Frequently asked questions

How to choose a door

At we want to make sure you get the right doors for your projects. Here are important choices to make when you are selecting doors.

  • What size doors do you need?
  • The purpose of the door.
  • The style and architecture of the building.
  • The location of the doorway.
  • The opening direction of the door; inwards, outwards, or to one side, as a slider.
  • For entrance doors, is the doorway exposed to wind and weather, or sheltered?
  • For interior doors, do you want an affordable hollow-core door or a solid door that will improve soundproofing?
  • Do you want windows or leadlighting in your doors?
  • For entrance doors, do you want sidelights beside the door?
  • What finish do you want for your doors? Stained, painted, rolled or sprayed?
  • Will you have to update doorways for the doors that you want? BDS doors can provide custom-built door frames.
  • What hardware does your door need? Handles, hinges, locks?


Door types

What about cost? To help you plan, here are basic budget and premium options for the main types of doors.

  • Interior Doors – Budget: Standard hollow core. Premium: Solid-core/soundproofing, timber or fibreglass doors. Depending on the end finish you want for your project, there are many different door skin and door core options which can create different results for you. Please ask; the more detail you give us, the more we can tailor our product to your needs.
  • Entrance Doors – Budget: Solid doors (no windows), painted. Premium: Timber doors, doors with windows.
  • Character Doors – Budget: Fiberglass doors with moulded panels; recycled doors from other houses. Premium: Again, timber doors and doors with windows. Doors with leadlighting.


Prehung doors

When choosing finished prehung units, it is important that the top of the jamb lines up with other items in the house, i.e., lining up to a window or corresponding door openings. These need to be considered before gibbing and before finishing off openings, as it can affect the doors’ height. BDS Doors can help you though this process.

Some profiles of door jambs, particularly architrave jambs, will have different heights form the front of the door opening to the back of the opening.


Measuring for a new door

There are two ways to measure for a door:

  • Measure an existing door – Measure the height, width, and thickness of the door that fits in the current doorway.
  • Measure a doorway or door frame – Measure the space that will receive the door; its height, width, and depth.

When you are measuring for a door:

  • Use a carpenter’s tape measure.
  • Take each measurement three times, in millimetres, for each side of the door. For height, measure the left, the centre, and the right sides of the frame and door. Repeat this for the same procedure in the width, with the top, middle and bottom of the door and frame.

Need help? BDS Doors can help with our measuring service by either visiting your property or from your plans.


Door jambs

A door jamb is the vertical portion of a door frame. The door is secured to the jambs.
As an industry standard, we make all of our units to have a standard floor clearance underneath the door of 25mm unless noted. This can be varied depending on the floor coverings. This can be altered or tailored to suit your individual requirements.

For hinged doors only, the formulas below can be used for your prenail sizes. Note that sliding doors, cavity sliders have different clearances – please contact us with your questions.

Aligning Jambs in Construction

When installing a finished prehung door unit, it is important that the top of the jamb lines up with other items in the house, i.e., lining up to a window or corresponding door openings. These need to be considered before gibbing and before finishing off openings, because it can affect the door heights.

Note that some profiles of door jambs, particularly architrave jambs, will have different heights form the front side of the door opening to the back side of the opening.

Door Jamb Examples

Architrave Jamb
Door plus 60mm in width and door plus 60mm for lintel height. Note that the front and back have different overall heights.

Thick Groove Jamb
Door plus 80mm in width and door plus 70mm in lintel height.

This example shows a thick groove jamb, 150x50mm, that finishes at 30mm on the edge of the jamb.

Thin groove jamb door plus 60 in width and door plus 60 for lintel height.

This example shows a thin groove jamb, 150x40mm, that finishes at 20mm on the edge of the jamb.