Building An Exterior Door Jamb From Scratch

The door jamb is the vertical portion of the frame that runs along the sides of the door.

Building an exterior door jamb from scratch.

This is the first of three videos on hanging doors for those who want to see nick s not really a workshop w. Measure the width and height of the door. Follow along i hope you ll learn something and enjoy created. How nick makes a custom door jamb step by step.

Building a doorjamb is a relatively easy project. Some preformed exterior doorjamb boards will already have weather stripping attached to them. A typical door opening is 2 inches 5 1 cm wider than the door size being installed to allow for the thickness of the jamb material and shims to plumb the jamb. Installing a new door frame is not a difficult task and can be learned by understanding the simple steps involved.

When building a door jamb to fit a standard wall with a two by four frame and 1 2 inch drywall on each side the width of the jamb board typically is 4 9 16 inches. Determine the size of the door opening. If you re not using premade jamb material or if your walls are a nonstandard thickness you can buy 5 or 6 inch wide lumber and rip cut it to the width of the wall using a table saw. Measure your door carefully and cut the opening to fit using a reciprocating saw.

Hinges usually go 8 inches from the door s top 9 inches from the bottom and at the. The size of the door opening will vary depending on the size of the door you plan to install. Add 1 1 2 inch to the height and cut two pieces. Installation of any door goes a lot easier if you mount the hinges on the door first rather than on the jamb.

I m building a custom replacement exterior door for a roughly 100 year old house out of cedar.