Home builder Hammer & Hand builds custom doors for Capitol Hill Remodel.
This custom door, designed by Ben Smith and Tom Mulica of Domestic Architecture and built by Hammer & Hand woodshop manager Dan Palmer (who also provided input into the design of the door) and carpenter Josh Tinker, features unusual assembly and many custom details. The door will connect the living space of an historic Seattle home in Capitol Hill with its newly-expanded porch. It consists of two unique parts: a sliding pocket door and an inswing door.
This 2 1/4″ thick custom door is made of engineered pine stave cores with Red Grandis Lyptus veneers and edge banding. High performance 1″ thick Cardinal Insulated Glass Units were used for the panels. The sliding pocket door measures 5′ x 8′ while the smaller inswing door is 2′ 4″ x 8′ with a half lap joint at the meeting stiles.
This custom door features many custom details, including joinery and hardware. To ensure a proper air seal, H&H used industry best commercial grade silicone and pile weatherstripping throughout the project. The H&H team put together many full-scale mock ups in the process of construction.
“This was a challenging, demanding, and also extremely rewarding project,” said Palmer. “It was imperative that the details be figured and constructed precisely and that the components, like wood and hardware, be of a very high quality to ensure optimum long-term performance.”
Palmer came up to Seattle from the Portland-based H&H woodshop to assist with the install of the door as part of this Capitol Hill remodel.
Hammer & Hand Project Lead Nick Meyer shows how the pocket door slides into the wall.
The pocket door slides smoothly in and and out of the wall and stops at a precise location due to the integrated “stop” on the track. Flush bolts are manually engaged at top and bottom. The swinging door closes into a strike plate installed at the half lapped pocket door stile.
Check out the door in action:
And here’s a couple of photos of the finished door:
Photos & Animated Gif by Jeff Tan
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