Homebase wooden doors Kitchens, doors, rails, stud, tables, chairs, stair cases, garden furniture etc... Find answers and ask questions here!

[Scoot2079]

I have bought a new door from homebase and I need to trim the height by 2 inches to make it fit, however it says on the door that I can only trim a maximum of 5mm off each edge. As far as i can tell the door is solid so why is this?

[Simon]

these doors look solid, but they are not. You can trim the height by two inches as the thickness of the frame is much thicker there, but the side edges are very thin, which is why you can't take off much more than 5mm.

[Oddbod]

Hi. Probably because it isn’t solid – it’s almost certainly a frame of solid wood onto which two moulded hardboard sides have been glued. The thickness of the frame will be such that you can take 5mm off each edge without unduly weakening it. In practice you’ll get away with more, but 25mm might be pushing it.

You can cut the door down anyway and try replacing the frame at the top and bottom. It’s a bit fiddly but you should get away with it if you know how to use a saw and a plane. Fortunately the top and bottom edges are not particularly stressed.

One tip is to drill a hole into the top and/or bottom and see how far the drill bit goes in before it going right through the frame. That'll give you an indication of what you are in for.