Monday, November 9, 2015

Craftsman Trim and Extended Strike Plates

I was all suited up to start installing my 1x4 craftsman door casing and when I realized a slight problem: the door latch would strike the trim. The standard plate included with the lockset is designed for thinner casing. As you can see below it is quite a bit short from the edge of the trim.


And from another angle you can see the contact point. Of course this would quickly eat away at the casing.



The solutions I found online include setting the trim with a large reveal to provide clearance, cut a bevel on the trim, or purchased extended lip strike plates. I would need to set the reveal to 7/16" to clear the latch, which is not viable since there isn't enough jamb to nail into at that dimension. I guess some are installing without nailing into the jamb which seems like a bad idea. I don't like the idea of cutting the trim so that option is out, leaving me with the extended lip plates.

I did some searching and while I found some extended strike plates for sale, I couldn't find anyone talking about this problem that is related to craftsman trim. While search for "craftsman trim extended lip" I couldn't find a single photo or mention of this issue. At this point I started wondering what I was doing wrong.

The don-jo (that's really the name) plates from in various sizes. The two sizes that would work for me are the 2" (measured from the back of the mortise) or 2 1/4". With the 2", the lip extends to almost exactly the edge of the trim. The curvature of the plate would require about a 3/16" reveal, which is what I wanted anyway. The 2 1/4" of course extends 1/4" further, allowing a smaller reveal but sticks out a bit. To complicate matters, my doors were morticed for round corners, or radius, so I need to order the rounded corner versions, which are harder to find. For the front door they don't make a rounded corner so I'll need to either grind a square or chisel, ugh.

I ordered the don-jo plates from a company in Spokane. The other brand is Deltana, which I ordered for the front door since don-jo didn't have a bronze finish. There are not a lot of places selling these plates. Amazon carries some but they are for square mortices. Actually it felt good that I was able to buy something not from Amazon for once!

To make things more interesting, the 1x4s I received were not 3/4" thick, but more like 5/8", so the 2" lip plates provide plenty of clearance. The exception is where the drywall stands proud of the jamb (happens a lot in my house because walls typically lean in or out and I set my doors plumb). In this case the lip plate just barely clears the trim. On this door there is a 1/8" gap between the trim and drywall -- caulk to the rescue!


Overall the don-jo plates seem to be just fine. They are not as thick as the Schlage that came with the lockset but the satin steel finish matches the door knobs decently. They don't curve as much as the Schlage, which is a shame since that leaves a gap between the trim and plate.

11 comments:

  1. I found myself in the same situation. Your post was helpful - just ordered one. Thanks much.

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  2. Cool! I'm glad it was helpful! I was starting to feel like I was the only one with this problem and I was doing something horribly wrong. It turned out great.. I should add a photo

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  3. Yikes. Looks like I'm in the same boat. I hope this works for me as well. My door frames and casing are hung and painted. I just painted the first few doors and was starting to install the hardware when I realized this.

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  4. But, did you have the same problem on the hinge side? This helps us on the strike plate side (Thanks!)

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    1. No issue on the hinge side. With the reveal, can't recall exactly but around 3/16", it clears the hinge just fine.

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  5. I have the same problem. If you use the extended strike plate you end up with a large gap between the back of the strike plate and the trim board. What did you do with that gap? Did you fill it? Thanks. Gene Robben

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    1. Sorry, just saw you comment. there's not much of a gap. I don't notice it at all. I will admit it has caught my shirt once, but that's very rare. Overall I'm glad I chose this approach. I'll update with a photo of the finished door

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  6. Dealing with this as I type this! Started to hang door trim and realized the latch was hitting it when I closed the door. Extended strike plate...never would have realized their need for existence! Now I know! ;)

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  7. Thanks for the post. I have the same issue, and also have rounded mortise issue. Could you please share the name of the company you used out of Spokane? Thanks!

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  8. I ordered from Spokane Hardware. If you search for "don jo Strike Plate" you should find a lot of sellers

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  9. I felt like I did something wrong when I ran into this issue (after I had already installed the casing). The extended striker saves me!

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