solid door blank source?

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Svart

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
5,134
Location
Atlanta GA USA
I'm looking for solid exterior wood door blanks.  Easy to find right?

NOPE.

I want a solid door with NO glass, NO panels, NO anything but a completely flat and smooth solid door.  Lowes and home depot can't get any, I can't find a single source online for what I require either.  EVERYBODY sells doors that have all kinds of ornate crap all over them but nobody in the US has a single blank exterior door.

The UK and Europe have plenty of sources for these doors..  Why can't the US have good taste like them?

 
this point came across was on a show I watched in the last week with my wife.

Point they made was: Inefficiency and weight has made solid doors a thing of the past. So now you get Engineered doors with proven cost savings in heating and cooling and lighter weight with an look of than from those of the past.

Why do you need solid doors?
 
I have done more commercial spaces with the usual hollow metal door, and filled it with "Good Stuff".  An inner layer of lead added if the budget allows.

Have you checked local builder recycle sources for a used door?
Mike
 
DIY?  It sounds like gluing and clamping up some nice oak or maple will be easier than the tooling that you plan on as the next step?  A good lumber yard can also run the edges through a planer/joiner for nearly invisible seams.
 
unfortunately when you go to home depot or any other hardware store, you are stuck with solid core doors that have, at minimum, a cutout for the lock/handle. Might be better off checking a the local lumber yard.
 
The problem is that the big box stores have run all of the DIY type places out of business it seems like around here.  The only ones that are still in business are wholesalers who only sell to contractors in quantity.  :-\

I'll keep looking but the few that I've called or stopped by this weekend are all "contactor only" and "don't know" where I can find a place that will sell to me.  They sound more like they know but won't tell me than honestly not knowing where I could go.



 
I was at my local lowes yesterday and they had solid birch doors with a layer of luaun on each side for $60.  No knob holes or hinge holes.  Just a basic slab.  I thought about using them in my studio build, but settled on pre-hung steel.
 
Are those the hollow interior doors?  I need a solid exterior door.  I don't want anybody to be able to kick through it..
 
I used two Jeld-Wen ProCore interior doors special-ordered from Home Depot.  IIRC, they make plain ones.

I installed them in a deadened airlock on adjacent walls angled at 120 degrees from each other with rubber weatherstripping gaskets on the frame and automatic-drop floor seals. 

That along with the double-framed walls with two layers of sheetrock and two layers of R17 batt insulation and my kid can thrash on the drum kit in there and nobody would know.  ;D

-Bob
 
These aren't for sound deadening, these are actually for my exterior doors!

I made soundproof doors from MDF before, they work great.
 
Svart said:
These aren't for sound deadening, these are actually for my exterior doors!

I made soundproof doors from MDF before, they work great.

Ahh... bad assumption that (audioguy) + (exterior door) + (solid wood) = (soundproofing)  :-[  Those studio-building synapses just fired because I was originally shopping for just that: exterior-grade solid wood doors.  A lot of sticker shock there at the prices.  The only solid exterior in Home Depot's catalogs was Jeld-Wen's custom line ("elite" or "estate" or something like that). 

For economy, the DIY glue-up solution sounds appealing.  I'd probably include a few strips of some contrasting exotic wood in the face laminations for decor.  ;D  (I actually once considered this for new kitchen cabinet doors: Alder with a couple thin strips of purpleheart and black walnut)

 
Svart said:
Are those the hollow interior doors?  I need a solid exterior door.  I don't want anybody to be able to kick through it..

Nope, solid birch all the way through with just the luaun veneer on each side.  They probably weighed about 50 lbs each.  They were advertised as exterior doors and were in that section.
 
heh, I was at lowes over the weekend.  They didn't have anything like that and the guy said he couldn't get anything like that.  strange, must be a regional thing.
 
Svart said:
heh, I was at lowes over the weekend.  They didn't have anything like that and the guy said he couldn't get anything like that.  strange, must be a regional thing.

Actually, I've noticed that our Lowes stores carry a lot of locally produced or distributed items.  Could be the case with those doors. 

One purchase I made that was the oddest from a regional standpoint was when I needed a bunch of Guilford of Maine fabric to cover fiberglass absorber panels.  I purchased it from a retailer in New England (Connecticut, I think) and picked up the order directly from their supplier, which happened to be right across the street from where I worked in Grand Rapids, MI.  It makes sense the distributor is here since we have the big cubicle wall manufacturers, Steelcase, Haworth and Herman Miller.  I just found it really strange I couldn't find any local business willing to sell it to me directly.  :p
 
You may want to investigate some of the salvage companys .
Ive got some amazing solid core doors with maple 1/4" veneer in chicago for $40 a pop .
Its tough to find just solid slabs any more . Ive done the MDF door too but , well I fvckin hate MDF . :-X
 
For kicks, I called Brett at solid_hard_wood_doors dot com (no underscores) and asked him if they could ship a door blank.  They can.  He said that they would have to assemble the door out of about 6 planks of hardwood.  No color, stain or hinge cut outs.  Mahogany.
He quoted me a price of around $620 (ouch) with about $280 shipping to alabama.  That was for an 80 x 36

Seems like a lot of money.  You may try and call some local door companies for a better idea.
 
Hi Svart, maybe you found something already, but if you want a commercial fire rated door in CAlifornia you pretty much have to order them from a commercial lumber yard.  Look at any new construction in your neighborhood and see where the lumber is tagged from... if they only sell commercial just bumrush em a bit.  if you know what you want you can get these guys to take your money...  The initial response is there to scare off people who just want to ask a million questions.
 
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