Three numbers, three ways to get it wrong
The message we receive most often reads: "opening is 90 by 200". Measured where, though? Over the plaster or under it? Height from the screed or from the finished floor? And how thick is the wall? A steel door cannot be trimmed like timber or packed out like a window frame, so these answers come before the order, not after.
The logic is simple: you measure the hole in the wall, and the manufacturer calculates the frame that fits the hole and the leaf that fits the frame. Your job is the opening, not the door.
Before you start
If the old door is still in place you have two choices. Guessing the structural opening around an existing frame is always wrong, because the old frame and its foam eat 2–5 cm of wall. Measuring the true rough opening after removal is accurate. If you must measure with the old frame in, say so explicitly when you send the figures.
Tools: a 5 m tape, a spirit level, pen and paper. Work in centimetres — that is what every drawing and quotation from Turkey uses.
Width, measured three times
Take the width at the bottom, the middle and the top. In older buildings these rarely match, and a 1–2 cm spread is normal. The order uses the smallest figure, because the frame has to pass the narrowest point, but send all three. A large spread tells us the wall needs correcting, and it is far better to know that before production than on installation day.
Height and floor level
Measure the height at both jambs and at the centre, and write down what the floor actually is: raw concrete, screed, or finished covering. If the floor finish is still to come, subtract its build-up — tile plus adhesive, or timber plus underlay — from the opening height. Frames set before the floor leave the leaf dragging afterwards, and the only remedy is cutting the bottom of a finished leaf.
Wall thickness drives frame depth
Measure wall thickness including plaster, at both jambs. Frame depth is selected from this figure. Too shallow and bare wall shows beside the finished door while the architrave refuses to sit flat. Building entrance and villa frames are adjustable between 20 and 24 cm, which covers most thick-wall situations; apartment doors on unusually thick walls need an extension profile.
Tell us the wall material as well — brick, aerated block, reinforced concrete or plasterboard. Fixing method changes with it: standard anchors do not hold in aerated block, and plasterboard needs structural framing behind the opening.
Swing and handing
State whether the door opens in or out and which side the hinges fall. Best of all, send a sketch: a rectangle with an arrow removes every ambiguity. For fire doors the escape direction must be stated for each opening individually.
Standard sizes and the made-to-measure line
Close to standard is easy. Apartment doors: 90 × 200 cm clear, about 108 × 210 cm overall. Building entrance and villa: 145 × 215 cm clear, about 165 × 223 cm overall. Fire doors: 90 × 200 cm clear, about 104 × 208 cm overall. Within a few centimetres of these, architrave and packing usually absorb the difference.
Beyond that the door is made to measure, with the frame recut and the pattern rescaled. Wide openings are normally resolved with asymmetric double leaves — a main leaf for daily use and a second leaf opened for furniture — as in our building entrance doors and glazed villa steel doors ranges.
What to send us
- Width at bottom, middle and top, in centimetres.
- Height at left, centre and right, with the floor reference stated.
- Wall thickness and wall material.
- Swing direction and handing, with a quick sketch.
- Whether the floor finish is installed, and its thickness if not.
- Free wall margin around the opening, where the architrave lands.
Photographs alongside the numbers help us catch problems you might not notice. Send the model you have chosen with these measurements and we will quote per door, with shipping from Istanbul priced separately.
