Wooden Door Frame Options In India

The door frame is normally made of teak. Yes the basic problem with any such statement has an assumption that everyone can afford teak. So if you want to build a house you never build one thinking it will cost some X lakh or Y crores. This is also the reason why everyone wants to become an engineer or doctor and later open a shop and claim to be an entrepreneur. So always remember you can build something that suits your budget and stay happy than to have nothing in the end.

There are 3 types of doors

1. Indoor – door frames for bedroom, toilets, kitches, store rooms, etc not subjected to rain/water/direct sunlight/wind/etc
2. Outdoor – doors which can be subject to sun and wind and rain such as balcony, back door, etc.
3. Main Door – main entrance door where looks are important along with subject to weather effects.

So I will brief you on a set of parameters for types of material and it can qualify what is a good solution for you.

1. Life – how long does it live without losing shape, form, decay
2. Maintenance
3. Polish and paint options
4. looks – grains
5. Strength

Door Frame Options: 

Note that I am not an expert on wood or any such aspects. So this blog is about what I inferred as an engineer listening to people, timber yard folks and carpenters and of-course my own inference of these aspects. So please feel free to take it with a pinch of salt and evaluate it yourself.

1. Teak : Now Teak is high demand because of it can cater to all 5 aspects listed above.
2. African teak/Ghana teak/Sudan teak: In other words its a teak and is worth 1/3rd of the actual teak per cft. It is comparable to teak except for 5 because it seems to have lot of knots which can break/crack when performing some tasks. Having said that its not that bad as its mentioned. Note that I chose this option for door frame [ only the indoor door frames and not for door shutters ]
3. Red Sal/Honne/etc: Red sal seems to be a good option and lot of people go for this if [1 or 2] is found to be expensive for the budget. A good maintenance and proper wood protection paint/coatings should suffice for a long life and good durability. Honne the main concern was of color coming out of it if it gets wet. So bathroom doors are best avoided for this type of wood. In any case you could paint it and prevent it from releasing color.
4. WPC doors – water proof/termite proof/fire retardant doors manufactured using wood, pvc composite. Note that I chose this door frame and door for a opening to my terrace. This door can withstand rain/sun/termites since its a composite material and not true wood. But I found that this door the nails would slide in and would not offer a very tough surface for gripping the nails. So ideal way would be hit the nail, fill with wood bits and then rescrew it. Not sure if all the brands have similar issues but its good to test this aspect at the store. I had made this choice since the terrace door is subject to rains, heat, wind etc and a composite material would offer the required life. There are no other issues with this door. Only disadvantage is WPC cannot be polished, only painted. So if you have two doors one bedroom and bathroom facing each other than you could be in trouble when you choose this door since you need to polish
5. UPVC doors – I found this frame to be costly compared to a regular wood frame. Also this frame can only install a UPVC door and cannot install wood or flush doors. Also some of these doors have glass as the material for door shutter. This will impact bedroom privacy. So I could not consider it. Otherwise durability wise its a very good option similar to windows.

So here is a summary of the options that I chose based on above findings.

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Door Frame Fitting Options

The standard way of fitting a door frame is during wall construction and before lintel or after lintel. The door frame can be of the 3 types

1. 4 protrusions: It has protrusions on the 4 corners towards east and west side of the frame. These protrusions fit into the wall and will be closed with concrete. This means that such a frame has 4 edges in total and is used mostly for main door which has a vaskal [ bottom edge ] which is the place where pooja is peformed. There are 2 additional protrusions on the sides of the door which are metal L-clamps screwed to the side of the wooden doors. This adds further stability and security to the door frame.
2. 2 protrusions: These are mainly used for bedroom and bathroom doors and does not have the bottom edge of the frame. There are 2 additional protrusions on the sides of the door which are metal L-clamps screwed to the side of the wooden doors. This adds further stability and security to the door frame.
3. No protrusions: These frames are normally made to order. The advantage with this kind of frame is it can be fit after the basic wall work is complete. In fact it can be fit just before or after plastering. Note that fitting a wood frame later stages of house is an advantage since it does not interfere with the normal curing process of the house and you need not worry about the damage due to water to wood frame during curing. The way this frame is fit to the inner edges of the wall is by using anchor bolts. Refer the pictures for more information. [ I have used this method for all bedroom and bathroom doors] It is as sturdy as fitting using protrusions and sometimes more sturdier. Also it allowed me to buy time for shortlisting the right wood for my house upto later stages of the house ]. This prevents the necessity to break a part of the wall to fit the protrusions.