Fitted untreated oak doors

[TiddleTaddleTat]

We have solid oak doors being fitted next week, have already paid for them and the joiner is coming to fit them. All good.
As I understand it they are solid oak.

They are going to be unfinished. So we will need to treat them with a oil/wax. Probably going for Osmo door oil, will ask the joiner's recommendation.

They will need to then be removed before treating. So we will somehow have to store 6 doors while we treat each one. Without them getting damp (so not the garage, in November), and flat and not standing against a wall (to avoid warping).

Due to a super flaky plasterer we also need to get the hall plastered meaning the doors should probably wait to go back on until that is done.

Has anyone else managed this before and where have they stored the untreated doors?

When I say super flaky plasterer I mean someone that let us down. When I bought the doors and booked the fitting we had skimming booked in to happen beforehand. Now I realise it's not good to have drying plaster and new doors, not to mention the issue of covering them so they don't get splashed etc.

we put in new oak doors and my Oh painted them with osmo oil in situ we didnt take them back off again just put newspaper under the doors to catch any drips

Oh that's good to know! Does it look ok? The idea of removing each one is worrying me and thinking I may have to delay the fitting.

this is the end result

Oh I love it!! Can't wait to replace our nasty cheap poorly fitting doors I'm just worried as our renovation has a long way to go still.

We had new oak doors fitted throughout our house (13 in total) just last week.

They are unfinished and we will be treating them with Osmo oil in situ. It's pretty easy and non-messy, have already done this with the two new oak doors in our annexe.

Phew. That's good to know. Hopefully then if all the doors are treated then skimming the room isn't such an issue. Really can't be doing with the faff of removing and storing them. Presumably they need to be treated almost straight away?

I would either remove or cover the doors with plastic whilst the skimming is being done to protect them. I wouldn't finish them until the room has been decorated, that way when you lightly sand them before oiling you will remove any stray flecks of paint that have made it through the drop sheets.

It's not urgent to treat the doors as they are inside and dry. I'm planning to do mine one by one over the next few months.

Ah thanks, yes I suppose that makes sense really. Removing would be the wiser option I suspect due to the amount of moisture (it's a hallway and there are 4 doors to bedrooms).
I'm a bit torn about whether to go for a decorator (to line and paint) or plasterer (skim, then we paint ourselves) for this hallway. Plasterer will be much messier then we will have the hassle of painting ourselves. Removing the doors is a pain as will lead into bedrooms, office and toilet.

At the moment trades are so hard to get hold of I'm contacting anyone and everyone, let's say 30% respond, 20% of those show up for quote, 50% of those then cancel for a booked job... nightmare .
Hence we end up doing things ourselves but lining a hallway isn't on my list of things to look forward to really!

I would bite the bullet and get it skimmed rather than line & paint. There are areas here where I really wish now I had skimmed rather than thinking it would be OK.

We've done 2/3rds of the house over the summer and have the final 1/3 (kitchen, hallway, scullery and study) kicking off on 1st Nov. I will be skimming the kitchen & scullery!

I think you're right. Also Im quite a perfectionist with the painting and while I would expect a decorator to be much better than me I know they won't have as much time to do it meticulously.
One plasterer has got back to me with availability next month so if his quote is fair I will probably go with him. Decorators aren't available until March anyway.
Thing is I quite like the softening effect of lining paper as the sharp lines plasterers put on everything isn't very in keeping with the house (1930s). We've no great architectural features etc but are reinstating 1930s style doors and keeping cornicing etc where possible.

Ps, congrats on 2/3 of house being done! We are around that stage (bedrooms, office and bathroom done, living room and dining about halfway, kitchen still to do and half of hallway). I just want to push on now and get it finished.

you shouldn't need to take them off for treatment, uxcept for external doors which need extra-thorough treatment on the top and bottom edges to resist damp.

But you may find it is easier to get a super finish if you do.

however

it can be quite difficult to re-hang them perfectly

unless

you use lift-off-hinges which make it a breeze.

Fire doors need an extra-strong, fire-rated hinge, which is also suitable for a really heavy, solid front door, but an ordinary internal door can be hung on something like this

I recommend the 100mm ones, which look better, although your carpenter will say 75mm "will do."

The PVD brass does not tarnish (I have some on my shed for more than ten years) and the base metal is stainless steel. Don't polish them or you will wear off the plating.

If you are going to paint them, BZP finish will do.

you will probably have to order them yourself

note that you order left-hand and right-hand. I double checked before buying a carton, and they still sent the wrong ones. maybe buy a dozen of each?

you mention plastering

that will make the house very wet, causing joinery to warp, so try to keep the doors away until plaster dried out fully to pale pink.

We used osmo oil on our oak floor and were very impressed with it. We bought it from Oak Finishes Direct and they were really helpful with advice when we rang them (multiple occasions). They might be able to give you some advice on oiling in situ or not. One thing with our floor was that it took longer than we expected (doing it all ourselves).

@PigletJohn thanks for the tips on slide off hinges, if I'd been more organised I could have looked into this but joiner comes on Monday.
I agree, plastering is my concern hence why I'm also thinking about line and paint. It's skimming of an area about 3m x 5m (side of stairs) which is opposite 4 of the upstairs doors. There'll be a small area of repair around the window (that we can keep open). We have a dehumidifier but understand these are not advised for drying plaster. Maybe on a low setting?

As an aside, we are halfway through insulating the eaves of the loft. Is it worth holding off insulating above the stairwell as it will help plaster dry quicker if uninsulated, or is the opposite true? There is virtually no effective insulation at present.

plaster dries by ventilation, not by heat. if you can bear it, open a window or door downstairs. Water vapour is lighter than air (hence clouds) so will rise up and away.

Open the loft hatch and let the air whistle through like a chimney

you should not insulate into the eaves, they provide ventilation to the loft to keep damp away. Trim the end of the quilt with big wallpapering scissors, you can cut a slope on it to match the roof slope, this will enable you to rest the end on the bricks. have a gap of four inches or so that you can see daylight through.

Thanks PigletJohn yes DH assures me he left a good gap around the edge . Got advice from a friend about it who works in B&Q so hopefully all done properly.
Ventilation certainly isn't an issue as it's a very windy site; with a bedroom window open it whistles through the house.
Good call on the loft hatch, I can open that while plaster dries too.
Thanks for your help

I probably wasn't clear in my earlier post, the eaves sections are about 1m deep as the central part of the loft has been boarded and carpeted (with a degree of insulation). The eaves have been left with virtually nothing and hence the bedrooms and stairwell have been very cold. First section that's been done has made an amazing amount of difference.
Relieved I haven't totally messed up with the doors and can hopefully leave them in situ.