Congratulations on purchasing a TruStile Wood door. Our doors are built with superior quality and craftsmanship which results in architecturally correct details and a product that will last a lifetime. Following these simple handling and finishing instructions will preserve the quality appearance of your doors and ensure that you meet the warranty requirements.
Handling and Storage Instructions:
- Treat the doors as you would a piece of furniture. Handling damage is not considered a factory defect.
- All doors should be handled with clean gloves and equipment to prevent dirt and oil from penetrating the surface of the door face. Bare hands can leave soil and oil stains.
- When moving doors, lift and carry each door with at least two persons. Do not drag doors or slide them across one another, as this can result in drag marks and chipping damage along door edges.
- Doors must be stored in a dry, well ventilated area in an enclosed building with an operational and balanced HVAC system. Do not deliver doors to the job site until concrete floor, foundations and plaster or dry wall work is completed and fully dry. Never store doors outside exposed to the elements.
- Do not subject doors to extremes of heat, dryness or humidity. Relative humidity should not be less than 25% or more than 55% in door storage area, during installation or during use. Temperature should not exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit in storage area, during installation or during use. Extremes in Relative Humidity outside of the prescribed range can cause significant damage to the doors including cracking of panels and checking of veneers. Reference AWI Architectural Woodwork Standards (1st edition 2009, Section 2) and WDMA Standards (I.S. 6A-2008, Section J-1) for established interior environmental requirements for wood doors.
- If doors are to be stored for a long period of time (longer than one week), doors must be sealed (all six sides and hardware cutouts) with a non-water based sealer or primer to prevent undue moisture penetration or drying of the product.
- Doors should be stored flat on a level surface in a dry, ventilated area. Place doors on a piece of plywood or cardboard to protect face of bottom door. Two 2x4s should be placed at 12″ from top and bottom of door and one 2x4 should be evenly spaced in the middle. It is very important to use a center support so that the doors do not sag in the middle. Cover doors to keep clean, but allow air circulation.
- DO NOT lean doors against the wall.
- DO NOT store doors in direct sunlight.
- Certain species of wood are more sensitive to light and require additional protection from sunlight and UV rays. These species include walnut, mahogany and cherry.
Door Fitting and Hanging Instructions:
- All doors should be acclimated to the average prevailing relative humidity of the locality before hanging.
- When hanging a door, allow adequate clearance for swelling of the door or frame in extremely damp, high humidity environments. The following guidelines should be used for non fire-rated doors.
- Width: Specified +/- 1⁄16″ with possible humidity expansion of 1⁄16″ for a total variance of 1⁄8″.
- Height: Specified +/- 1⁄16″ with possible humidity expansion of 1⁄16″ for a total variance of 1⁄8″.
Fitting Non-Rated Doors
- Trimming to meet your size requirements can change the overall appearance of the door. If you need to slightly trim your door, we recommend that you trim the bottom (do not trim the top) by no more than 1”; and each side by no more than an ¼”.
Fitting Fire-Rated Doors
- All fire-rated doors manufactured by TruStile must be prefit and machined by TruStile Doors, LLC or an ITS-Warnock Hersey licensed facility
- TruStile 45-, 60- and 90-minute fire doors cannot be trimmed by more than 1⁄16″ in total width or 1⁄32″ per side (ITS-Warnock Hersey licensed facilities only).
- The standard location for ITS-Warnock Hersey fire labels is on the hinge stile between the top and center hinge. For doors with continuous hinges the label is located on the top rail of the door. These labels should not be removed, covered up or painted.
Hinges
- Heavy duty ball bearing hinges are highly recommended.
- Use three hinges on doors up to 7′ and one additional hinge for each additional 30″ in height.
- Pre-drilling: Screw holes must be pre-drilled to prevent stripping.
Job Site Installation Instructions:
- Only install TruStile doors in a closed in building with operational HVAC once all wet work trades are complete. Relative humidity inside the building should not be less than 25% or exceed 55% and temperature should not exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Allow doors to acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the installation location before installation (minimum of 72 hours or longer when heat and/or humidity extremes exist compared to storage location).
- If doors are to be stored at the job site for a long period of time prior to finishing (longer than one week), doors must be sealed (all six sides and hardware cutouts) with a non-water based sealer or primer to prevent undue moisture penetration or drying of the product.
- If hardware installation requires drilling into a top or bottom edge of a door, installer must pre-drill for screws to ensure effective screw holding and eliminate any chance of material splitting.
Acceptable Tolerances for TruStile Wood Doors:
- Warp or Bow:
- Doors 3′ wide by 7′ tall or smaller: 1⁄4″ or less measured diagonally from the top rail to the bottom rail across the span of the door.
- Doors larger than 3′ wide by 7′ tall: 3⁄8″ or less measured diagonally from the top rail to the bottom rail across the span of the door.
- Stile and Rail joint: A gap of 1⁄16″ or less.
Field Finishing Instructions:
Acclimation and Storage Prior to Finishing:
- Allow doors to become acclimated to finished building heat and humidity before finishing (minimum of 72 hours when heat and/or humidity extremes exist compared to previous storage location).
- If doors are to be stored at the job site for a long period of time prior to finishing (longer than one week), doors must be sealed (all six sides and hardware cutouts) with a non-water based sealer or primer to prevent undue moisture penetration or drying of the product.
Finishing Instructions:
All TruStile wood doors require sanding prior to finishing. The amount of sanding and preparation will depend on the customer’s selected finish and the method of finishing (spraying or wiping). Finishing will accentuate any natural characteristics apparent prior to finishing.
- Before finishing, remove handling marks, cross grain scratches or effects of exposure to elements and moisture with a thorough and complete sanding of all surfaces of the door using the appropriate grit sandpaper to give the owner the desired/specified finish. Sand the door following the direction of the grain. Remove sanding dust with dry tack cloth in between finish coats.
- Where possible, surface should be tested for desired finish to ensure there are no unfavorable reactions as occur with some species of wood. Do not use steel wool on oak veneers.
- Prior to staining, a first coat of thinned clear sanding sealer must be applied to the door, followed by a light block sanding. This step will promote uniformity of stained finishes and minimize subsequent handling marks.
- Apply one or more coats of stain and sealer as required, sanding in between coats. Stain should be applied with the door in a horizontal position to eliminate the solvents evaporating too quickly and leaving an inconsistent finish.
- Apply two coats of top coat for best results, sanding in between.
- Do not finish doors that have obvious defects. TruStile will not be responsible for warranty of doors that had obvious defects prior to field finishing.
Important: Failure to follow these handling, installation and finishing instructions will void all warranties, written or implied.