Internal doors: reusing your frames or fitting new linings

You can reuse existing frames if they are square, sound and the openings suit standard door sizes, usually 762mm by 1981mm. Once you replace the linings the architrave comes off with them and cannot be refitted, so a lining change is really a lining, architrave and decorating job. That decision moves the price far more than which door you choose.

Replacing the doors in a house is one of the highest-impact jobs for the money. Whether it stays cheap depends entirely on the frames.

When can the existing linings stay?

If they are square, solid, and not painted into a lumpy mess, new doors hang straight on them. The architrave stays put, there is no plastering, no decorating beyond the doors themselves, and a typical house is a day or two of work.

When do the linings have to go?

Linings twist over time, especially in older houses. If the frame is out of square, the door will either bind at one corner or show a tapering gap down the closing edge, and no amount of adjusting the hinges fixes a twisted frame. Twenty layers of paint is the other common case, because the rebate the door closes into has effectively disappeared.

Why do new linings cost more than the linings themselves?

The old architrave comes off and does not go back on. That means new architrave, filling and making good where the old one sat, and redecorating the wall around every opening. The linings themselves are a small part of it.

When is the moment that saves you money?

If new linings are going in, the room is already apart and the architrave is already off. That is the cheap moment to change the skirting to match, because you are paying for the mouldings and the fitting but not for a second round of making good and decorating.