Home and Garden Web

Recently, I put new carpet in a theater room I’d been working on. The room was previously used for a home office and had short industrial-style carpet. The new carpet was a deep shag and thus was about half an inch taller.

As a result, the existing closet door was too tall and wouldn’t close with the new carpet installed. With a couple of simple tips you can remedy this situation in about 20 minutes.

First, assuming the closet door has already been removed, take it out of the room to an area where it’s safe to use power tools. Next, set up a couple of saw horses or 5-gallon buckets to give you a stable surface to work on. With your work area set up, grab a roll of blue painter’s tape. Wrap a single line of tape around the bottom of the door. The blue tape will keep the wood from splintering when you cut down the door and is easy to remove when you’re done.

Now you’re ready to measure and cut. Measure 1/2″ from the bottom and make a mark at each side of the door.  Next take a straight edge (I use a 36″ level) and draw a line connecting the two points. Put on a pair of safety glasses and and cut down the line using a circular saw with a fairly fine-toothed blade.

At this point you’re ready to remove the tape and re-install your door. One thing to keep in mind is how much you need to cut down your door. If it’s a solid wood door, this isn’t a concern. But for most of today’s hollow-core doors, there is a 2″ piece of wood at the base of the door. If you need to cut down the door more than that, you’ll have to buy a shorter door, which is usually a custom order.

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