Turning panelled door into partically glazed.....

[Jess]

I have a number of 4 panelled doors waiting to be fitted in my property however I want the top two panels to be glazed. I've searched all over for 4 matching partically glazed doors and can't find them anywhere.

Is there anyway I can cut out the top two panels (I know it's sacralidge) and glaze the doors?

 

[Moo]

I don't know how it's done, but can bear witness to the fact that it can be done: Our back door was (and still is) a horrid two-panelled modern one. Our carpenter had no problem removing the top panel and replacing it with glass. More than ten years on it's still fine.
If your doors are new, I can't see why it should be sacrilege to tinker about with them. With originals, of course, it would be a different matter ...

 

[Penners]

It all depends on how the doors were made. If the panels were inserted at the time of assembly into grooves trenched into the edges of the solid timber rails and stiles, then I'm afraid you're going to do a fair bit of damage if you try to remove them. You could cut/break up the panels and withdraw them piece by piece, but you would then have to cut away one side of each trench to create rebates into which to insert the glass.

However, you may find that the panels are already held into rebates by moulded beading, on one side of the door. If they've got many years of paint on them it may be difficult to tell which side, but if you're able to identify the beading you should be able to prise it off.

Either way, once you've got the panels out and the rebates cleaned out (or have carefully cut off one side of the trenches to create rebates), it should be a simple matter to glaze the doors by inserting glass and then holding it in place with putty or mastic and new beading.

Remember that wood expands and contracts according to the atmospheric moisture content, so don't make the sheets of glass too tight a fit in the frames. And remember that there are regulations about the specification of glass that you're allowed to fit into doors. Any glass merchant will advise you.

 

[Gervase]

Penners is right; better quality doors are made with the panels rebated into the frames which makes for a tricker job. The panels can be removed if you have a very steady hand with a router, or with a Fein Multimaster (a piece of kit to which I've become addicted since seeing its praises sung on this forum. It's astonishingly versatile and precise), and then the glazing can be laid in place and beading fitted to make good.

 

[Penners]

Fein Multimaster...a piece of kit to which I've become addicted

Hear, hear. The price is a bit eye-watering, but it's a brilliantly versatile little job.