Door Jamb to Wall

[nicnicman]

When placing doors on a floor plan how much room do you leave between the edge of a door and a perpendicular wall? As the picture shows, I usually go 4 inches. This allows for a stud and a jack (3 inches) and 1 inches for the door jamb. I arrive at 1 inch because the framers usually add 2 inches to the actual door size for the rough opening so I split that in half--1 inch on each side of the door.



I only use this method when space is at a premium, but I was just curious how do other drafters do it? Should I be adding more? Less?

Thanks for your time.

[dshall]

I agree with your approach.

[Alaskan Son]

I was a framing sub for a number of years before becoming a GC and also a designer. Production houses we usually framed the rough opening exactly 3 inches from the corner, or 4 inches to the actual door as you suggest...

Custom houses and jobs where you have more room to work with, I would recommend 6 inches to RO. At 3 inches there's a chance some wider mouldings won't fit, and even if it does fit or you use standard casing, the painting/staining work at that corner is often hard to do right and ends up a little sloppy.

Just my $.02

[nicnicman]

Good point. Higher end houses usually have more extravagant trim details that require more room. Unfortunately, I don't get many jobs like those, so I'm always watching square footage and overall cost.

[Curtis Johnson]

Something else to think about depending on the design is light switch placement and how much room is needed for the required box size. Nevertheless, the door location is usually the controlling factor. Bathrooms with large mirrors on walls and a door or doorway in close proximity to vanity cabinets is one example deserving a little extra planning on framing placement.

[Architex]

I do 4" as well unless I am doing a house that will have larger molding then I do 6".