Flush mount doors
As we are getting ready to redo a downstairs bedroom, I have been looking into the possibility of doing some clean flush mount doors. Luckily there are some pretty good resources online to help figure it all out. The doors shown above are from Modern Doors Direct, and besides having some nice looking doors (at around $700 a door plus installation) they also have some great architectural drawings of how the magic all happens. One of the key things to getting it done are a pair of invisible SOSS hinges. Since the hinges are readily available, I figure I pick up some up and do it myself.
SOSS has a handy chart to determine how many hinges you need based on your door width and weight as well as router guides to help get your hinges set just right. I figure I’ll be in it around $100 with hinges and a guide, and another $150 or so for a good solid wood door. With a little luck it will turn out as nice as the Direct Modern Doors ones at a fraction of the price. I admit the real hard part is going to be the jam detail, and I’m still trying to decide the best way to do that. My current plan is just to install a good paint grade jam over the rough opening and have the drywall return into the jam. The drywall edge will be finished off with a L bead to keep the line between the two clean.
Any other advice or thoughts?
Resources:
Discussion on flush mount doors on Livemodern.
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8 Responses to “Flush mount doors”
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I will be watching closely for the progress of this project as I will soon be tackling a similar project. Please collect plenty of pictures.
That reminds me. Did I miss pictures of your finished kitchen?
Me likes! Me wants!
Looks nice, but door jambs take a lot of abuse. I’d be curious to see how flush ones hold up, especially if the door is narrow. I’ve seen SOSS hinges installed, but they were in steel jambs with steel casing. They are nice hinges, smooth and quiet.
As you may remember, I was interested in doing this on my remodel, but decided it was just too much to undertake. I kept my “Trimless Doors” favorites folder in case a question like this ever came up. Here’s what I found during my journey:
Different thread from LiveModern discussing frameless door jambs
Post from Modern in MN discussing the issue (see the comments)
EZYJamb at Studco Bldg Systems
EZYJamb at Gavin Associates, Inc.
Discussion at JLC Online (a contractor forum)
Another discussion at JLC Online (a contractor forum)
Trim-Tex: manufacturer of vinyl drywall beads
I’ve seen these before and thought they were so cool! I am definitely looking forward to hearing your experience with them!
Jus
Just a heads up on soss:
We looked at them, and even tried to do the rough-in to accommodate them.
We failed.
You reeeeealllly need to check out the technical specs (and call soss’ technical department when you fail to perfectly understand everything) required to properly install these hinges. Pay special attention to how far forward the hinges have to be installed to the front of the wall. If I understand it correctly, the soss bore is 1/4″ from the front of the wall (and 1/4″ from the front of the door face, as well, which wasn’t the problem for us). Think about this: if you’re drywall is 1/2″ thick, then your soss hinge is trying to hold up your door by being imbedded for half of it into the front-facing drywall.
That drywall problem screwed us, but maybe you can somehow plan around this requirement.
I guess the solution would be to put (glue/screw) 1/2″ boards around the door edges, then drywall them into the surrounding area. (But I’m also pretty sure you’d maybe get cracking along that seam because wood and drywall flex at different rates….) But it is too late for us.
Also, this isn’t a huge deal (certainly surmountable, unlike the 1/4″ issue above) but from what I’ve heard and read, there is NO play in soss hinges, no forgiveness anywhere. You’ve got one shot to get the bore locations right. (A lot of people strongly recommended the jig. But it is kinda spendy.)
Okay, strike everything I just wrote. I just clicked through to the website you linked to and they sell a whole system to get around everything I wrote before.
Nevermind. Carry on.