Installing a Prehung Door

STEP 1: PREPARE TO INSTALL PREHUNG DOOR.

• First, check the rough opening you are going to install the prehung door in.
• When hanging a prehung door over your finished floor, like we did, you’ll have to cut the door frame down so the bottom of your door is nice and tight.
• Now is the best time to make a change to your framing if needed.
• Once your rough opening is right, and square, it is time to install a prehung door.

STEP 2: DRY FIT YOUR PREHUNG DOOR.

• Grab the biggest level you have and some wood shims.
• Once you have the big level, dry fit your door into the frame and see how it fits.
• When you dry fit, you might find that your prehung door is too far off the floor like we did and need to trim the frame.
• Make any adjustments you’d like before you commit to screwing in your frame.

STEP 3: SHIM AND LEVEL PREHUNG DOOR ON THE HINGE SIDE.

After these adjustments to the door frame, start by shimming and leveling the hinge side of your prehung door. Keep the other side of your frame off the studs by at least a 1/2 inch so you can make adjustments later.

STEP 4. SHIM TOP OF DOOR.

Start from the top down and be sure that the top of your jamb doesn’t flex or bulge when you add shims. Shim the gap at the top of the door.

STEP 5. SHIM AND LEVEL DOOR ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE.

Now that your hinge side is hung and level both inside and out, it is time to move to the other side and repeat the process.

STEP 6. BREAK SHIMS FLUSH.

Since the door and frame are in and square. Break off your shims flush with your wall studs.

STEP 7. ADD TRIM AROUND DOOR.

Now you are going cut your desired trim down to size and put it around your door.

STEP 8. CAULK DOOR TRIM.

If you were wondering how to install a prehung door, hopefully this tutorial helped you out!

If you love these prehung door installation and want to learn more like it, be sure to check out all of my DIY renovations tutorials in the archives here!