Boy oh boy, we've worked so hard over the past few months. But the result may be there! It's not quite finished yet, but it's starting to look like something and I finally have my steel doors in the house. It took a while to find affordable steel doors, but I found them! It is of course completely 'on trend' steel doors in the house. And because you see it so much, there are people who don't like it much anymore, but I am completely in love with our beautiful doors. We have a steel hinged door with a magnetic lock between the living room and the hall. And a steel sliding door between our kitchen and utility room and I am happy with these doors in the house.
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There is quite a bit of difference in steel doors. You have all kinds of different variants of steel doors with glass. The various designs range from 3 planes to 4 planes, to divisions in the steel that are even more playful. I was looking for 3 compartment steel doors myself, but preferably not too expensive. Our entire renovation was going to cost quite a bit, so it became a sport for me to look at the rest of the interior in an affordable way.
I have done that, and I can say with success, because it turns out that there are simply affordable steel doors on the market. As long as you don't have them completely custom made, because then they cost € 1500.00. Go for steel doors in standard sizes and it suddenly becomes affordable. We were ready for € 600.00! With a sliding door that is a bit easier anyway, because there you can play a little with the doorway that you have or have made. But a steel hinged door with a frame must of course fit exactly in the doorway.
In order not to end up being too expensive, we have chosen to purchase a steel hinged door with a frame in a standard size. I understand that this is not for everyone. But due to our renovation, we were able to determine a number of things in-house ourselves. The wall between dining room and hall – where the steel door should be – was partly demolished, so that everything had to be plastered anyway. This allowed us to decide to enlarge the doorway and have it tailor-made for the affordable steel door.
Now that sounds easier than said, I am aware of that. And it actually is. Between you and me – I've had a stomachache wondering if the doorway would be just the right size for the steel door. Because I played for the executor myself in our renovation, I also did the coordination myself. We demolished the hole in front of the door ourselves. Then the plasterer had to measure and plaster it accurately. There was no challenge at the sides of the doorway. After all, the opening size of the affordable steel door with frame was known. It was only exciting in height because we also laid a floor over our old tiles ourselves.
And under that floor, on the old tiles, a leveling layer had to be applied before the PVC floor could be laid. The exact thickness of such a leveling floor is of course difficult to determine. But we didn't do the greasing of the floor until after the plasterer was already finished. So very exciting whether the frame with the steel door would still fit. But it fits exactly!
I discussed with our contractor that we would install the steel door ourselves to save as much money as possible during the renovation. After all, I have even more wishes. If it didn't work, we could always call him.
In the end, after we laid the floor, we placed the steel door with frame ourselves. Do you also want to do this yourself? Then I have some tips for you below that you should definitely take to heart.
Our steel door comes from Loftdeur and is affordable. It is a large door (231.5 cm high and 93 cm wide) and yet cheaper than I have encountered at many other addresses. Assembling it yourself makes the project even cheaper, so we recommend it. You just have to know what you're doing. And we didn't quite know that 😉 .
It's not difficult at all, but you have to think about it for a while. The frame is secured with 8 large screws. Three screws on each side and two screws on the top. We removed the door from the frame and mounted the frame loose. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
But then we wanted to hang the door in it and that didn't work anymore. Why not? Because the wall above the door was in the way. When assembling the frame, we put it in the place we liked the most. A bit back in the doorway, as you can see above. But the moment you want to hang the door in it, you have to lift it up a bit to let it fall into the hinges. And that didn't work anymore. Fortunately, Frank had a clear moment… we had to assemble the frame while the door is in it. Then it will work.
First of all, it is smart to mark the holes in the walls with only the frame. Make sure that your frame is straight in the doorway (left and right are level with respect to the wall and only then mark it). Then you remove the frame from the doorway, place the steel door back in the frame and you can place the frame with the steel door in one go. It is nice if you are with two people. I held the door open and held, lifting it slightly so that it didn't exert any force on the frame. Frank screwed on the frame and then it's ready. You can actually have it in 15 minutes (if you do it right right away).
There is also a standard 8 mm space between the frames of the frame and the floor for ventilation.
If you go for affordable steel doors, the choice is not huge. In other words… on some points you may have to make some concessions. For example, I would have loved to have a roller lock, but I couldn't find one in the real steel doors. Friends of ours have such a roller lock in a steel look door, and that is possible again.
A normal handle in the steel door is possible again, but then you also get a steel plate in part of the glass to attach the door handle. I find that less attractive than the long subtle door handle that we have with these affordable steel doors. We have therefore arrived at a magnetic lock. This lock works perfectly. It is very easy to push open. However, the lock has one drawback:When you close the door, the magnet automatically attracts the steel door. In itself fine, but the moment the steel door touches the magnet, it makes quite a bit of noise. We had to get used to that. In the meantime -after two weeks- we don't know any better. If you want to reduce this noise, you can. You can remove a piece of the magnetic strip in places, so that the attraction is somewhat lower.
A big advantage of this sound…. the adolescent cannot come home late unnoticed. I'm sure I'll hear this door close when I'm in bed, haha.
