How to measure for an internal door

It is important to measure the doorway in which a new internal door will be fitted accurately. There is a vast range of different internal door sizes available catering to a variety of different heights and widths of doorways. It is common for a doorway to be an irregular size so if your doorway does not correlate to a standard size of internal door then do not worry this does not necessarily mean that you have measured it wrong. It is often the case that internal doors have to be adjusted slightly to fit the particular doorway that it must go into and this is particularly the case in older properties where the building may have moved slightly or due to old building techniques the doorways may not be totally square. If a lot of customisation needs to be done then a solid internal door would be preferable as the door can be re-shaped as required whereas an engineered internal door only has a very thin outer veneer and so not much can be taken off the door without revealing the unsightly inner core.

In order to measure up for an internal door you first of all need to remove the old internal door as well as the old door jamb and casing. You can then measure the space left for your new internal door. First of all measure the width from side to side and make sure that you do not just do this in one spot – either run your tape measure from the top of the doorway to the bottom or take measurements from at least three different places along the height of the doorway (preferably the top, middle and bottom) in order to check whether the width of your doorway is even and hence whether your new internal door will need any adjustment in its shape. Then measure the height of the doorway from the floor to the top of the doorway. Again take a few measurements to check whether or not the height is the same across the full width of the doorway. Once again this will tell you whether or not your new internal door will need to have any adjustments made to it.

The best way to measure for an internal door is using a tape measure and preferably one of the self- retracting ones so that it will remain taut and you will get a more accurate measurement than if you use a plastic tape measure. You can use either imperial or metric figures when measuring for an internal door but it is best to take a note of both values as the unit of measurement used will vary between companies and manufacturers.

When looking for internal doors, if you cannot find one that exactly matches the measurements that you require it is best to choose one that is slightly larger rather than smaller. If you buy an internal door that is too small then it simply won’t fill the doorway properly and will lead to an unsatisfactory end result. If you buy an internal door which is slightly too big then adjustments can be made to make the door fit the size and shape of your doorway. Although this may sound like a daunting task for the average homeowner it is easily accomplished by a trained carpenter and will leave you with a
great looking, professional finish.