# Knee wall door?



## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

Posted this on the other forum for you too:

There are no standard sized doors of such a dimension that you describe. We have always just fabricated our own doors for such a specific use. 

We have also salvaged existing solid wood doors to match a home's existing doors.... and cut them down in the wood shop, moved the hinges and installed a ball/latch mechanism at the top. Here's a pic example:










If you do cut down a door, you will most likely need to move the hinges (if it's a pre-hung door) and use a solid wood door, not one of those MDF or luan doors with nothing inside. You can still use an MDF or luan, but you need to install a solid piece of end stock to fill in the empty area of the panel....Also, if the knee wall is not insulated, then you will want to attach some rigid foam board in the inside facing the roof area and also weather stripping around the door frame to keep the cold out...
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_Last edited by AtlanticWBConst. : Today at 12:16 PM. _


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## VA Beach Trimmer (Apr 8, 2007)

Is the openning a normal door width ? The rough openning for a 24" door is 26 1/2...It can be a LiL smaller than 26 1/2...cutting a hollow door's height down is easy..Take the door off the jamb and mark the TOP of the door so you don't cut it off by accident, cut the bottom of both jambs to fit the openning and have the header be level, decide on how long you need the door to be, mark, scrib and cut the BOTTOM of the door, there is a wood block that solidifies the bottom of the door that you just cut off, skin the block with a planner until it fits in the new bottom of the door, glue and put this block back in....If it was a 3 hinge door you might not have to even have to re-hinge it...


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## Joe Carola (Apr 14, 2006)

luner99 said:


> I am finishing my upstairs and am trying to figure out my options with the access door through my knee walls... Is there such a thing as a "pre-hung" half door that comes ready to install? Or do I have to cut it off myself?
> 
> What are my options and how do i go about do them...
> 
> ...


Scott,

Where I'm from you can get any size prehung door you want made from a lumberyard. If you want a 2' door, you make the rough opening 2" bigger at 2' 2". I just framed an addition on mt friends house and there are 5 doors that are in kneewalls and he's having them made.

Call a lumberyard and see what they say. They're not cheap but they can be done.


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## Brik (Jan 16, 2007)

I have only ever made them. Here is a picture of my most recent one.


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

Brik's door reminds me of this:

We did this one (underneath the stairs)- last month in a basement remodel. (It is missing one knob) It is MDF... not painted yet. 
It is attached with Piano hinges on each side. Opening was jambed and cased-in prior to installing the door and hinges.











Here is another pic. of a door we did in a second floor new home. This was essentially a 5' high knee wall. The door was fabricated to 'blend in' with the bead-board decor. We used a Piano hinge set-up on one side. (Baseboard was not installed yet at time of pic)


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