[Mark1130]

Originally Posted by philnpat

The slab doors that I purchased from Home Depot for our home up north needed the hinge side to be routed to accomodate the hinges. Also, a hole was needed to be drilled to accomodate the lockset. The door was primed but needed to be painted. The door then had to be fitted which meant that it had to be power planed to get it to fit properly. I did a total of 21 doors!...they look great but...this is what retirement is all about???!!!
l2ridehd suggested buying slab doors which makes a lot of sense. You can find them at HD or Loews that have been routed for the hinges and the hole drilled for the lockset. (I couldn't find slabs locally that were compatible with my existing doors.) I'd suggest buying only one at first to see if the routing for the hinges is the same dimension of your existing doors and the lockset is the right dimension....try it yourself...you might like it!

First, I would like to say this is what I do for a living with many of my customers.

As far as I know, Lowes and Home Depot door slabs are not hinge prepped or bored for the door locks. Even if they were, chances are the preps would not line up with your existing door slab.

Also to consider, door slabs come in various widths and heights. The standard is for example on a 3' door. IT is 36" x 80". However, doors can be 35 3/4" wide and 79 1/2" tall as a norm too. It depends on the manufacturer.

When our shop machines the doors to match, it takes about 10 min a door slab to hang in a new frame. Not bad for one door but 21 will seem like an eternity.

Lastly, do not by prefinished doors. You still have to touch them up and they look like crap after the touchup.

[l2ridehd]

Using a router with a hinge template to mount the hinges is actually real easy. And if doing that many doors, buy a router. Low cost for the time savings and quality results. I had one already, so the job was easy, but they are not that expensive if doing that many doors. My thoughts are that using pre-hung is a lot more work because you will have to remove the existing trim, the baseboards probably will not align correctly to the new door, and unless you really know how to hang a pre-hung door and install the shims etc, you will have doors that don't work correctly. I have done both and for the average handyman, the slabs are the best and easiest solution. Using a pre-hung door you will mess up the sheetrock, trim and wall paint, and probably baseboards. Using slabs, it's hinges and lock sets only. Once you have done one, the other twenty will get real easy.