WOOD DOORS & IRON DOORS TERMS

In Aphabetical Order | About Doors and Gates
A | B | C | De | Di | Do | Fl | Fr | Gr | Ha | He | In | Kn | Le | Me |Mo | No | Ob |Pla | Ro | Sh | Si | Th | Tr

Transom
The horizontal bar that separates the fan light from the top of the door.

Tongued and grooved panel joint
A joint used to hold the panels in framed doors. The panel can be raised, so that the resultant tongued edge is let into a groove that runs on the inside of the frame, or it can be let into a grooved molding that is itself tongued into a groove that runs on the face of the frame. All these joints allow both the frame and the panel to move without cracking or opening.

THE DOOR FRAME
Exterior door openings and vestibule openings are usually framed with a good-sized solid section, with all the rabbets and molding being worked from the solid. The vertical members of the frame are called posts or jambs; from top to bottom, the horizontal members are known as the head and the sill. If the door frame is extended vertically so that there is a fan light between the top of the door and the head of the door frame, the horizontal bar just above the top of the door is known as the transom.

Exterior doors are usually hung so that they open into the house. The good-sense reason for this convention is that if the door were to open outward rather than inward, every time you opened the front door to receive guests, you would knock them off the doorstep. The only exceptions to this rule are stable type doors that are fitted so that they open outward. The doorposts are tenoned into the head of the frame, so that the resultant horns on the ends of the head can be built into the wall.

Interior door frames variously termed frames, casings, or linings are usually built up from a number of relatively slender parts. The character of the lining is determined, to a great extent, by the thickness and structure of the wall. For example, if the wall is made from wooden stud work, the opening might well be lined with 3/4 to 1 inch thick wood, with a plain casing nailed on to cover the joint between the plaster and the jamb; the doorstop could be made by nailing on a bit of 1 1/2 by1/2 inch pine or another inexpensive wood. For a more substantial brick wall, the lining is usually thicker-about 1 1/2 inches thick with the door stop being rabbeted from the solid. In this instance, the lining can be worked with either a single or a double rabbet-the idea being that the door can be hung on either side of the wall thickness. If the brick wall is 14 inches thick, the opening might well be framed and paneled with stiles and rails, with the framing rabbeted w that the door can be fitted on either side of the opening.The architraves are molded sections nailed to the room side of the lining. They function on two levels: They cover the joint between the woodwork and the plasterwork, so that you can't see the movement that occurs between the wood and the plaster, and they provide ornamentation. As a general rule, the thicker the wall and the heavier the door, the wider and more fancy the architraves.

Wooden plugs
Small wedges of wood driven into the joints of a brick or stone wall on either side of the door opening to provide attachment points for the door frame and linings.