I Replaced Every Interior Door in My House. Here’s What I’d Do Differently.

Five years ago, stuck at home during the pandemic, I pulled out the first of 14 interior doors in our 1980s house. Last month, I finally finished the last one.

Fourteen doors. Sixty months. More trips to the hardware store than I care to count. And a hamstring that still remembers the early days before I found a better way to work solo.

Here’s what I learned.

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Start with prehung. Don’t second-guess this.

Every door I replaced was prehung — meaning the door comes already mounted in its frame, hinges and all. You’re not transferring hinge locations, cutting mortises or hoping your measurements match an existing frame.

For an older house like mine, where almost nothing is perfectly square, prehung was the right call. Our frames were dinged, dented and orange-stained from the previous owners. I wanted a fresh start, not to work around what was already there. Prehung gave me that.

If your frame is in good shape and you’re comfortable with more precise work, a slab door (just the door panel, no frame) is cheaper. But for a first-timer replacing multiple doors, prehung removes a lot of variables.

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Every door is its own problem

Of the 14 doors I replaced, no two were exactly the same situation.

Some were hinged close to a corner, leaving almost no room to swing a hammer. One was at the top of a staircase, which added a layer of caution I hadn’t planned for. Two doors were barely a couple of feet apart, creating clearance problems when both were open. And the flooring varied throughout the house — thick carpet in the bedrooms, vinyl in the bathrooms, transition strips at some doorways — which meant the gap at the bottom of each door had to be figured out individually.

This is worth knowing going in: the guides that make door replacement look simple are usually showing you one door, in a room with normal clearances, on a level floor. Real houses aren’t always like that. Budget extra time for the doors that aren’t straightforward.

If several doors in the same part of the house start sticking, that’s worth looking into before you start replacing — it can be one of the earlier signs of foundation movement, though usually it’s just seasonal wood movement or humidity.

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The left-hand, right-hand thing will break your brain. Here’s how to solve it.

I bought the wrong door on my first attempt. Not the wrong size — the wrong hand.

If you’ve ever tried to figure out whether you need a left-handed or right-handed door, you know how fast the explanations on the box or the hardware store website stop making sense. I finally found one explainer that actually worked: stand with your back against the hinge side of the door frame. Whichever side the doorknob is on when the door opens is the hand you need.

That’s it. I wish someone had told me that on day one.

The silver lining: the wrong-handed door I bought for one room worked perfectly in another room I was planning to do later anyway. A small win.

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Stop watching so many videos before you start

This sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out.

There is no single right way to hang an interior door. Some guides say shim the hinge side before you bring the door in. Some say place the door first and shim to the jamb. Some swear by laser levels. Some use plumb bobs. Some use wood screws throughout. Some use nail guns throughout. Some use a combination.

I made the mistake of trying to incorporate all of it at once. On my first few doors, I had a plumb bob, a laser level, a regular level, a square and a stack of shims going simultaneously. They often gave me slightly different readings, and I spent more time second-guessing my measurements than actually installing doors.

What I eventually settled on: a 6-foot level, a square, a nail gun for the latch side and three wood screws through the hinge side. That’s it. Pick a method that makes sense to you and stick with it long enough to get good at it.

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Get the inflatable bag. Seriously.

This was the single biggest game-changer of the entire project.

Working alone, I was contorting myself trying to hold the door in place, keep the jamb off the floor, drive a screw, check for level and not drop anything — all at the same time. It was slow, awkward and occasionally dangerous near the top of stairs.

Then I watched a video where someone used a small inflatable bag — the kind you squeeze air into by hand — wedged under the door to hold it exactly where they needed it while they worked. Available at any hardware store, under $20. They come in a pack with different sizes and widths. I had never heard of it before and it saved me hours.

If you’re doing this solo, get this tool.

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Shim the hinge side before the door comes in

Once I started doing this, everything got easier.

Before bringing a new door into the room, I’d shim the hinge side of the rough opening — using the old door’s position along the floor and baseboards as my reference point. By the time the new door came in, I wasn’t trying to simultaneously hold a heavy solid-core door and adjust shims along the frame. The frame was already set. I just lifted the door into place and screwed it in.

Solid-core doors are heavier than they look. Anything that reduces the amount of time you’re wrestling with one is worth doing.

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Test the latch before you finish. Every time.

I learned this one the hard way, twice.

A door can look perfectly level on both sides and across the top, but if the latch hole isn’t lined up precisely with the strike plate, the door won’t close right. And once you’ve nailed off the latch side and called it done, fixing that misalignment is a lot more work than the 10 seconds it would have taken to test it first.

Before I drive the final nails on the latch side, I now close the door and test the latch. It sounds obvious. I still have to remind myself to do it.

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Don’t use caulk on nail holes

Early on, I used paintable caulk to fill nail holes and the small gaps where the jamb meets the wall. It looked fine for a couple of hours. Then it shrank, cracked and looked worse than the holes.

Switch to spackle or wood filler. It takes a coat of paint better, doesn’t shrink and won’t crack along the edges. Small thing, noticeable difference.

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The small doors are harder to find than you think

The 30-inch doors — bedrooms, bathrooms — were easy. Every big box store carries them.

The 18-inch closet doors were a different story. I ended up at a specialty lumber store to find the right size, and even then the hinges and door jamb edges didn’t always match the other doors from the same manufacturer and style. Budget extra time for sourcing if you’re replacing closet or small utility doors.

One more thing on sourcing: not every hardware store is interested in helping a first-timer figure out where to start. I walked out of one large lumber company after it became clear no one was going to help me. Fortunately there were plenty of other places willing to help — and to take my money. If a store makes you feel like a burden, go somewhere else.

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The most important thing I learned

Doors are more forgiving than you think.

I spent the first year aiming for perfect. I’d fuss over a 1/16-inch gap, re-shim something twice and stand there staring at a door for ten minutes wondering if it was right.

What I eventually figured out: trim covers a lot. Doors are going to door, for the most part, as long as they’re reasonably plumb and the latch catches. The early doors I agonized over look fine. The later doors I installed with more confidence and less second-guessing look just as good.

Trust your level, test your latch and keep moving.

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Tools used: prehung interior doors, 6-foot level, carpenter’s square, inflatable door lifting bag, nail gun, 3-inch wood screws, spackling, paintable caulk.

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Step by Step

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