Recently bought a house with my parents and looking to turn the basement into a basement suite.
A problem I have run into though is at the base of the stairs, there is a width of 36" wall to wall and we want to put a door there to seperate the two floors.
However the basement entry door to outside is only 32". Does anyone have any ideas on how to close off the bottom of the stairs while maximizing the width of the opening? I feel like we can only fit a 32" door there is we still want it to look decently.
But then good luck ever getting furniture in and out of the basement.
I’m starting to think I might have to cut some foundation out and make the basement door entry wider, but I would rather not if it can be avoided.
We thought maybe sliding barn door but it wouldn’t be very sound proof and I think my dog would figure out how to open it.
Might have the same issues as the barn door, but something like a pocket door might help maximize the width (assuming you don’t need access to that door under the other stairs). It would at least be a little better for noise.
For a more “standard” door, you could basically just install the door jamb right up to the existing wall. It would be tricky to trim it nicely, but you’d only need about an inch of space on each side that way. And if you’re careful, you can make it so the door can open almost a full 180 degrees into the basement to make it easier to move furniture.
Your other option for gaining space is removing the drywall/plaster from the wall of the stairs and replace it with paneling or something else thinner. Could get an extra half or three-quarter inch maybe?
I was wondering if it would be possible to basically build the door jamb into the walls on either side, so when on the stair side you basically just see drywall butting up to a closed door instead of having trim around it. Not sure if that would look silly though, but it’s not like anyone ever really has to look at it unless they’re hanging out on the landing for some reason.
You need the knob side to stick out enough for the latch to not hit the wall, but putting the jamb against the (finished) wall surface should be enough. Then use something like quarter-round as trim to hide any gap left from shimming the door.
You might want to bring a long level and see how plumb and even that opening is. The trim work will look worse if there’s a lot of variation in that wall, or if it’s not vertical. In that case, depending on how much you care about the appearance, you could tear off the drywall and adjust or shim the studs to have a better wall to work from.
If you end up with the trim looking uneven because of variation in the wall, you can paint the wall, trim, and jamb all the same color to make it less noticeable. It doesn’t look the best when you do that, but it might be preferable to seeing wobbly trim. And for a basement unit, it’s probably fine.
Something like this:
Like I said, just make sure the latch hardware has enough clearance from the wall and you should be able to fit a 34" door in there. If you needed a 36" door, you’d probably have to either tear up the existing walls, or otherwise have something that looks a lot more weird.
I wouldn’t mind tearing up the existing walls if it meant not having to grind up the concrete foundation to keep a 36" opening. The fridge I bought had to be brought down those stairs so getting it out will probably require going back up them lol.
I think tearing out the wall on the left would be ideal and then building the door jamb into the wall to keep it a 36" opening would be the best option.
Thanks!