Why Fill a Door Frame With Grout?

Purpose

• The primary purpose for setting a door frame with grout is to secure it in place and provide a stable foundation for the door. This is especially important for heavy doors, such as steel doors, which can cause the door frame to warp over time. The grout keeps this from happening by integrating the frame into the existing masonry.

Process

• The process of grouting a door frame involves creating a wetter-than-normal grout that can be pumped down into the vertical columns of the door frame. Once this grout dries and solidifies, it secures the door frame in place. If you are going to grout the door frame in place, the best time to do it is during the building process, before the bricks or masonry above the frame is set in place. With a pump and a little bit of gravity, the grout will simply be pumped downward to the bottom of the frame and will continue to fill until it reaches the top.

Errors

• One potential problem with grouting the door frame is the difference between the time the frame is installed and the time when the door is installed. Steelcraft Solutions notes that this process of early installation requires extreme care because it is not uncommon for masons to commit errors in the process of setting the frame. This can be one of the major drawbacks to grouting the frame. Correcting errors can be much more time-consuming later on because of the labor involved in fixing a frame that has been improperly set.

Problems

• Some organizations do not recommend grouting the steel door frame at all. The Steel Door Institute argues that door frames should not be grouted because the grout has to be watered down to pump into the frame in the first place. Rather than grouting at optimal consistency, the heavily moisturized grout can can cause rusting and corrosion of the frame from the inside out.