Hanging a door used to require excellent carpentry skills and an extensive toolkit. The advent of prehung doors has made it much easier to put up a door single-handedly, in much less time, and without the need for years of experience.

A prehung interior door is a door supplied with its own frame. It is ready to be inserted into a waiting hole in a wall, but it takes a little time to achieve a really good result.

The first step is the check the floor of the opening to ensure that it is level. If the hinge side is lower than the latch side shims (small pieces of wood) need to be placed on the floor to raise the hinge side.

Check that the prehung door is the right size to fit into the hole in the wall. It might be necessary to trim the length of the door to ensure that it fits.

The next step is to insert the prehung door into the hole and tack it into position. Do this by pushing the hinge jamb firmly against the side of the hole and inserting a tack about 3 inches below the miter.

Having secured the door in position it will need to be centered, levelled and straightened. This is achieved by inserting shims between the jambs and the wall. The shims will need to be adjusted to ensure that the correct position is achieved.

Use of a nailgun is recommended for this stage as it makes the process much faster. Some carpenters put the nails below the shims rather than through them, in case they need to be moved for further adjustment.

Because the door is prehung it can be opened and closed during this process to ensure that it moves freely and smoothly. It is important to check that the bottom of the door is level with the floor and consistently clears the jamb of about 1/8th of an inch.

It is important to remember that the wood of the door jamb is flexible and care needs to be taken that the gap between the jamb and the door is even all the way around the door. Shims can be used to adjust this where necessary.

A useful tip is to remove one of the screws that hold the hinge to the jamb and replace it with a longer screw that penetrates the jamb and engages with the wall or a wooden trimmer. This will help the secure the door in position.

Any protruding shims will need removing from around the door. Use a fine-tooth saw for this, or score them on both sides with a sharp knife and then give them a firm tap. They should snap off cleanly.

Finally, the door frame can be placed around the door jamb and additional door furniture added if required.

Even though prehung doors are relatively easy to work with it is best to allow for several hours to put up a door, especially for someone with limited experience. A door may well be in place for many years so spending some extra time on getting it right will save remedial work in the future.