French Door Installation for DIY Dummies

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One of the offices in the converted residence we use for the Antisocial Network's World HQ has french doors, apparently into what was once the master bedroom. Replacing the cheap doors with something more contemporary – multi-light mullioned doors with frosted glass – has been on the to-think-about list for years, so the staff have studied them in some detail, In other words, we have a number of people around here who could have done a better job of writing the HomeSteady.com post, "How to Install French Door Handles" than the guy who did, Mark Morris (aka markrmorris2).

One major difference between conventional doors and french doors is that the latch on the passage door connects with a strike plate on the stationary door. The presence or absence of a second handle set on the stationary door varies; when present, the handle is a dummy. The dummy door also has a lip to serve as a stop molding, in many sets the molding is part of an installation kit that includes a locking mechanism to hold the second door closed.
As is often the case with eHow.com/Homesteady content, Morris claimed to have referred to general instructions on how to install door hardware. As a result, he... left stuff out. For one, he never once mentioned the stop molding, instead telling his readers to,

"Mark the edges of the doors with the paper template for striker and striker plate placement."

Too bad Mark didn't know that the "striker," as he called it, is really the latch. He also came up with some weird dimensions, telling readers to use a "1¾-inch hole saw" for the lockset and to, "Bore the striker and striker plate holes with a 7/8-inch spade bit." We beg to differ: use the dimensions specified by the manufacturer, which are (usually) 2¹⁄₈ and 1-inch hole saws (not spade bits).

Morris then says to,

"Install the handles. One has a spring-loaded striker bolt..."

Gawd, we hope not, especially if the doors are exterior! But we figured it out: Morris found the instructions for a set of french-like closet doors and decided they were sufficient to his needs. Well, they were sufficient to earn him a Dumbass of the Day award, but we hope that anyone who wants real instructions for this task looks elsewhere (but not at HowStuffWorks, FWIW).

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