Should Doors Be Installed Before Flooring

Theres one good reason to install the doors first and that is if your floor is not level across the threshold almost always off by some factor in my house.

Should doors be installed before flooring.

Much easier to install the flooring no trimming of the doors needed no fitting around cabinets etc. I enjoyed john spier s article on installing pre hung doors what about when the floors will be carpeted. Not all of them do. Generally speaking door frames are installed and the doors are hung during the trim and finish phase before the flooring is installed but after the painting.

We built our own house a couple of years ago and we installed our hardwood and tile floors before installing the door frames and cabinets. Lay the pre hung doors on a flat suface at waist height for easier access to working on it. Got laminate floors installed in july and then decided i wanted new interior doors. Use a japanese flush cut saw and a scrap piece of the hardwood flooring to match the flooring thickness and cut the jamb and casing depths out.

Before the floors go in you can easily shim one end of the jamb to get the door exactly plumb. To be able to slide or fit the hardwood flooring under these snuggly. In my article hanging pre hung interior doors jul 16 i discussed the process i ve developed for installing interior doors in a fast and efficient manner. Lay a sheet of plywood on top of saw horses.

This way you will not have to notch the flooring around or undercut the jamb or casing. Hopefully they will re swing the doors when they are done. If your going with a hard surface i would do it after. I think builders opt for floors last to minimize damage from the various trades moving through the house.

I love my doors which were installed today but since the floors were installed first i now have a gap or two where the new frame doesn t cover the flooring. The floor coverers will pop the hinge pins and set the doors aside while installing their floor covering. 1 install the pre hung doors before the flooring.