Door talk

Trim size: Also known as the ‘hole in the wall’ this refers to the dimensions of the prepared opening for a door. Our leaf/trim calculator will help you match the leaf and trim sizes for a door.

Installation tolerances: Allowed gaps, see installation details

Door leaf: The part of a door that swings open and shut.

Door jamb: The leaf’s hinges are attached to the door jamb, which includes two vertical jambs and a top horizontal lintel.

Hung door: The assembled leaf, hinges and jamb.

Fire door: A complete unit made up of the leaf, jamb, seals and hardware that are all appropriate to the door’s fire rating.

Door handing: This term relates to how the door swings open.   There are many confusing ways that this can be explained, but we like to make it easy.

1. With the door CLOSED, stand (or imagine you are standing) on the side where you will have to PULL THE DOOR TOWARD YOU to open it
2. Observe (or imagine) which  the side the of the door is (or will be) hinged
   1. If the hinges are on the left, the door is left hung
   2. If the hinges are on the right, the door is right hung

The only time you have to take  ‘open in’ or ‘open out’ into consideration is if you want us to supply your prehung door with a fitted sill.  Contact us.

Active vs Passive leaf:  In a double-leaf door the active leaf is the one to which the latching or locking mechanism is attached. The latching mechanism engages with the passive leaf when the pair of leafs is closed. When In service the active leaf is the first of the pair to open and the last to close.