ᐅ Door and Door Frame Damage During Construction Phase – Is Protection Necessary?

Good morning,

my house will finally be built in January, and I am not sure whether the doors and door frames will be properly protected during the construction phase or if it is really necessary to protect them.

I can easily imagine that builders, carrying materials and tools, might bump into the corners of the doors and cause some damage.

I already wish everyone a nice weekend and look forward to your experiences.

Michael from the North 🙂

MichaelH82 schrieb:

Good morning,

my house will finally be built in January, and I’m not sure if the doors and door frames will be properly protected during construction or if it’s really necessary to protect them.

I can easily imagine that workers carrying materials and tools might accidentally bump into the corners of the doors and cause damage.

I already wish everyone a great weekend and look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Michael from the North 🙂

Doors are usually installed right at the end. Even for the front door, there is initially a temporary construction door that is later replaced with the actual one.

Tom1978 schrieb:

Doors are usually installed at the very end. Even for the front door, there is initially a construction door that is later replaced by the final one.

This was not the case for us; the actual exterior doors were installed right away. At least the door frames are installed before plastering.
In our case, both the frames and doors were covered with protective tape when tradespeople were working near the doors, such as the plasterers and drywall installers. Other workers were careful as well. However, we kept the protective film on the front door until the very end. The other protective films applied during manufacturing need to be removed promptly; otherwise, they will bond tightly and become very difficult or nearly impossible to remove.

Tom1978 schrieb:

Doors are usually installed at the very end. Even for the front door, there is initially a construction door that is later replaced with the final one.

It depends. In our case, it was delivered together with the wall.

Just as @motorradsilke mentioned, for proper plastering it’s better if the door (at least the frame) is installed before applying the plaster.
The infill can initially be a temporary filler (this does not work with a flush-mounted panel), and the actual one is installed later.
Otherwise, you need to provide protection yourself, such as EPS foam, a thin OSB board, or something similar.
If you have a complete construction door, the plasterer has to leave a narrow strip free, which must be plastered later. This can turn out well but can also look visibly unprofessional.

In our timber frame construction, the front door was also delivered pre-installed with the wall, complete with protective films. These were removed three months later after moving in.

Interior doors, however, are always installed last.