How to Hang a Door

How to Hang a Door: Getting Started

If you need to learn how to hang a door and are unsure of what type of door you’ll need, you’ve come to the right place.

Hanging a door can seem like an intricate and confusing process, but once you break it down, step-by-step, starting with determining what materials you’ll need, it’s just like any other project. 

There are three main types of doors that are available on the market today – Pre-hung (flat or straight jamb), split-Jamb, and slab. Any one of these types of doors may be your best option, depending on the situation, but choosing the wrong one could add a lot of unnecessary frustration. 

You can check either Lowe’s or your local building supply store for purchasing your door.

In this post, we’re going to explain the difference between the three, which is the best for your situation, and how to complete the installation.

What Is a Pre-Hung Door?

Pre-hung interior doors can come in a wide range of weight, depending on if it’s hollow or solid core. Hollow core interior doors are generally pretty light and can be moved around by one person.

Pre-hung exterior doors are often extremely heavy and require at least two individuals, depending on strength and where the door needs to be installed.

The good thing about getting a pre-hung exterior door is that they come weather sealed, so you don’t need to worry about the water or air leakage. Some situations when you should go with a pre-hung hung door would be:

• Installing a new door in a new house
• Installing any door in a rough opening or one without a good condition frame
• The current frame is warped and you’re replacing a door
• Installing an exterior door

What Is a Split Jamb Pre-Hung Door?

They include all the hardware and the door is pre-hung similar to a straight jamb. Split jambs are used more in the southern United States than anywhere else, and are sometimes thought to be a good choice when dealing with a rough opening that has an uneven thickness.

What Is a Slab Door?

You would also be responsible for purchasing the hardware for the door. Some scenarios when you might want to choose a slab door would be:

• Saving money is the number one priority
• You want to re-purpose an old door or unique door.

What Type of Door Should I Buy?

If it’s your first time learning how to hang a door, or if you have multiple doors to install, pre-hung should be your first choice. Split jambs tend to be less durable the solid jamb pre-hung doors, and they also allow for less adjustment.

Slab doors are most commonly used when trying to save or repurpose an older door, or when replacing a door that has become damaged but still has an intact frame.

Slab doors can also be the most cost-efficient for skilled door installers.

For further detail on what type of door you should buy, given your situation, you check out our post on buying and replacing a door.

How to Hang a Door: EZ-Hang

However, builders and DIY’ers don’t realize just how much time and subsequently money, they could be saving. Using shims can be a reliable door hanging method, but it is extremely time-consuming. There’s also quite a high learning curve in order to become proficient in shimming a door.

After 30 years of building houses, seeing all the innovation and progress that was emerging, we knew there had to be an easier way to hang doors.

That’s when we came up with the idea for EZ-Hang – a simple door hanging bracket that enables you to quickly install a door without shims.

At first, EZ-Hang was purely for personal use, to increase door installation efficiency within our own construction company.

But once we realized just how easy it makes hanging a door, we knew it was something that needed to be shared with the construction and DIY communities.

When to Use EZ-Hang

It can also be used on slab doors if the door is attached to the jamb prior to installation. So essentially, you’re turning the slab door into a pre-hung door prior to installation.

Hanging a Door With EZ-Hang Brackets