Gaps under doors

10 years ago

When we decided to go with stained concrete floors in our new house.....I never could have guessed how much trouble it would have been. (I'll let you guys dig through the rest of my posts if you are interested in all the problems we have had.) However, one thing that I foresaw being a potential issue, was the gaps under my door. I brought this up with my builder at the beginning. My understanding was that they left enough gap to install flooring on top of the concrete....so if we weren't putting flooring on top of it, wouldn't we end up with a large gap. He assured me it wouldn't be an issue.

At the beginning of the build I was way to naÃ¯Â¿Â½ve and trusting.

Fast forward to now....and the floors and doors are in. The only door it really bothers me on are our laundry room and the master bedroom. The rest of the rooms have flooring. Both these rooms have windows....so in the daylight, with the doors closed, you can really notice the gap. The master bedroom is my biggest concern......for obvious sound proofing reasons in addition to the aesthetics.

I haven't measured the gap...will do that tonight....but just know that it is excessive. Does anyone know how this is typically fixed? Larger doors? lowering the frames?

Anyone ever ran into this problem and figured out how to fix it? I was think that I could cut a strip of wood, take the doors off and attach the strip to the bottom.....then have the painters wood putty and paint the door. Thoughts?

Featured Answer

renovator8

10 years ago

If the doors are painted wood, adding something to the bottom is probably the easiest and cheapest solution. If you have a forced air HVAC system, make sure the large undercut is not required for return air at bathrooms and bedrooms.

The traditional purpose of door undercuts is to allow doors to clear area rugs. If that is needed, the traditional solution for large undercuts is a floor "saddle" but they are no longer popular and a potential obstacle for people with mobility issues.

If light is the primary issue you might be able to install weather stripping in a groove in the bottom edge of the door or on the face inside face of it.

Comments (9)

worthy
10 years ago
How large is large?

As mentioned above, check your HVAC design to see if any gap is specified.

This post was edited by worthy on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 10:02
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User
10 years ago
If you are going to have different thicknesses of floor coverings and want smooth zero height transitions between rooms, then your slab will need to be different finished heights to make that work. That means extra work for the architect to spec that detail with extra section details. And extra work for the framer to custom cut stud heights. And on down the line to be sure that everything works like it should. That all adds up to extra $$ beyond a standard custom plan.
stuarbc
Original Author
10 years ago
I'm not worried about the areas where I have different thickness....the problem is where I have stained concrete on both sides. I understand there is a gap needed for return air on the HVAC system. However, I measured the gap at over 1.25" last night. I've never seen gaps that large on my other homes with under the door return air designs. I think its that way b/c he used standard doors and frames and those are designed for some sort of floor covering.

I am going to talk to my builder about adding the strip under the door. My thought is the gap should only be about 1/2" or so. That sound about right?
millworkman
10 years ago
Standard doors have nothing to do with it. It is how the doors are either cut of hung in the openings. The only way to make certain is ask the builder but form my experience generally 5/8" to 7/8" is about the norm.
worthy
10 years ago
I've seen up to 1" specified. Check the HVAC design.

smooth zero height transitions between rooms

I once went to great pains to achieve that with flooring materials of different thicknesses. I never got a hint from buyers that it mattered a hoot to them.
renovator8
10 years ago
For a forced air system an undercut less than 1 1/4" would only be adequate for the return air from a bathroom. For bedrooms you would need to leave your doors ajar.

If you wanted tight doors, you should have insisted on return air ducts from bedrooms. You could add transfer ducts over the ceiling.
threeapples
10 years ago
This happened to us and it bothered me so much with our painted second floor doors that we sent them back to be lengthened. I'm happier about it. If you get on your knees you can see the extra strip of wood on the edge if the doors because it wasn't sanded particularly well. This beats too short doors in my opinion, for all the reasons you mentioned.
rollie
10 years ago
Chop the frames and lower the whole works to what you specify to the builder. Since you brought it up initially, it shouldve been discussed at the time of installation..

If I had to guess, they set the frames down tight to the concrete, and you have a 7/8 gap at the bottom, thinking that would be adequate.

If you do add something to the bottom of the door, under tolerances like that, it does not have to be full thick.. If you have a 7/8 gap now, and add a 1/2" thick X 3/4 inch wide trim to the bottom of the door, that would be set back 5/16 from each face of an 1 3/8 door. or 1/2 inch back from the faces of a 1 3/4 thick door.. I would not want to go tighter than 3/8 space between the door and the floor.

Keep in mind, if dropping the doors, the casing will not line up on to with adjacent doors that dont get lowered.