Hanging Doors for the Dummy Foodie

One of the little freelancer tricks that gets the goat of a lot of our research staff is the nearly perfect-seeming posts written by people who, in reality, know almost nothing of the topic. The culprits are usually J-school or English grads who've learned how to find stuff written by knowledgeable people and regurgitate it. There are always a few clues left scattered around, and the AN staffers are pretty adept at finding them. That's what happened when one of the kids found "Installing Interior Doors" over at LoveToKnow.com, as uploaded by Sara Elliot.¹

In the first place, we expected to see at least some DIY help here, but Elliot (a foodie, greenie, and interior design type) pretty much passed on the hard stuff. Instead, she leveraged her BA in English to tell her readers that,

"There are two door options when you're working with interior entry doors. One is a pre-hung door assembly that comes complete with hinges and a doorjamb. The other is what's often referred to as a slab door, or just the door by itself. Installing either type of these interior doors will be easier once you understand the basics."

We'll buy that, although we submit that no one here has ever heard of a "slab door," just a plain ol' "slab." But that's a quibble, because our point is that we don't think Sara understood those basics. She just understood how to perform a copy-reword-paste job. Of what, we don't know – Elliot wasn't required to cite a reference... which is a good thing, since we suspect the original never said that,

"The opening the door's going into has to be plumb, parallel and square in order for the new door to fit well..."

....mostly because "plumb" and "square" stand alone, but "parallel" requires a reference object: you say, "parallel to..." And then there's,

"Use a level to check at intervals along the length of the jamb to verify that the opening is consistent throughout."

No one here can figure that out at: consistently what? We also like the hint for prehung interior doors where Elliot intones,

"Before you buy a door, measure the thickness of the wall. Wall thickness isn't standard and will vary based on the types of materials used."

We hate to tell you, Sara, but interior wall thicknesses are pretty much standard. Exterior, on the other hand... And that's not to mention,

"Check the door header to verify that it's level."

That one's definitely destined for the AN's, "Say What?" file! Elliot says nothing left- or right-hand, and  doesn't even use the word "hinge" after her intro, a critical piece of the puzzle when you're installing a slab. She also doesn't bother to mention that a slab is exactly that: it's not pre-drilled for knobs and not pre-mortised for hinges. She just seems to think those details are part of what she actually termed the "fussy work." Well, Sara, not saying anything about that "fussy work" is one of the main reasons you're picking up a Dumbass of the Day award. Pretending you actually know something about hanging doors when you clearly don't is another.

¹ We had to wonder if she's the same person as S. Elliott at suite.io... based on style, we suspect the answer is "Yes."

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