Internal doors: reusing your frames or fitting new linings

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 the existing linings can 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 they cannot

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 new linings cost more than the linings cost

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.

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.