Rules and specification for Atkey and Company internal doors:
Atkey and Company doors are not limited by standard dimensions and thicknesses. Door patterns, moulding detail, and proportions vary from period to period and building to building. The authenticity of the door detail is paramount to Atkey and therefore all doors are uniquely customised. The purpose of the technical information set out below is to explain the rules that we follow to specify the traditional construction of each door.
Internal panelled doors have a framework of stiles, rails and muntins to provide strength and stability. The areas between the frameworks are filled with boards or panels; fulfilling whatever protective and aesthetic functions the door is expected to provide, as well as helping to hold the door square. The number and arrangement of the panels which form a door is known as the ‘pattern’.
The stile and rail components of each door pattern may change in width depending on the dimensions of the door specified by the client, to ensure the frame is structurally rigid and of good proportion.
In the past, panels were made from solid timber, with the grain running vertically, and the constructional details of a door were developed by the need to allow panels to move horizontally across their width as they shrink and swell depending on the changes in moisture content of the timber. The decorative moulding features applied to the panels and frame work served in part to disguise the movement in the panels. Today; we still make raised and fielded panels from solid timber, they are not glued in position as this leads to splits in the panels, but held securely in place by a groove in the framework of the door.
For recessed and flat panels we have replaced solid timber with solid Tulipwood plywood. This eliminates movement of the panels and by gluing them in place they add to the rigidity of the doors.
The framework of the door is constructed using mortice and tenon joints. Traditionally tenons were cut to extend through the whole width of the stile. This is known as a through mortice and tenon. The tenon would be held in place by timber wedges; this technique was developed in order to release a ‘glued up’ door from the clamps before the glue had cured.
Today, with the advantage of modern glues and clamping techniques, Atkey use ‘stopped mortice and tenon’ joints to construct our door frames. The tenons and mortices are cut to a depth of ¾ of the width of the stile. This stops the unsightly end of the tenon projecting from a through mortice if the door stiles shrink due to moisture movement.
Traditionally framed doors are divided into three categories which are defined by how the mouldings are applied:
The door moulding defines the depth of the rebate between the face of the frame and the panel.
The thickness of the door is controlled by the depth of the moulding and the thickness of the panel as required to make the door assembly structurally sound.
Doors with moulding details are mitred in the traditional method, where the stiles and rails meet rather than being scribed. The panel groove is deeper than the moulding so that if the mitre were to shrink it would not be possible to see past the panel.
When a door is ordered with the haunches intact to protect the door when stored prior to installation, they will project 30mm beyond the head and base rail.
When doors are supplied without door linings, unless otherwise instructed, an additional 3mm in width will be added to both the lock and hinge stiles and the head and base rail to allow for planing to fit existing or third party door linings.
Where hinges are ordered to be let in, they are positioned as follows: the top hinge lines up with the lower edge of the head rail, the bottom hinge lines up with the top edge of the base rail and any additional hinges are equidistant between the two.
The components of a door are identified as shown:
A left hand door is defined as the following:
A right hand door is defined as the following:
Where Atkey are supplying the door and door lining a 3mm gap will always be left between the door and door lining.
Atkey and Company provide a selection of door linings to line a structural opening in a wall to form a doorway. Internal doors are hung on door linings.
The door linings are delivered to site as sets of components ready for assembly, following the provision of drawings defining the dimensions of the wall and opening.
The door linings are typically fixed to the structural opening when the wall is built. Care must be taken to ensure the door lining is accurately positioned and plumb so that the door can be hung properly. The edges of the door linings extend beyond the thickness of the structural opening so that the projecting edges determine the thickness of the plaster applied once the linings are fitted.
The door stops in the Atkey linings are rebated into the linings rather than planted. This is achieved by using thicker material for our linings and is known to be more structurally sound and is also less commonly found.
Framed linings are more suitable when wall thicknesses exceed 225mm. Wider framed linings prevent excessive shrinkage and distortion in the wood and add decorative detail. Typically the rails and panels of the framed linings run through and match those of the door.
Linings can be seriously damaged and stained by the building works following installation. Ideally the door linings should be fixed once plastering is completed. To achieve this ‘grounds’ can be carefully prepared and fixed to the structural openings which set the depth of the plaster and provide fixing points for the architectural joinery to follow when the building materials have dried out.
The joint between the vertical and horizontal components of a door lining is achieved in the following manner:
Door linings will be supplied with an additional 30mm in length on the vertical components to allow for scribing to the floor on site.
When providing dimensions for door linings, the following rules must be applied in measuring wall openings (for example when renovating a property):
The use of a plumb line is essential in establishing the true square within an opening. In the drawing below, the blue represents the existing wall to be surveyed and the red lines are vertical and horizontal, defining the opening (vertically and horizontally) to which the door lining should be made and therefore the door.
In the second drawing, a cross section of the wall is shown from inside the opening, where the blue represents the existing wall to be surveyed and the red lines are vertical and horizontal, and show the necessity of establishing the “plumb” thickness of the wall to determine the depth of the door lining.
