Installation of Plastic Doors

Photo 1 – Entrance Metal-Plastic Door

Preparation for Installation

The first thing to know when planning the installation of PVC doors, the floor in both rooms (or at least in the one where the door will open) must be ready, as well as most finishing works.

The installation of a plastic door begins with driving several nails on the hinge side of the door. After that, the door itself is installed and leveled with shims. The shims should not be driven in too tightly to avoid any significant deformation of the door — they are used to level the door in height, width, and depth, that is, in three planes important for normal operation of the door.

Choosing and Installing a PVC Door (Video)

Assembly and Installation of the Door

Before the door is inserted into the opening, it is assembled in a horizontal position. This procedure is not necessary when the door comes with an already assembled frame; otherwise, the top part is assembled in the shape of a rectangle letter 'P'. For this, holes must be drilled with a drill at the joints for screws. The holes should be 1 mm smaller than the diameter of the screws used.

In this case, the side stile on the hinge side is installed first, and the stile on the opposite side — the one with the lock — is aligned to the door frame, that is, once the door leaf is already in place.

It should be noted that the door hinges are screwed only after the door frame is already in place. See article: Correct Installation of a Door Frame

Photo 2 – Balcony Door

The modern method of installing doors — by yourself or through the help of professionals — uses mounting foam, which should be protected from visible parts of the door frame and leaf. To avoid the foam getting on adjacent areas of the door, they are covered with masking tape — just cover a small strip around the perimeter of the door frame.

Important! The parts of the door frame that come into contact with the foam should be moistened with water for better adhesion. See article: Installing a Door Frame in an Opening by Yourself

The foam application process must be done evenly around the entire perimeter of the frame; this is necessary to ensure even foam setting and avoid misalignment at this stage. In general, the amount of foam used is about one can per door, but it all depends on the volume of the gaps in the door opening.

Photo 3 – Door Surrounds

Door Surrounds

Installation of PVC doors ends with installing door surrounds. In this part, the installation of a plastic door (video made professionally, showing all details of finishing the external appearance of the door and thus deserves attention) should hide everything except the door itself and some details of the frame and threshold.

Important! The process of enhancing any external or interior doors should not begin earlier than 6-24 hours after using the foam (this can be found in the usage instructions on the can itself).

Installing PVC Door Surrounds (Video)

Final Thoughts

Regardless of whether the door installation was done by yourself or with the help of specialists, the door trim elements are cut out based on necessity — which areas should be covered. This does not change the price of installing plastic doors, if we speak more precisely. The measurement and cutting of required elements is truly done based on necessity, and there is only one instruction for this — common sense.

In those parts of the wall where siding or wall panels were used, which were removed beforehand, the use of door trim elements can also be limited by the sizes of these coverings. Therefore, one should determine what and in what proportions to finish and how to join it with what is already there.

$ Cost

With well-known brands (Rus Les, Sofia, Radа, Volkhovets, Mario Rioli), it is interesting to work with when quality is the top priority, but when looking for a budget option, suppliers from China can help. Prices for their services and products in Moscow and Kyiv (shown in rubles and hryvnia respectively) look like this:

• cost of door with frame from 2000/400
• price of door installation in a prepared opening from 2000/350
• visit of a specialist-mounter from 500/100