Interior door replacement goes smoothly when every opening is surveyed and scheduled before anyone chooses a finish. Measure the structural opening, check the reveal and the floor, record which way each door opens, and decide the frame and ironmongery together with the leaf. Once those facts sit on one schedule, every supplier works to the same specification and the new doors arrive made to fit.
This guide is for Dubai villa and apartment owners replacing some or all of their internal doors, often in a handover property where the original leaves are light and stock-sized. It covers the survey, the specification choices and the decisions to settle before manufacture.
Start with a door schedule
Halo's custom doors page describes a door as a set: the leaf, frame, architrave or shadow-gap bead, hinges, lock and threshold are decided together. A schedule is the simplest way to hold those decisions. Give each opening a reference number and record it in one row.
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Opening size | Structural width and height, measured in more than one place | Leaf and frame are made to the real opening |
| Reveal and wall | Wall depth, squareness, blockwork or gypsum partition | Sets frame depth and the fixing method |
| Floor | Finished floor level and whether it is level across the swing | Governs leaf height, undercut and threshold |
| Handing | Hinge side and opening direction | Stops a door opening onto a switch or a wardrobe |
| Room use | Bedroom, bathroom, study, utility | Decides privacy, acoustic, moisture and lock needs |
| Special requirement | Fire rating, acoustic seals, glazing, sliding or concealed | Some doors are certified or engineered as a complete set |
| Ironmongery | Hinges, latch or lock, handle, closer, stop | Sized to leaf weight and how often the door is used |
Use the schedule as the reference for every supplier's offer. Two offers can only be compared when they describe the same core, frame, finish and hardware for the same openings.
Survey the openings before choosing a style
At survey, Halo records structural width and height, whether the reveal is square, how level the floor is across the swing, the finished floor build-up and the handing of each door. Those measurements settle leaf size and frame depth before anything is drawn.
The finished floor is the item owners most often leave open. If new tiles, marble or timber are going down, the door height depends on that build-up, so agree it before the production drawings. Halo's process re-measures against the finished floor level and issues production drawings for approval before any leaf is cut.
Walk through each opening as it is used day to day. A door that swings into a wardrobe, covers a light switch or clashes with the next door along the corridor is easy to correct at survey stage by changing the handing or the door type. After manufacture it is a remake.
Choose the core for the room it serves
The core decides how a door sounds and how it behaves over time. The doors page puts the difference simply: a hollow-core leaf "sounds like a cupboard door and passes conversation straight through", while a solid-core leaf in a rebated frame does not. That difference matters most for bedrooms, studies and a bathroom off a living area.
Many Dubai homes return air-conditioned air through the gap under interior doors. Halo keeps the undercut that the AC return air needs, so if you are also asking for better sound separation, ask how the air path will be kept open. Where a frame meets a bathroom or utility room, Halo makes it in moisture-resistant material. Ask how the foot of the frame and the architrave are protected where floors are mopped every day.
Leaf style comes after these decisions. Flush, panelled, grooved or fluted faces, veneer or lacquer, standard height or full height to the ceiling line are all possible. Look at a physical finish sample in the room where the door will hang, in daylight and under the room's own lighting.
Know when a door must be a certified set
Some doors cannot be put together from separate parts. Halo's page explains that a fire door is certified as a complete assembly: leaf, frame, intumescent and smoke seals, self-closer and rated ironmongery together. A leaf described as fire rated but hung in an ordinary frame will not pass sign-off. The same page notes that in most Dubai towers the apartment entrance door is part of the building's fire compartmentation, so replacing it means a certified set and its documentation.
If your replacement includes an apartment entrance door, speak to building management before ordering and ask what they need to see at sign-off. Acoustic doors follow similar logic: a solid-core leaf in a rebated frame with drop seals, specified as one set.
If someone in the household uses a wheelchair or walking aid, review clear openings, thresholds and handles with your designer against Dubai Municipality's Universal Design Code resources.
Sliding, pocket and concealed doors need earlier decisions
For these doors the system matters as much as the leaf. A top-hung sliding door needs its track fixed to something structural. A pocket door needs the stud cavity planned before the wall is boarded. A concealed door only disappears if the panelling module, shadow gap, skirting return and leaf are drawn as one elevation.
In an occupied home, any of these can turn a door swap into wall or ceiling work. Ask at survey stage which system each opening can actually take and what making good is included around it.
Plan removal and fitting in a lived-in home
Halo's page is candid about the unknown in every replacement: nobody knows whether the old frames were fixed into block or stud, or what state the reveal is in, until the frame comes out. Agree in advance who repairs the reveal, floor and skirting, and allow time for it.
Replacing every door in one run has practical advantages. The doors page describes a handover villa with hollow-core leaves at stock height in openings that were 2.6 m tall, resolved with solid-core leaves made to the real opening heights in a single finish and delivered together so every room changed at once. If the doors are part of wider work in the same property, the villa renovation guide covers the rest of the sequence.
At handover, open and close every door. Check that gaps are even, latches engage without pushing, closers are adjusted and undercuts are consistent. Record any snags against the schedule reference so each one can be traced to its opening.
