Comparing Architrave Lengths and Door Sets

Once you’ve found the architrave style that you feel suits your home, you then have to decide how much you will need to order to ensure that your doorway is framed correctly.

We’ve outlined a few things to consider and whether buying a complete door set is the right choice for you.

What size is your door?

Whilst the most common door size in the UK is 1981mm H x 762mm W, you won’t know whether that’s how big your door is unless you measure it!

Our single or double door width set should fit most doorways, but we can’t account for everything.

How to measure your architrave

After you have determined the dimensions of your doorway you need to decide the width of your architrave.

To find this, you need to measure out from the edge of your doorway. The width is how far the architrave comes out from the edge of the opening. Regular architrave starts at a width of 69mm. Large mouldings start at 121mm.

Fitting architrave into tight spaces which are below these widths will require a professional unless you have the necessary tools to cleanly cut off any excess.

If you are going to have a mitred join then the length of your architrave is going to be longer than the opening, both vertically and horizontally.

However, if you choose to use plinth blocks or rosettes then you need to bear the dimensions of these features in mind when measuring.

Generally, architrave can be ordered in lengths of 2440mm, 3050mm and 4200mm which a professional joiner should be able to advise you on what they prefer to work with.

You should also allow at least 10mm wastage for each cut when selecting your lengths as this may affect how much leeway you have in case of mistakes.

Cutting your architrave

Every doorway requires two vertical pieces to go one each side of the door and one horizontal piece to go above the door.

Based on the standard door size above you could get both vertical pieces from one 4200mm length, but there won’t be enough left to provide the horizontal piece, so an additional length of architrave is required. A 3050mm length will give you plenty to work with here.

If you have chosen a large moulding, using the Palace profile as example, these are usually at least 121mm in width and, if you’re opting for a mitre join. one 4200mm WILL NOT be enough for both lengths (1981mm + 121mm + 10mm = 2112mm. 2112mm x 2 = 4224mm), unless you are using plinth blocks.

However, you can still get all three pieces from one 4200mm length and one 3050mm length by cutting a vertical piece from each length and cutting the horizontal piece from the remainder of the 4200mm length.

Our door set makes this easier by providing shorter lengths that end up with less wastage than getting the longer pieces.

This also means they are easier to deliver and handle than having to find room to store and cut the longer lengths as well as being cheaper to buy as a set.

Also Read: How to Cut Architrave

Does a complete door architrave set cover both sides of a door?

First, we need to understand what we mean by saying ‘complete door set’.

When measuring up a room you generally only count the walls facing into the room. For example, if we were talking about skirting board, we wouldn't expect to fit a room by fitting out the adjoining rooms too, just because they’re ‘on the other side’.

If you think of a room as one box and any adjoining rooms as additional boxes, in most cases you’re only going to fit out the walls on the inside of each box one at a time.

So, a complete door set is for one door, on one face of a room. If a room has two doors you would need two sets.

If you order enough door sets for two doors in a living room, but you also want the door on an adjoining side to match then you would need another door set for that side.

Some people do get confused by thinking both faces of a door are accommodated in the door set, but if you’re only updating a room with one door, the additional face would be unnecessary as standard, and would just leave you with more architrave than you need.

Will my door set be ready to assemble on arrival?

No. We don't pre-mitre the lengths. This needs to be done on site.

Every home is different. Every design choice is different. Our door set is flexible enough to work within the dimensions of the most common doors. However, if your door is unusually tall or wide you may need to buy separate lengths instead that meet your requirements.

Why choose a complete door set?

Basically, a complete door set gives you everything you need to install architrave around both a single or double door.

Our example above showed that whilst you can buy pieces separately, our door sets have been designed to give you better value for money.

Our single door set provides you with 2 x 2400mm lengths for the jambs which means that even if your doorway is slightly taller than the standard, you will have plenty of room to adjust the cut.

The set also contains 1 x 1200mm length for the head which again should be more than enough to cover a single-width doorway when cutting the horizontal piece.

The double door set just replaces the 1200mm length for another 2400mm length due to the wider doorway.

By bundling everything needed for your door in one package it makes ordering much simpler. Just choose your required thickness and width. The set is composed of shorter lengths in order to save wastage and also to make delivery and handling easier.

Complete door sets are available for all our architraves.