There’s something rewarding about building your own doors – especially if they’re doors for your home. In this how-to, our door installation experts give you the basic instructions for building your own door. All you need is a few materials and some patience.
- Determine how tall and wide you want your interior door to be. (Most are 6′ 8″.)
- After that, use your miter saw to cut two stiles the height of the door.
- Use a sander to make sure they’re the width that you want. (Most doors are 1 3/8″ thick but we recommend making yours 1 1/2″ thick to improve stability.)
- In the center of one side your stile, use your miter saw to carve a groove that’s 1/4″ wide and 3/8″ deep.
- Repeat step 3 for the other stile.
- Next, cut three rails. Each rail should be the width of the door minus two times the stile width.
- You’ll also want each of your rails to have two 3/8″ tenons (one on each side in order to fit into the grooves in your stiles.
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Create the same grooves (1/4″ wide, 3/8″ deep) in your rails as you did in your stiles.
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Now that you have your stiles and rails completed, you’ll want to create your final door panels to fit into the middle.
- Cut the width of your panels to be the same width of your rails minus 1/16″.
- After that, slide the panel into the grooves in your rails to make sure it’s the correct width.
- Then, you can slide the stiles onto your panel to determine the right length.
- Once you’ve determined the length, cut your panel to fit into both your rails and stiles.
- If everything fits correctly, use your wood glue to fit all of the pieces together and use clamps to hold the joints together tightly.
- Once everything is dried, you can sand down your door and paint it or stain it.
- After that, affix the proper hardware and hang it!
*Photo courtesy of interiorbarndoors.org
