How to install antique door hardware

Also, check the dimensions of the strike plate to ensure it will fit in the existing impression in the door jamb to avoid having to pull out a chisel. Entry sets with handles or knobs can typically be adapted to a right- or left-hand door swing, but ones with levers are not so forgiving. To determine if your door has a right- or left-hand swing, stand outside and note which side the hinges are attached to.

A door that is hinged on the left side, for instance, swings to the left. Remove the interior knob and thumb-turn lock hardware to expose the holes in the door. Measure from the center of the knob hole to the center of the lock hole to determine the spread.

On a replacement set with a one-piece exterior escutcheon that holds both the lock cylinder and latch, the spread must match the holes exactly. Choose a two-piece set if you want more wiggle room. Measure the backset: the distance from the inner edge of the door to the center of the knob and lock holes. Remove the old entry set by taking out the mounting screws that secure the interior knob and locking hardware to the exterior handle and lock cylinder.

To remove the dead bolt and latch bolt, unscrew their faceplates, located on the door's inner edge. We were lucky enough several years ago to find a large set of doors that were nearly an identical match to our closet doors. We bought six of these doors many years ago f ive were used for our bedroom closets and one has been patiently waiting in our basement to eventually be our bathroom's closet door.

From this point forward I plan to only ever work with doors that will either fit the current opening, or are larger than the current opening. It's pretty easy to cut doors down to size, but it's a whole other thing to make them larger.

We did this very thing on several of our interior doors as well as our new front door and French doors, and it was an undertaking that I'd like to avoid in the future. The other thing that's important to consider about your door is warping. Quite often salvaged doors have some level of warp to them. In many scenarios, this is not a problem as it is minor and will be disguised by the door's opening.

But if you're doing a double door like our closet for example , and the two doors warp away from each other, the problem will be very noticeable and they'll never look like they are completely closed. You need to determine your tolerance for warping in your situation and take a square and straight edge with you to the salvage yard. The door on the right is the final remaining original unstripped door with s hardware in the house. The door on the left is our matched salvaged door. Once the door is selected, I like to start the process by doing any paint stripping and repair before I get to mounting it in its opening.

It certainly means more work up front, but it helps ensure that the work you do to square and mount the door isn't impacted by any repairs you need to make later.

After stripping if the door is loose or has any missing parts or major issues, I'll re-glue, apply epoxy, and do my initial sanding to get everything ready for mounting. This includes filling any old hinge mortises with epoxy to give myself a clean slate to work from. I'd rather do this than try to deal with trying to make old hinge mortises match up in the door jamb. But keep in mind, if you're trimming large pieces of the sides off, there's no need to epoxy the old hinge mortises since you'll just cut it all off.

I've made this stupid move several times. You'll want to figure out the hardware you're using early in the process. Figuring out the hinges you want to use is the most important piece, but the lockset and anything else is important as well. We're using antique cast iron hinges and surface mount rim locks on all of our doors, so consistency has certainly helped us hone our process.

If you're doing your whole house, even over a long period of time, take some time up front to come up with the plan you want to follow for all of your house's hardware. While salvaged hardware may be a bit harder to source and work with, the end result of using only salvaged hardware is really the icing on the cake of an old house renovation.

But one thing you must do, please use plain old slot head screws. And where appropriate, antique those screws to look old , not all shiny and new.

The following tools are the tools that we've found work best and are invaluable for this process, beyond the standards of tape measure, pencil, etc. Once our door is ready to go I'm going to actually turn my attention to the hinge jamb mortising.

We're using decorative salvaged removable pin hinges on the first floor, but these old lift-off hinges upstairs are great. They are moderately forgiving when it comes to alignment, can be mounted easily by one person, and have a great old look to them.

Since the door had its prior hinge mortises filled with epoxy, we can mount our hinges pretty much wherever we need them to sit in the jamb. To do this I simply held the hinges in place and gave myself some pencil marks where the hinge mortises need to sit.

Using a standard mortising template and router with collared bit I cut out the mortises for the hinges. In this case we are doing this in a finished space, and are using the new Makita cordless router with the plunge base and dust extraction attachment. This really helped to keep the mess down on what is typically a pretty dusty process. The mortising template expects a modern jamb and door, so I've had to modify it a bit to work for our needs.

I cut off the end then drove a few nails through the middle of it to hold it in place. Setting the correct depth on the router is key here. I find using a plunge base tends to really help this situation.

I can essentially zero out the setting so that the router bit is flush with the jamb, then I pull the stop on the plunge base up a little and actually use one side of the hinge to set a gap between the stop of the router and the base. Then, removing the hinge you can let the bit plunge all of the way down to the stop and you've got yourself a perfect depth.

This is important with old hinges since they are always just a little variable on size. And on the lift-off hinges we're using, the thickness is tapered from the front to back, so we set our depth to by the midway point of the hinge.

If you're using old hinges or any hinges with square corners, you're going to need to make the rounded corners of your mortises square. There are several tools that promise to do this quickly and easily, but I find using a good and sharp chisel is all you really need. Mark the edges of the corner with the chisel, then begin working the material until it's a nice and flat corner. I also try to remove a little more material with the chisel in order to accommodate the slightly graduated thickness of the hinge.

After mortising the jamb I mount the jamb half of the hinges into the mortise and then move onto the next step. The tiny baseboard piece is just resting in place right now.

You might notice that our upper hinge in this door is very high. That's as a result of a mistake I made on the contact closure switch. I mounted the switch too high on the jamb and as a result the hinge had to be a little too high or WAY too low. I went with a little too high. Take off one knob from the spindle which will involved loosening or removing the set screw in the collar and unscrewing it from the spindle. Note - a straight shaft non-threaded knob set will also work but will come apart differently.

Take the knob with the spindle attached and slide it through the door - both plates and the tube latch. It's not strictly necessary. Your knob can sit on top of the plate bezel but it's how the pieces were intended to function and it keeps the knobs from wobbling. Once the first knob is through, re-attach the second knob so that it fits snugly but still moves freely.

With threaded knobs, you'll have to experiment with the right placement although be sure to avoid putting the set screw down on the corner of the spindle. It will likely give way pretty quickly and your knob will start slipping. For straight shaft knobs, getting spacing right will usually involved getting actual spacers as the knobs are in fixed locations on the spindle.

Once everything's in the right spot, make sure the knobs are sitting exactly perpendicular to the door and screw down the plates! All finished and looking good my friend! Will, buy some used hardwood doors. The right doors can make your house look much more elegant. And feel elegant. Nobody likes a cheap door. How about hollow doors? Any ideas? I have several antique knobs in my house. Do you have any advice on restoring them to their former beauty?

Any advice on how to get a key or the door to lock? Thank you. I have a question about the spindles: are they all the same size? Will any spindle work with the tube latch? Or are some spindles too narrow or too wide? Would you mind elaborating? Is there a solution? Trying to explain is tricky. Does anyone know where to get this kind of thing?

Hi — I have used three of these so far and just ordered another two for the doors in my house. We bought old knobs for the few newer doors and these worked like a charm! Sorry for the late reply — we are just figuring out how to reply to comments! Hippo Hardware is an eclectic building salvage store specializing in hardware, lighting, architecture and plumbing from We offer assorted collectibles, trinkets, whatnots, and whoziwhatsits depending on what we get in.

The spirit of Hippo Hardware is to rejoice in the individual, the unique, and the original. Knowing that 19th-century back plates or escutcheons were often large, the owner measured to be sure it would fit comfortably without intruding on mouldings or panels. Clean parts with a paint thinner-saturated rag. Then, to lubricate, sparingly apply white lithium grease to springs, points of wear, and moving parts. INSTALL Carefully chisel and drill out the door to install the lockset; the strike plate will be set into the jamb afterwards for precise alignment.

Use straight silicon-bronze set screws to attach the plate, adding strength along with appropriate detailing; carefully turn and tighten screws by hand no power drill to avoid stripping them.