Doors and Windows - Removal of Steel Door Frame? - Interior

We just finished gutting and renovating about 90% of our apartment. The only places I left alone were the laundry room and the 2nd bath, which both have hollow metal door frames. This was not an issue until yesterday when our new washer / dryer were being delivered. Apparently our metal door frame is only 26 3/4" wide, whereas the standard sized washers / dryers are 27" wide and thus we could not fit them in.

I have been doing some reading about how to remove these but can't seem to figure this out exactly. I was able to locate a screw towards the top of each side of the frame that is deep under the stop. There are also 2 screws in the same position in the head of the frame. Since we have just FINISHED construction, I would like to do as little damage as possible in removing this frame to get the new washer and dryer in. Is this possible or does this sound like it was done prior to sheetrocking? The building was put up in the late 1980's. We have already taken out about 4 of these doors, but that was done during demo so I was not around to see how they were put in.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be thinking about removing the door frame, getting the washer and dryer into the laundry room, then reinstalling the door frame.

Why would you do that? The washer and dryer aren't going to last forever. You would have to remove the door frame to get them back out.

Why not widen the door opening to 30" and make eliminate the problem.

Well I agree with you about them not lasting forever... but on to my selfish reasons :)
a) we just finished 4 months of construction and I'm trying to avoid doing anything even remotely major (i.e. making the opening bigger and putting a new door in)
b) we plan on being here about 5 years, so it will hopefully just be someone else's problem down the road
I am going to see if they can remove the casing of the washer and dryer and put it in 2 pieces at a time (i.e. guts of the machine, then bend the body and put it back together inside the laundry room)

Let me side with Mike on this one. You are causing more problems than it is worth. If you have been remodeling, then making a door of a sufficient width will be child's play. I really don't see the reasoning behind what you propose....taking a washing machine apart, bending the case, etc.....by the time you get the casing off, you can have a new door. And the metal frames don't like being moved in the first place. Unless you have had experience in installing them, there are tricks to getting them square.
A customer of mine had remodeling done in their basement and the remodelers fabricated a 20" wide door in a knee wall area.....where the 26" wide water heater was located. Not rocket science, but the opening had to be enlarged for the inevitable R&R.

Steel door frames go up in pieces. You put one side in first (usally the hinge side), Then you angle the top piece in at 45 deg. They connect via flat tongues and narrow grooves. Then you angle the final side piece in also at 45 deg, engage the slots and straighten up the door.

There are several ways that they are mounted. Since you found some screws, there is hope of getting in out with little damage. Look for screws located inside and outside at the extreme bottom of the doors next to the floor, they should be regular 3" long or so screws. Back them out. The Srews near the top third of the frame centered on the door stop are attached to brackets located behind the steel which are in turn fastened to the studs in the wall. These are reverse threaded so "tighted them" to loosen them. As you loosen them you will see the sides begin to separate from the header piece. When free of the bracket, Lift on the bottom of the side piece and work it toward the 45 deg and the door frame should disengage.

If your steel frames are direct mounted to the studwork, you may have a tougher time. There are brackets (3 per side) that attaced behind the steel and are bent around the studs and nailed in place. You will need to sacrifice a little drywall to figure out where these are located. Cut a small access hole on the laundry room side of the wall and search for the brackets. Once located, you will need to remove enough drywall to get at the nail holding the bracket. A 1" high by 3" wide hole should suffice to get this done. Once you have located the 3 brackets and removed the nails from both inside and outside, the rail comes out the same way as the other style door frame.

If side straps were used, as suggested, maybe you can get lucky with good stud sensor to locate those, by sliding old fashion magnet style nail/screw locator vertical out several inches and seeing if you get readings. Removal of just the vertical catch side may do it for you?

Side note, if direct to stud straps were used, and you find them on one side, the other side of the door will have the strap either 1" higher or 1" lower than the other side. The straps are made out of one piece and the result is an offset either up or down relative to the one you find.

Well we may have found an easier, yet a bit riskier solution yesterday. We were fooling around with the frame a bit and noticed that I could bend the hinge side and it would disconnect from the header piece at the corner. We only need to squeeze about 1/4" - 3/8" in order to get the appliances in and I am thinking that maybe using some 2 x 4's to wedge into the opening (without permanently damaging the frame) would suffice to get that amount of give from the steel. The worst (hopefully) damage would be touch up a few paint spots. Is this a bad route to go? I was looking towards the bottom of the door for some screws, but chances are they are buried beneath the tile at this point.

If the bottom of the door frames are tiled in, then you will not be able to get them out without taking the floor out at the threshold. The frames are pretty stiff, I doubt you will get any flex without damaging the frame. They are constructed to be quite strong. A little torque at the header will not in my opinion presume that you can bend it in the
middle without adverse results.

Bite the bullet and shop for a new washer. I just checked out a website and Whirlpool makes a 3.2 cu.ft. washer that is only 25 1/2 inches deep.

Maybe I have missed something. Cut the metal tabs, remove the metal frame, reframe to a larger size, install a good looking prehung unit, go watch the game. You could have had it done by now.

Chandler, that assumes he has extra tile to repair the flooring void created by expanding the opening. I just did this in a commercial setting where we had to install larger steel framed doors to make a bathroom handicap accessible. Fortunately, they had leftover carpeting to perform the patch.

The much easier solution at this time appears to be to return the new washer/dryer combo and purchase one that will fit through the existing door.:)