Are you able to make a 3 hinge door into a 2 hinge door?

Question

To go further in depth, I have a 2/8 6/8 frame in my old house that only has 2 hinges. I have been unable to find a door to buy that has only 2 hinges (they’re all 3 hinge at the store); my question being that if I removed the middle hinge from one of the store doors if it would allow me to install it into the existing frame.

Answer 1

You can't just remove a hinge from a 3-hinge door.

If you do this, each hinge will carry 52% more weight than before. Each hinge used to carry 33% of the weight of the door, but now will need to carry 50%. 50/33 = 1.52, an increase of 52%. The load increase will most likely cause the hinge to fail.

There are two methods of installing the door:

• use all 3 hinges as designed, and chisel out a spot for the 3rd hinge on your existing frame
• buy a new set of 2 hinges that can take the full weight of the door, and also correctly install it on the door so that the screw strength are not compromised from the existing holes

Both methods will take some work, but it isn't something that would make it non-DIY.

Answer 2

If you really wanted, you could buy a hollow core door blank (no hinge mortises, no knob bore) from a real door place. The key here is “hollow core”.

The door place could, with your old door, match hinge mortises and lockset bore, or you could diy that prep.

You probably know this already, but your existing jamb is unlikely to be plumb/square, so a new door will probably require additional prep. (Again, a real door place can help with this, but a good result depends on having the old door in their hands with notes about how it fits in the old jamb.)

There are plenty of reasons to go down the path you’re proposing, but give a thought to buying a new prehung door. Hanging a door well in an old jamb isn't easy. On the other hand, installing a prehung is pretty easy, though it shifts the work to trim and paint, which can be non-trivial.