usually the hardware.

Pocket Doors

We sell different levels of track hardware with our pocket doors that can handle interior doors ranging from 3/4″ thick all the way up to 3″ thick. In most cases our standard 1.1/4″ thick doors will be what you want for your pocket doors. However, If you plan to add an optional pocket door lock you will need to go with 1.3/8″ or 1.3/4″ thick doors as the lock requires the extra thickness.

Hinged Doors

While there are hinges for any thickness of interior door most available double-sided handles and lock sets require interior doors that are 1.3/8″ or 1.3/4″ thick. It is best to choose your lock sets and handles first so that your doors can be made thicker if needed. If you plan to use a handle on one side of your doors only then 1.1/4″ will be thick enough.

Sliding Doors & Bifold Doors

The heavy duty, commercial grade track hardware we sell for bifold doors and sliding closet doors will work with individual doors ranging from 1.1/8″ up to 1.3/4″ thick. Almost all of the bifold doors and sliding doors that we make are 1.1/4″ since they rarely need a lock. If you are planning to add a lock we would recommend choosing that first in case you did need thicker doors.

Other Considerations

Beyond over-sized doors and the hardware there are a few other things to think about when it comes to the thickness of your doors. Will the doors be taking a fair amount of abuse like you might see in a public location? Do you want the look of your louvered doors to have more depth to them? Are you planning on using insulated glass in your doors? These are some of the other reasons why you may want to go with thicker doors. If you are still not sure please ask and we will work with you to find what thickness is best for your doors.

When ordering new interior doors having the correct measurements is very important.  Just as important is to also let us know the type of opening.  The type of opening can be either “Rough” or “Finished”.

What is a Rough Opening?

A rough opening is where the wall studs are exposed along the edge of the opening.  You will see a rough opening when you are building a new wall (like you would do when refinishing a basement) or knocking out a wall to put in a new door.  The rough opening still needs to be framed out so that the opening is square and flush with any drywall.  In the picture to the left you can see how the opening has the exposed studs along the edge.

If you plan to install bifold doors or sliding doors you can square and frame out the rough opening with drywall.  However, if you are going to be hinging the doors to the opening you will need a solid wood jamb.  The reason for this is that the screws that hold door hinges need to be sunk directly into wood.  For bifold and sliding door hardware the screws that secure the track are long enough to go through the drywall and into the studs.

What is a Finished Opening?

A finished opening is where the opening has been framed out and is ready for paint or stain.  If you were to go through your home and look at existing closets doors and doorways you will be looking at examples of a finished opening.  The opening can be finished with drywall, wood, metal or any solid, smooth surface.  The idea is that the finished opening is ready for doors.  Just be mindful that the hardware you want to use can be attached to material used to finish your opening.  If you decide that you want to hang a hinged door on an opening that is framed with drywall ( or stone as shown below ) you would first need to install a wood jamb.