Average Time To Case A Pre-hung?

custrel

I'm trying to hire a trim and casing 'specialist' so-to-speak and was wondering what, in your collective experience, I should expect speed-wise from such an individual.

The job is to install and case 800+ paint grade pre-hung interior doors w/ paint grade pine trim. My current guys are great at installing the doors, but we get really bogged down with the casing.

Currently each of my guys is averaging 3 doors/hour for installation, but it is taking them about an hour per door to case them. I'm sure my guys will get faster, but the cost of the learning curve is killing me right now.

Hence the need to hire someone with more experience with production paced trim installation.

I'd be paying near the high end for the going carpenter rate for my region, because I want someone who is both good and fast.

But how many doors can I reasonable expect someone to case in 8 hours? Is 30 minutes/door to cut and nail on casing a reasonable expectation?

Thanks.

Trim40

An hour to case a door? Is the miter saw and or trim in the next county?
What kind of casing are we talking about here?

Lester P.

It depends quite a bit on the design of the casing. With a simple 45 mitre design, with paint grade, I can case a door in around 10 minutes using a mitre saw. 3 per hour would be a very detailed design with stain grade lumber. Ask for some pictures of perspective carpenters work before hiring.

cabinet runner

If you were a little more specific it would help .

Are you using a standard casing like a DC 98 or 99 ?

Are the doors split jamb or solid ?

Are alot of the doors the same size ? If so I would would have one guy precutting a whole bunch of casing and another guy putting it on the jambs .

BTW if the saw and trim are in the same room I can't see it taking more than 5 minutes to case one side of a 2/6 door with DC 98 .

world llc

how could it take an hour to case a door?

with that many doors, 1 guy would do just the measuring and cutting and the rest of the crew would shoot them in... with a good crew and paint grade pine they could average about 5 minutes a door assuming someone is cutting for them otherwise 10 a door...

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jdmartin

You might consider a split jamb door if the doors have not already been bought. They have their bad points, but they would already have the casing installed. Shouldn't take you any longer to hang the split jamb than the regular prehung, but would cut out the time spent on the casing. Just going by what you've described, I would think it would cut your time in half at least.

I know most people here don't care much for them, including myself. Seems they've pretty much become the norm around here, though.

Metro M & L

If you're going to have quality control on the project I think you should have a documented install procedure. That way every guy does every door the same way. Your way or the highway. You can use your experience (and a meeting with the crew if you want their opinion) to determine what the fastest way to case the door is. Time yourself implementing your procedure and make sure your expectations are reasonable.

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duburban

I like this idea. And, what happens next time your guys have to case out a door? Take the time now or later.

custrel

Casing is 2 1/2" primed pine with little or no detail (depending on the unit).

Doors are solid jamb. Each unit has 5-6 jambs. 5 of the doors are 2-6, about 1 is a 5-0 closet pairs.

Just a regular 45 degree miter.

So with one guy cutting and the other guy nailing, 30 minutes total time (fifteen for each guy) per door is reasonable, right?

No reason two guys shouldn't be able to case two units (11 doors) in 6 hours, right?

I'm going to hire another guy to help with the trim, but I'm trying to get an idea of what numbers I should expect from decent trim guy. Is 30 mins per jamb slow, average?

custrel

Agreed. And I'm not sure I'm doing it the fastest way possible. Plus, I just can't be working on the job all day.

Which is another reason I want to hire someone with more experience doing this type of work in a production environment.

jeffatsquan

Are you saying you have 800 doors to case and a large % are the same size and they are paint grade.

If that is the case then you are definitely not going about this the right way.

Of course you don't mention what the side casings land on as this would make a difference on how you would go about this. Give me this information and I will tell you how to do this in a way that the walking to the door is the longest part of this process.

And if you find a guy that is hungry enough to run you would really be making money

NormW

Having two guys working on the trim is probably bogging you down.

Having a cut guy for framing works fine. For trim I wouldn't do it. Your working to a higher tolerance. I could call off a measurement like 32 and 1/16 heavy, and get who knows what handed to me.

Also, fastest way to do casing is to throw out the tape, and eyeball it to the reveals. Cut on your tick mark. After cutting, couple swipes with a block plane to tune the angle and your done.

If you have two guys working, make sure you have two chop saws. Having guys waiting in line to use the saw doesn't help. I've been on jobs where the line was 3 deep.

Anti-wingnut

Part of the problem could be wall thicknesses in comparison to jam width. We see this quite a bit, especially with metal stud walls, where the nominal thickness of the wall is about 1/16" plus greater than the jam. Plus the wall gets thicker with mud, and the finish guys have to scarf out some wall.

Fyrzowt

This can be a big slow-down.

If all your doors are a simple casing with no tweaking to the sheetrock, etc required, then they should go up pretty quickly.

Set-up/break-down time and saw location can take a big bite out of your day, as you know.

roughrider

If you have to scarf all the way around both sides of the door, walk outside to cut your pieces, drag hose upstairs, forgot glue outside had to go back, reload nails. maybe it could take a half hour per door.

Seriously though. 15 minutes per guy per door on average for the day would be pretty good.
8 hrs x 4 = 32 doors a day. thats not too unreasonable. as long as there is not alot of setup and teardown time.

Trim40

If you make it worth my while, I'll drive up.

smeagol

First thing, make sure all the miter saws are cutting dead on 90s(lock them in). Make sure they understand how to backcut (tip the casing) the installed 45 and making the next fitted 45 actually a 44.9 or so. Also they should make the trips with 2 pcs(one finish pc and the adjoining pc running wild on length)Obviously you can't run run the last casing leg more than 1/4" wild unless there is carpet. Good luck

jhark123

Custrel, send me a PM or email.

rootdog

Wow, I would be losing money if it took me that long. The other guys were right with needing more info about the casing but it usually takes me 10 minutes to install mitred casing. To hang the door, I found The Quick Door Hanger helps me install a pre hung door in about 4-5 minutes max. So altogether, I am spending under 15 minutes to hang and case a door. I am not fast by any means, I work with guys that can clean my clock with casing.

BKFranks

30 minutes per door to hang and case is perfectly reasonable.
What are you doing... apartments/condos?

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