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Monumental Door Panel

7/6/26       
Chad  Member

Website: http://www.adamsarch.com

A customer has requested a large flat panel for their monumental sized door.

Door is 54" x 120"
Panel is 38-7/8" x 104-7/8

We tried talking them into putting some type of divider bar in the door to make the panel smaller. But they said they want the large panel. Door will be fabricated from Mahogany. Door thickness is 2-1/4" and panel is 1" thick. I attached drawing of the door.

I am looking for suggestions on how we can build a stable panel that big without having a call back for it splitting or warping.

I appreciate any advise.

Thanks,
Chad

Click the link below to download the file included with this post.

Monumental_Door.pdf

7/8/26       #2: Monumental Door Panel ...
Tom Gardiner

Since no one else has answered I will offer my advice with a caveat. I have not made a panel this large for a interior or exterior door.
I have made plenty of mistakes though so maybe you can benefit from them. Don't assume that a plywood substrate will be stable. I used 3/8" russian birch over a torsion box structure for a large flat veneered door. The differential humidity from interior to exterior warped the 2 1/4" door significantly.
I might consider a foam core substrate such as Garnica ultra light panels that re made of 1/8" ply with a polstyrene core. To that use 2mm mahogany veneer. This will minimise the wood skins and thus minimise the stress.
I would epoxy that into the frame groove not left to float.
Isn't great when production is an experiment?

7/8/26       #3: Monumental Door Panel ...
Chad  Member

Website: http://www.adamsarch.com

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your input. We are considering using narrower strips of wood in an effort to reduce the amount of seasonal expansion and contraction within the panel. I understand that once the strips are glued together, the panel still functions as one solid piece and will continue to expand and contract across its width.

Because of the overall size of the panel, I'm leaning toward allowing it to float freely within the door to better accommodate that movement. Other than that, I really don't have any other ideas to lessen the movement within the panel.

I like your idea of adding foam to the middle of the panel and I am going to investigate that a little more.

We have tried plywood as a core for a large panel to keep it more stable but we learned that the panel still warped and bowed.

I'm also a little surprised that Dave Sochar hasn't weighed in yet to explain his seven-layer construction method. I'd really appreciate a more detailed explanation, along with a sketch, drawing, or photos showing exactly how the system is assembled and how it manages wood movement.

Thanks,
Chad

7/9/26       #4: Monumental Door Panel ...
RichC

My advice, walk away. If the customer wants to order something that you know will be trouble, and they insist they know it won’t be a problem, walk away. You take that job and you tell them you tried to tell them when there is a failure, you can still be in small claims court when they refuse to pay or demand a full refund.

7/9/26       #5: Monumental Door Panel ...
Tom Gardiner

I agree with Rich on this. I like a challenge but I also like to sleep at night. The risk of an unsatisfactory outcome is high with this job.
With respect to using solid wood for the panel you can calculate the expected wood movement with the calculator on this website under resources/calculators. You will have to know the seasonal relative humidity swings for the location. Even if you are using quartered mahogany I would guess you would see over 1/2" of seasonal variation on width.


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