Interior doors

[fan-of-fans]

I was wondering recently, I notice most homes built before the 1950s have solid wood interior doors and trim. It seems sometime between the 1950s or 1960s they went to hollow core doors with skinny trim.

Did any homes during that time have solid wood paneled doors? There are lots of 70s ranch homes in my area and I've never seen any with solid wood doors. The place I live in now was built in 76 and all the doors are hollow core luan and the trim is kind of skinny but it's a nicely grained wood. The living room has pine plank paneling going up about 12 feet on one wall.

I am guessing today's style with 6 panel doors and colonial trim began around the late 1980s or early 90s? But it seemed to be mostly higher end homes that had that style then. Most houses I've seen through the mid 90s continued to have skinny trim and luan doors.

My neighbors house was built in the 60s - and it seemed the doors were hollow core. Sometime in the early 90s it was remodeled and whoever did it used solid pine paneled wood doors and made all the baseboards with 1X stain grade trim and a router. It is beautiful. Even the Anderson sliding patio doors are wood on the inside, and they made their own oak cabinets for the kitchen. I saw the original birch cabinets with the big hinges out in the garage once.

Sometimes I wished my place had pine six panel doors instead of the luan, but it is what it is.

 

[tomturbomatic]

My parents' last home was built in 1966 and it had the solid core 6 panel doors for interior doors and louvered bi-fold closet doors. 

 

[askolover]

My house was built in 1956 but it has hollow doors, including the front entry door which will be changed out this year to steel or fiberglass with a welded steel security storm door.  My base boards and door/window trim is pretty wide though.

 

My parents' house was built in 1966 by my father and grandfather and it also has hollow interior doors with louvered bi-fold closet doors.  The entry doors are solid wood and very heavy.

 

[firedome]

My parents houses...

built to their specs in 1968 and 1976, had solid 6 panel interior doors and solid sliding double closet doors in the BRs. It's all a matter of what was specified, but solid doors tended to be found even then in somewhat higher quality houses, though neither of theirs were particularly large at 2200 and 2500 sq ft respectively in PA and NC, they were of above average quality as my Dad came from a family of Swedish craftsman/woodworkers and understood what well built meant. He built our first 2 homes in Towson MD himself, both about 2000 sq ft, in the early '50s, both also with solid interior doors.

 

[vacerator]

Both

of our places have solid pine doors.
They are not expensive. Solid oak and alder are also available.

 

[circlew]

My house was built in 1952. The original interior doors were hollow-core birch, with a natural finish. Jambs and casing on doors & windows were "ranch style" in pine stained to match. Front door was birch veneer, with plywood core (very heavy). Back door was pine. Front and back have been replaced with steel, and interior doors will soon be solid maple 2 panel with 4.25" wide maple casing.

What was installed usually depended on the style of the building, and the money available to be spent. Hollow-core flush doors became popular in the 1930's for streamline modern style interiors, and continued to be for ranch style homes. Traditional style homes usually had solid wood panel doors.

 

[northwesty]

Hollow core doors

The thing to look for is the side wood, the older ones are mahogany, 50s-early 60s, then they put in cheaper wood. They are often thrown away, but are quite nice looking if properly restored.

 

[dartman]

My house is a manufactured home originally planted in 96. All the trim at this point is painted 2 inch wide thin trim that may have had wood grain at some point. All the inside doors have been replaced with cheap hollow core doors, the exterior ones are metal skinned cheap doors that may or may not have been replaced, no baseboard trim at all and all the non main living areas have the cheap wall board with 1 inch trim boards covering all the joints. The main rooms are thin cheap sheetrock all taped and spackled then everything was painted off white so it was cheap and quick but non offensive to sell quick.
Old rental was built in 81 and had hollow core doors and metal outside doors but had normal wood trim and baseboards.
Most of the old cheap rentals we had as kids had all solid wood doors and trim, and big baseboards. I plan to eventually get better pre hung outside insulated doors and redo or add trim to make it look and feel nicer in here, plus help keep it weather tight.

 

[dermacie]

My beloved 1968 split level home has hollow core doors but I think the quality of them is pretty good since they don't have any holes or have peeled and this is after heavy use (a family of seven) once lived in it before me.

I have refinished them once a long time ago they are birch with sliding closet doors.