Serving/Hatch Door

jimo_3

I have just moved into a house and there is a serving hatch from the dinning room to the kitchen. The doors are missing and I would like to get some if possible. Does anyone know where I can buy these from please? Thanks

andrew-b

We refurbished our serving hatch and replaced the previous ugly louvre doors on it with new one's made from a sheet of MDF. We cut the sheet to fit the hole (allow few mm around edge and another extra few mm in width to allow doors to clear each other) then cut it down the middle, attached to frame with hinges. Holes were drilled for handles..2 x standard kitchen unit knob handles from B&Q on each door (we chose antique-effect metal one's to match handles on kitchen units) - fixed by a suitable sized machine-threaded rod (again from B&Q) passing through the holes into the pair of handles. Magnetic catches at the top centre to keep doors closed and stop them opening wrong way.
Was a bit more complicated than that as we had to pad out the frame with MDF to make it square and level with worktop and fit new architraves.
All finished in white paint (don't make the mistake i did and use water-based paint to paint it - use solvent-based primer/undercoat/topcoat; MDF just sucks up water-based paint too quick and i ended up with peeling paint).
Would advise going for 15mm MDF - we used 12mm which wasn't really thick enough for the hinges we used - one has come loose now.

ormus

buy some PB and block it off.
no one has/uses serving hatches these days.

waynehayes

ormus wrote: »

buy some PB and block it off.
no one has/uses serving hatches these days.

We recently moved into our house which had a serving hatch. It was actually very handy, but I agree that it was old fashioned and took up space in the kitchen where a wall unit could be. I boarded it over last weekend and I do miss it a bit.

moonrakerz

ormus wrote: »

no one has/uses serving hatches these days.

'Course they don't - get the servants to walk round with it !

andrew-b

ormus wrote: »

buy some PB and block it off.
no one has/uses serving hatches these days.

I disagree, though i appreciate there is the "non-hatch" camp! Our old one was hideous...the new one with ogee-architraves etc looks far better! Very very useful IMHO! Though it did mean sacrificing space in the kitchen we wanted to keep it. For me it's a godsend as i don't have to walk through the hall and lounge to the dining area. As i'm prone to tripping up/falling over it makes a big difference. Also lets us keep an eye on the hound when in the kitchen as we can see through to back door where he waits to go out. Plus you can hold a conversation between the two rooms at a civil volume level - or hear the stereo or tv.
My parents and sister all have them built by my Dad. My parents one is a glass sash one working on a proper sash window mechanism and slides up into the wall behind the kitchen units and isn't wasting any space at all - it replaced what was a door and was put in 33 years ago ..has been reglazed with a more modern obscured glass. As for our hatch we have units above and below it.
Piccy: