Every Type of Product Has Its Unique Terminology and Doors Are No Different

Every type of product has its unique terminology and doors are no different. Understanding "door-speak" as well as learning about the other standard features will help you browse through product literature and ultimately make a better choice. Pre-Hung & Slab Interior and exterior doors can be bought as pre-hung units, or slabs. Every door is mounted in a frame (called the "jamb"), with its hinges attached to one side of the frame. A pre-hung door comes already mounted in this frame (the jamb assembly) with its hinges attached to the jamb. All that's needed for installation is to shim the door/frame assembly into the door opening (usually called the "rough opening") in your house. A slab door is simply the door itself, with no frame, hardware or hinges attached. If you plan to install pocket doors you could buy slab doors and then mount them in the hardware that enables them to be sliding pocket doors. You can buy slab doors to replace existing doors but you'll need to install the hinges and you'll probably have more work ahead of you to install them properly, making sure they're straight with no binding. Fire Ratings Fire doors have fire ratings expressed in blocks of time like 20, 45, 60 and 90 minutes. This represents the door's ability to withstand and prevent the spread of fire, allowing you time to escape. They're made with features and materials specifically designed to meet these criteria. Your local building code may specify the requirements for the location and type of fire door that's needed in your home. A doorway that adjoins a garage and the interior of the house is one good example of an appropriate application, though they can be installed anywhere in the home. Standard Sizing Interior and exterior doors come in standard sizes although that doesn't mean you won't be able to find a custom size if you need it. But for the most part there are some standard dimensions in both height and width. Typical heights are 78 and 80 inches (6'6" and 6'8" though taller doors at 84 and 96 inches are available too (7' and 8'). Widths are commonly available in sizes ranging from 24 inches (for smaller interior and closet doors) to 36 inches in 2-inch increments. Other Types Of Doors There are some other sub-classifications of doors beyond entry, interior and patio doors. Knowing what they are and that they exist might help you solve a particular problem or provide greater design flexibility in your home. Pocket doors are suspended from rolling tracks and slide into an opening in the wall. A variation on that theme is a sliding door that uses the same mounting hardware. Rather than sliding into a wall pocket, they slide along an adjacent wall. Both styles make great space savers since there's no door swing involved. Dutch doors are split horizontally across the middle allowing you to open and close the top and bottom portions independent of one another. Long-span doors are related to patio doors in that they're used as a wall divider between inside and outside spaces. These products can span a pretty substantial width, essentially opening up a room to the outdoors. Types include folding doors that open in the center and accordion to the side or slide across each other. Shoji doors are a variation on the Japanese shoji screens which are typically used as room dividers. They have a similar construction as the shoji screen, with a wood framework and translucent fabric. They're usually a sliding door. Sound Ratings Interior doors are classified with a sound rating often referred to as "STC". The STC refers to "sound transmission class" and is just a fancy way of measuring the amount of sound loss through the door. In simplistic terms sound is measured on one side of the door and then on the other side. The drop in sound pressure (measured in decibels) provides the door's STC rating. For example, an STC rating of 29 means that there's a loss of 29 decibels through the door. When comparing various products, the higher the STC number, the "quieter" the door and the less noise that will pass through it. RH & LH Door Swing Doors are specified with a right-hand or left-hand swing and governs the relationship of the hinge and handle and which way the door swings once it's hung. Whichever side the handle is on, as it opens to you, denotes whether it's a right-hand or left-hand door. In other words, a door that has the handle on the right-hand side as it opens to you has a right-hand (RH) swing. (It's sort of counter-intuitive because in this example, the hinge is on your left as you face the door and the door swings toward the left too. But, no one guaranteed this stuff would always make sense. ) This characteristic is also known as the door's "handing". Source: HomeStyleChoices.com