door dimensions

[Dennis Yamamoto]

I'm planning on building my first doors using curly Redwood. The exterior
door is 80 x 36 x 1 3/4 and the interior doors are 80 x 32 x 1 3/8. How
wide should the stiles and rails be for each door for good design and enough
strength?

Thanks,

Dennissimple door design (1).jpg

[Shawn Pixley]

I haven't built a door in a while, but I seem to remember the stiles being 5 to 5-1/2 inches wide. The bottom rail was 10 to 12 inches. The top and center rails were the same dimensions as the stiles.

However, I have a few questions. Why redwood? It is pretty soft relative to other woods and dents fairly easily. I am not sure it would hold up well. While is is beautiful and rot resistant, it isn't as strong as doug fir (for instance, I am not advocating for douglas fir' just trying to give a relevant example).

What sort of joinery will you be using to mate rails to stiles? This may dictate the rail and stile dimensions.

[Dennis Yamamoto]

Why Redwood - someone in the north bay is selling some really interersting curly Redwood. I guess that doesn't make it good door material!

I plan to use mortise and tennon joinery. I think it will be strong enough. I share your concern, however,
that the wood is soft and I hope it is stable. If there are any other opinions out there, let me know.

Dennis

[Jamie Buxton]

I agree with Shawn that redwood is soft, so I wouldn't use it for furniture. However, doors don't see the abuse that furniture gets, and I wouldn't be worried about using it there. In fact, I've encountered many redwood doors in San Francisco that must be approaching 100 years old.

I'd want to assure myself that the wood is dry.

[Richard Shaefer]

you want a 5 1/2" side rail on the door. If you go less, you may have problems with mortise lock hardware (if you go that way). top rails should be the same as the sides, and I would add at least 1" to the bottom rail. It adds downward heft to the door, and its good sense to leavea little extra meat at the bottom eve if you don't plan on trimming the bottom a bit to fit it the flooring you choose. I personally like to upsize the frame thickness on interior doors becuase the added heft is immidiately noticable as quality and custom work. I usually go 1 3/4" thick. Sub rails and stiles if you choose to subdivide the interior of the door I prefer to downsize the width by 1 1/2" so that it doesn't visually compete with the outer frame.

Be forewarned that door mortises are deep and a can be a royal PITA to excavate. I love old-school mortise locks (rejuvenation hardware makes good ones) but I despise cutting the moritises for them.

[Dennis Yamamoto]

Thanks for the feedback on a door design. I like the idea of a thicker door. I didn't think about the fact that I might have to trim the wider bottom rail for fit.

Given the style of our house, I'll probably use regular door handles/locks. Looks like it will save some time too!

Dennis