How To Install a Doorknob

  • By Captain DIY
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  • 25 Jul, 2019
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On a Closet in This Case, but They're All Pretty Similar

This post is sponsored by the Half Hour Hank app. This app is designed to help you organize your DIY project ideas, and even get them done! Head over to the App Store and check it out!

As you know from my somewhat recent article smartly titled The Attic Master Bedroom Finish Conversion Project, we recently turned the attic here at the Headquarters into our master bedroom. The project was a real doozy, starting with pulling ancient insulation out on an insanely hot day, and moving all the way along to the finishing touches, a few of which have yet to be done.

Well, I finally got around to one of those finishing touches yesterday, thanks to the motivation I got from my new Half Hour Hank app! And the only tool I needed was a screwdriver!

A Naked Door Gets Clothed

Ooh, there are all kinds of great puns going on here! Wow, that one really should get into the Dad Joke Hall of Fame! I mean, with the clothes closet door and all, and…what? You want me to stop trying to be funny and get on with the damn story already? Jeez, some people have no sense of humor!

Anyway, our closet door has been sitting there unknobbed for a solid year now. That’s right, it’s been at least a year that we’ve been up there and we still haven’t finished it! Even Captain DIY procrastinates the hell out projects. I decided a few weeks ago that I would just buy a doorknob, and having it sitting on the kitchen counter staring at me finally pushed me over the edge into productivity.
Do me! Do me now!

It's Business Time

Alright, I’ll start this off thinking about those of you who have a new door. If you have an old door that already has a knob and you are just replacing it, catch up with us in a bit. The first sentence or three may not apply to you.

Most off-the-shelf new doors that include frames, especially closet doors, come with the holes in place in the door and a little slot and hole chiseled out of the frame. If yours doesn’t have this, that’s ok. The knob will come with a template to help you drill out your door, and the catch has a little piece that you can use to just pound the thing into the frame.
In my case, everything was already cut out. All I had to do was put screw little latch part into the door, making sure that the angled part of it was facing the frame.
Just think of this as a grip strengthener
Once that was screwed in (after I made sure the holes that the knob would attach to were centered in the hole-roughly speaking) I took the doorknob apart. Here is where the instructions are handy, because the knob I got did not want me to take the screws all the way out, as I would have thought to do.

At that point, all you need to do is slide the two pieces of doorknob together through the holes in the latch and then tighten the screws. I chose to put the side of the doorknob with the screws on the inside for aesthetics’ sake, but it could have worked either way.
Easy Peasy!

Time for the Framework

The little metal part that catches the latch, which I’m pretty sure is called the “catch”, needed to be screwed into the door frame so the latch could get caught properly. This involved closing and opening the door several times in a very official manner, while kneeling down and muttering, also in a very official manner.

The point of all of this officiousness is to make sure the latch lines up properly with the hole in the frame, which, if you bought a door mounted on a frame, is most likely the case. If not, this is where you get out the drill and chisel.

For those who don’t have a hole in place, mark the frame where the latch hits it, then drill a hole large enough to fit the latch plus a little. It doesn’t have to be deeper than 3/4 of an inch. Then, line up the catch with the hole and trace around it. You need the surface of the catch to be flush (even, for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with carpentry vernacular). This is where the chisel comes in. I realize that I said I only needed a screwdriver in the beginning, and that’s because I didn’t need to do this step. Lucky me!
Don't mind the lack of trim. Seriously, don't talk about it.
If you do have a hole already, and it lines up with the latch, all you have to do is screw the catch in place.

Done! You now have a functioning doorknob! Go grab a beer, call your friends, and tell the local newspaper that you accomplished a task! Don’t forget to mark it as done on your Half Hour Hank app too so you can get those points!
If you thought that article was great, try one of these on for size!