This contrast mainly comes to light when you want to purchase and plant the door by yourself.
In fact, if you buy thewrong key in of door, it may not fit your doorframe.
What Is a Pre-Hung Door?
The Spruce / Xiaojie Liu
A pre-hung door is a slab door that is already attached by hinges to a three-sided doorframe.
Pre-hung exterior doors are very heavy to transport and to lift into the doorframe.
Most retrofit exterior doors come in pre-hung format.
The only exception is if you intend to remove all of the trim and casing to the bare studs.
Also, keep the pre-hanging clips in place to prevent the door from accidentally opening on you during installation.
What Is a Slab Door?
A slab door is a basic, stripped-down door that does not include a frame.
Slab doors can be purchase with or without a pre-cut hole for the doorknob.
If you were to install a slab door, you would need to build the frame from scratch.
While this is not a difficult task, it does add more work to your entire project.
For exterior walls, it is usually better to install a pre-hung door.
Pre-hung doors make this an easier process for do-it-yourselfers.
Cons
Pre-hung doors are heavy and hard to manage.
Even if weight is not an issue, a pre-hung door is bulky and unwieldy to move.
Pre-hung exterior doors easily weigh over 100 pounds and require two strong people to move them.
Also, if you have a small vehicle, transporting a pre-hung door is usually not an option.
Pre-hung door installation may seem simple but it can be difficult to get it correctly positioned.
Pre-hung units, like all doors, require shimming.
Even a pre-hung unit can be installed improperly so that swing and closing are impaired.
Slab doors provide you with much more design flexibility than pre-hung doors.
Architectural salvage doors nearly always come in slab form, yet rarely as pre-hung units.
Interiors are more forgiving environments for imperfect installations, as weatherproofing is not an issue.
Slab doors lend themselves better to smaller installation quantities.
Slab door installation requires a steady hand, a good eye, and plenty of practice.
A new slab door will be flatter and truer than a used door.
Recycled slab doors usually need extra work, such as planing, sanding, and straightening.
