Taking Doors Off and Making the Route Work

The commonest reason a safe move is declared impossible is a doorway or a turn that is an inch or two too tight. Frequently that is solvable, and knowing what can be removed is the difference between a job going ahead and not.

Just-tn-Time Moving works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Doors first, because it is easy

An interior door on standard hinges comes off in a couple of minutes with a hammer and a punch, and gains you the thickness of the door plus a little clearance.

That is often exactly the margin needed. tt is the first thing to try and it costs nothing.

Store the pins with the door and mark which door came from where.

Then door stops and trim

The stop moulding inside a door frame can usually be prised off carefully and refitted, gaining a further half inch or so on each side.

Casing and trim around an opening can come off in the same way. tt goes back, and a careful removal is far better than a scraped safe or a damaged frame.

This wants doing properly rather than forced, and it is worth saying beforehand if you would rather it were not done at all.

Handrails on staircases

Frequently the constraint on a stair route, and usually removable. A handrail on brackets comes off and goes back.

Two cautions. tt may be what a crew wants for control on the way down, so removing it is not automatically an improvement. And on some stairs it is structural or built in, in which case it stays.

This is a judgement for the crew on site rather than something to do in advance.

What cannot be modified

Worth knowing so expectations are right.

The turn at the top or bottom of a staircase, which is geometry rather than an obstruction. Headroom above a flight. A structural wall. The width of the staircase itself.

Where those are the constraint, the answer is a different route or a specialist rather than a hammer.

Measure before you buy

The genuinely useful advice, offered too late for most people. tf you are buying a safe, measure the route into the intended position first: every doorway, the tightest turn, and the headroom.

Safe closets get framed to a size the safe cannot reach more often than you would expect.

Send photographs

The doorway, the turn, the staircase from both ends. We will tell you what would need to come off and whether the job is possible.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.