# Drywall meets door frame



## Stirator

I am new to remodeling, but just about have finished a remodel of an old home. I need to do the trim and it will be finished and my wife can quit nagging me to finish it,  (we have lived in it while doing a total remodel for 3 years).     My problem is this,,, It has plaster lathes all over, so to make it easier, I just covered all the walls and ceilings with Drywall. (In some cases I covered the ceilings with 1X 8 salvaged wood from crates at work first to hold the falling plaster on the ceilings up). This took care of the loose plaster and made a nice surface for screwing the drywall to, as well as making a great place to attach the drywall to. Drywall made a good place to splatter mud on and smooth down for a nice textured finish, but where I took the frames off the doors and windows now there is a rough edge of drywall that if I just nail the frames back on, will show. All I can think of is to buy some really thin wood, attach it to the face of the doors and windows and then put the frames back on.


I hope you can understand what I am trying to say here. If you open the door, stand with one foot in each room and look at the edge of the door frame, where the latch is at, you can see (from the left to the right), first, drywall, then the door frame, then more drywall in the next room. Looking at this, if I were to just nail the door frames back on, there would be an exposed edge of drywall showing. I see no way to cover the exposed drywall except a thin piece of wood. And even then I think I will need to cut down all of the doors to make room for this new wood. 
Then comes the other problem. If I have to use another piece of wood to cover the existing door frame (and windows too), how do I ever get a stain to use on this new thin wood to match all the old wood in this house?

I don't have any problems with anything else, even did the floor tiling in both the bath and kitchen, and tiled the backsplashes for the kitchen counters. Moved walls, (nephew is an engineer and ok'd them first), installed new kitchen cabinets, made an existing bedroom into a large bathroom complete with a garden tub, shower with whirlpool. Moved a set of stairs and redid the entire house. I even moved a couple ceilings back to the original 12 foot heights and reworked the crown moulding and it is back up. But I simply cannot figure out this simple covering of the door and window edges.   

Any help?


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## Daryl in Nanoose

When you drywalled did you put the drywall on top of the door jambs ?  Or have I missed understood you.


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## Stirator

I removed the trim around the doors, then drywalled up to the opening since the old plaster went up to there. The drywall is 5/8 inch thick so if I nail the trim back there is 5/8 inch edge of drywall showing.


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## Daryl in Nanoose

Last question: Are you useing new moulding or the the original?


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## Stirator

I was going to try using the old trim. But I am not sure. I have a lot of new trim in my garage already stained, (the result of overbuying and not knowing for sure what I needed).  
I would really like to keep the old trim since it has such a nice look to it, (I have been told it is Oak). It matches the Crown Moulding and the chair rail and the baseboards really nicely.
I hope this helps and I sure hope you have a solution figured out. Like I said in the original post, I am new to this remodeling thing. I have figured out everything else all by myself, but this one thing has me stumped. I appreciate your willingness to offer help.


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## bethany14

Could you attach a 5/8's strip on a 90 degree angle on the edge of the trim, so that it wraps around to meet the frame?  I think as long as the strips are symmetrical it won't detract much from the beauty of the original trim, and it shouldn't be too noticeable with a near match or complementary match in stain.  It may even add a nice personal touch


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## Daryl in Nanoose

bethany14 said:


> Could you attach a 5/8's strip on a 90 degree angle on the edge of the trim, so that it wraps around to meet the frame?  I think as long as the strips are symmetrical it won't detract much from the beauty of the original trim, and it shouldn't be too noticeable with a near match or complementary match in stain.  It may even add a nice personal touch



 Took the words right out of my mouth.


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## Stirator

I read what you both are saying, but I must be really dumb. I see that you tell me to attach a 5/8 piece,,,,,,,,, but where do I get a 5/8 piece of wood, and how do I attach it to drywall? Also, this 5/8 piece of wood, it would have to be really thin to fit so it does not stand out away from the frame of the door. Or is there something I am missing here? The way it looks to me I could nail the trim back up and then would need a paper thin piece of 5/8 wood to somehow attach to the drywall,,,,is this what you mean?

Again, Thanks for the help, but I don't understand what you mean about the 5/8 piece.


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## Daryl in Nanoose

I think I have mis understood you. Drywall usally goes to the door frame but not on top of it then normaly there is a 1/4" reveal ( moulding sits 1/4" back from the inside of the door frame) 
 What do you classify as thin?  How thin we talking about??
 The pic shows you what we are talking about but if it is really thin then all I can suggest is two things.
1- cut the drywall back so you can insert a piece like in the drawing.
2- install your moulding and glue all sides and tack nail the piece to the edge of the drywall so its even with your moulding  ( see second pic) the nails are there to hold the piece of wood in while the glue dries.This is all I can think of short of filling it up with filler and that might crack.


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## glennjanie

One other try; The wall being thicker than the door frame and you want to nail the old trim back on (the casing), rip a piece of 3/4" oak 5/8" wide and nail it to the frame before putting the casing on. Set this filler back from the face of the frame 1/16" (a reveal) then put the casing on.
The color; It is possible to put varying amounts of roofing tar in mineral spirits to make an exact color of wood stain (from Mother Earth News).
Or, another thought is to leave the filler natural giving a look similar to whitewall tires. It would be a neat conversation piece.
Glenn


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## Bobby_M

Worst case scenario, you can custom build new door jambs the appropriate width. I say worst because it's the most work, but would probably be the best end result.

You could also reinstall the jam flush to the drywall face in one room and put a 3/4" x 1-1/8" filler in on the other side instead of filling both sides with a 5/8" piece.


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## AndyD5

it sounds like you removed the door and casing completely right you don't have to put it back in the exact spot unless the flooring is a factor you could save yourself the hassle of fixing two sides if you just move the door closer to one side and fill in the other with a larger piece more material to work with means easier to anchor down   my house has lathe finish and someone installed a new door and trim I took the trim off and used mud to meet up to the door frame used a planner to cut back on the shims holding the door casing and hid it all behind mud it takes a lot of time to get it to look invisible but end result was back to original of the house which had no moldings around the wall just the flat surface base board the lathe sits on.  not having the molding made putting cabinets etc against the wall a lot cleaner looking too.  you might also try using drywall corner protector just to make it look nice rather than a rough edge you can get a 90 degree or a bevelled edge  the original lathe here was beveled with no trim and the trim added later ends at a 45 degree cut at the base of each door no door casing just the bevel


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## Stirator

I hope this works and you can see it.


Thanks for all your suggestions so far, but as I said, I must be really dumb, because I don't know what all of you are talking about. Maybe with this you can see what I am saying.

One other thing, in that picture when I say cover the door frame with plywood, I am actually talking about covering the door frame and the drywall on both sides. I think I have seen something called luanne that is really thin that I could use, but it will make my door about 1/2 inch narrower. And then I would have to nail the trim back on really carefully so the edge of the plywood is not exposed too.


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## Daryl in Nanoose

I still think this is your best bet for this.


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## Square Eye

Your drywall should have never been extended over the frame.
That's where your drywall job went horribly wrong.
What Daryl is illustrating is exactly how carpenters have been solving this situation for longer than any of us have been alive.
Cut that drywall back off of your door jambs and then see what you need.


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## Stirator

OK  I think I have it now. I still had it in my mind that I needed to cover the entire surface of the door frame with thin wood to cover up everything. Then cut the width of the door, etc,etc,,, I see now what all of you have been trying to tell me.   Thank you for your patience and time in getting this worked out! 

Now I just need to get some of the old oak trim I scavenged from an old house being torn down, clean it a bit and cut it to fit under the existing trim. Except for the door trim I have had many compliments about my work, even from the inspector for the city, he says I have retained the original flavor of the home and brought it up to todays standards without destroying its original charm. And the appraisal on it went from 65,000 when I started it to 153,000 with only 30,000 invested and a lot of my own energy.

 As for the horrible drywall job,,,,,,I don't think it is all that bad, for someone who spent about 30,000 for remodeling and not one penny went to another person, all of the expenditures went for material. I did it all myself. That's why I am here, to find remedies, and that is why this place exists, for the do-it-yourselfer who maybe does not have all the money that you must have. I try to do everything myself and if I don't know or have doubts I try to educate myself on the proper way to do things. Like coming here for answers. That way I can do more with the few dollars I do have to spend.


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## Stirator

I guess I need to apologize to Tool Guy,,, It just hit me wrong and I felt that you were being critical of my work without seeing it, just from reading about a mistake. 

I am sorry I went off the deep end on you! 

I do realize that you are in the business to help homeowners with their needs, but I would not have very much if I had to pay someone else to do all my wish list holds. Somehow I have managed to remodel a house, I do my own electrical work (I am an electrician by trade so there are very few mistakes there), I do my own landscaping, and even when needed am not a bad mechanic on my own vehicles  and lawn mowers, (with a little help from the folks at the parts store).    (completely tore down a motor and transmission and rebuilt them both, what a project, but I did it and still drive the truck today).

I guess my Daddy was the same way and he passed some of that stubborness on to me. I just hate to pay someone else to do anything that I am able to do, even if I have to ask for ways to do it . He said if I had lived during the depression I would understand it all, I am glad I didn't, but I do think I understand about getting the most for my hard earned money. A lot of my friends today just go ahead and get anything done by someone else because they don't want to do it themselves, I call it laziness that has invaded our country. We have abandonded the pioneer spirit that makes us want to do something even if it is out of our comfort zone. Enough of my soapboxing, just wanted to do this:

Again, I apologize for my previous ranting to you!!!


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## Square Eye

Your rant is fine.
I didn't intend to insinuate that your drywall was all bad.
But the drywall still should never have been run on top of the door jambs.
It can be cut in the same pioneering spirit  and made right.
It's not a big deal, the solution is simple for those of us who do this every day.
Cut the drywall back and it will be far easier to fix.
I do have to agree with Bobby_M though, new jambs may the best route in this case.
Adding strips to the edge of the trim can be a bit tedious.
When you decide how to fix the doors, let us know how you did it, post a pic if you can.


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## HomesRedone

Thanks for this info. As inexperenced remodelers, we managed to place drywall over the old slat board walls to create the same problem descibed here, at the front door. I will try this.


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## HomesRedone

Before you tell me I did the drywall wrong, I really know that for a fact. we bought a house for $11,000 and have made more than our share of mistakes. But at this price we could afford them. this was a great first time remodeling job.


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## msingletary

I have the same problem. We are flipping a house right now. I have done most of the drywall in the house myself, in all three bedrooms, the living room, and the bathroom. I didnt know what I was doing, but I foresaw this problem when hanging drywall around the doors. I ran it up to about an inch from the door frame, and then took some scrap pieces of drywall and ripped one inch wide strips with the clean taper side at the end. I then attached the door molding and had a nice clean finish. However, for our kitchen we needed plumbing work done that I could not do, so we paid some contractors to do the job. We went ahead and had them hang the drywall during the project. in the kitchen and hallway. They ran the drywall over the door frame, and so I was wondering what to do. I really didnt want to have to cut the drywall back, but I guess thats what I may have to do. They did it in the kitchen and hallway with accounts for 7 doors (3 bedroom, 3 closet, 1 bathroom, and back door). I would have thought professional contractors would have known better. Is there any way to fix this without cutting the drywall back on all the doors?


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## Daryl in Nanoose

I would do what you did before so it matches. They used to use J-bead or L-trim which gives you a clean edge but is not designed for trim work.


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## jllillyscott

I know exactly what you are talking about,  I have done the same thing with my house.  I put drywall over existing drywall and took the door and window frames off first so that i could go right up to the edge of the window and door.  now putting the frames back on leaves a crack under the door frame where you can see the drywall i just put on. I only used a 1/4" drywall though.  so its not as bad.


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## nealtw

jllillyscott; welcome to the site. If you add added 1/4 x 3/4 wood the the frames and drywalled to that you would have had a more finished look.


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