Should Doors Be Installed Before Flooring

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.

Should doors be installed before flooring.

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. If you go with carpet that has a pile i don t think it matters either way. 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. If your going with a hard surface i would do it after.

Much easier to install the flooring no trimming of the doors needed no fitting around cabinets etc. 1 install the pre hung doors before the flooring. This way you will not have to notch the flooring around or undercut the jamb or casing. To be able to slide or fit the hardwood flooring under these snuggly.

Before the floors go in you can easily shim one end of the jamb to get the door exactly plumb. 2 after the hardwood floor is installed. Lay the pre hung doors on a flat suface at waist height for easier access to working on it. The floor coverers will pop the hinge pins and set the doors aside while installing their floor covering.

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. Got laminate floors installed in july and then decided i wanted new interior doors. 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. I enjoyed john spier s article on installing pre hung doors what about when the floors will be carpeted.

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. John spier owner of spier construction a building and remodeling company on block island r i responds. Hopefully they will re swing the doors when they are done.