Shrinking the width of an existing louvre door

**RedShirtGuy** · 27th June 2011, 09:44 PM

I've got a customer who wants me to stick a fridge in their existing pantry which has two louvre doors. The plan is to whack the fridge (which is a bit over half of the width of the pantry) on one side and rearrange the shelving by shrinking its width.

They'd like to be able to keep one of the existing louvre doors to cover the shelves which is looking like the tricky bit as I'd need to cut down its width. From a quick hunt around it looks like I've opened myself up to a whole world of hurt with redoing a gazillion tenons and cleaning out mortises. I don't think they'll be up for the time and cost that that sort of job is going to generate (yeh I know, tough bikkies for them really) but I'd like to be able to go to them with either an answer on whether it's worth it or even possible within time and budget constraints.

For a time saver, I'm thinking about pulling off one of the stiles, and just routing slots in it that I can slip back over the cut down louvres with a touch of glue. Possibly even forgo the routing and just tack them in with a nail

I don't suppose there are any thoughts on my hack solutions or other workarounds out there for my predicament? Or shall I lob it in the "too hard" basket and tell them to suck it up and/or make a solid door instead?

**fubar** · 28th June 2011, 12:33 AM

I just bought a new door for similar job few years back worked out to be the cheapest option .
I couldnt figure out a quickneasy way to shrink the louvre door so good luck

**ian** · 28th June 2011, 02:30 AM

done properly, you'll need to pull off both styles -- they probably wont be recoverable -- shorten the slats and rails -- depending on how much you chop off the rails may or may not be reusable -- make new styles
looks to me as though a whole new custom width door will take a whole lot less time == be cheaper

**burraboy** · 28th June 2011, 07:00 AM

What about running a long rebate along the edge of the stile and using packers between the louvres instead of trying to mortise each one individually?

**Malcolm Eaton** · 28th June 2011, 11:27 AM

Dependant on the manufacture of the louvre door you may not have problem. If the door is one of those imported doors ( Luan timber ex Indonesia) you may find the louvres are dry jointed and only the rails are dowelled and glued. If you are in luck it may only be a matter of dismantling the door and recutting everything to the new width and reassembling.
Best of luck .
Mac

**Sturdee** · 28th June 2011, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by Malcolm Eaton

you may find the louvres are dry jointed and only the rails are dowelled and glued.

That's what I had on an old door that I shortened and made narrower. Still it was fiddly to put them back together.

I also found that it was easier to cut the whole door to size in one piece on the TS rather than cut the individual slats, only half the work in reassembling.

Peter.

**RedShirtGuy** · 28th June 2011, 09:09 PM

Thanks folks. Much appreciated.

Now I've got some good things to go back to the customer with or check out properly myself first.

The next round is on me

**3RU** · 28th June 2011, 09:30 PM

Yep Mac is right,

I bought 4 louvred panels to use for summer window shade and needed to shorten two to be neat. The styles were glued and I found (prepared for a big job) the louvres had one brad each end, so it was a relatively easy fix. In fact the end result was better than original (IMHO).

Dave

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