Arched Door Frame Construction

Measure layout and cut two plywood arches that represent the top of your arched door opening.

Arched door frame construction.

Measure your door carefully and cut the opening to fit using a reciprocating saw. Although this project is a little more challenging than creating a standard door from scratch you can design and build an arch top door for your own home to. Down on the stud to install see diagram in the picture gallery above. An arch adds elegance to a home and is popular as a fairly easy way to open a wall for a spacious look and add a focal point.

Use your cutout wood pieces as a pattern for your drywall. Click on photo to enlarge. Universal arch kit comes preformed to a 13 in. Two pieces of 1 2 in.

Pieces of plywood equals 2 3 4 inch wide blocking 3. Up from the floor the common height for interior doors. With two studs framing the door opening mark both sides of the opening 80 in. This will be the bottom plane of the arch.

Leave the frame in place for 24 hours until the cement dries. It can also be easily installed to metal framing. Rip several pieces of wood blocking to the width of your framing lumber minus the thickness of the two pieces of plywood in this case a 2 4 minus two 3 8 in. Radius and it is not bendable simply mark 13 in.

An arch top door can be an expensive investment due to the nonstandard design of the outer frame. Adding an arch to a doorway is a great way to bring architectural interest to a room. Any doorway any opening the universal arch kit can do it all. Screw 2 1 2 in 6 4 cm boards onto the corners of your door frame.

However such a door adds a lot of class to a room and will look great in any setting. Drive screws into the middle of the board every 3 4 inches 7 6 10 2 cm to secure it in place. Here s how to frame it. Place the frame into the doorway and cement in the bricks starting at the bottom of the arch shape the center brick to fit if needed.

Arched openings are made by building a plywood form to fill in the top of a right angle doorway requiring two arched plywood panels one for each side with filler pieces in between. Plywood make up a full inch and door openings if framed with 2 4 s are actually 3 1 2 in. After marking the arch on your drywall cut out the curved portion of the drywall with a jig saw as shown right. Determine the size of the door opening.

A typical door opening is 2 inches 5 1 cm wider than the door size being installed to allow for the thickness of the jamb material and shims to plumb the jamb.