Filomuro Door in a Renovation vs a New Build

Kulttur Team · Published: 20 August 2026

On a new build, a filomuro door slots into the programme like any other item: the opening is measured on freshly closed blockwork, the door is ordered, and it is installed before plastering. In a renovation the order is reversed. The wall has been there for years, the plaster is on, the floor is often already laid, and the frame has to enter a finished context without leaving a trace. It works in most cases, but two steps appear that almost nobody budgets for at the start.

Why a renovation is not the same project

The difference is not in the door. The leaf, the extruded aluminium frame and the concealed hinges are identical in both scenarios, as is the 4-5 week production lead time on the Minimal model. The difference lies in what already surrounds the opening.

On a new build the frame is fixed to bare blockwork, and the plaster comes over it and swallows it naturally. A 50 mm self-adhesive masking tape with a sealing strip is applied to the edge of the frame, the plaster is pulled up to that edge, and the result is a continuous surface from wall to door. In a renovation the plaster is already there, so embedding the frame means cutting it back in a controlled 10-15 cm band around the opening, rebuilding the layer, and repainting the wall across its whole surface rather than patching.

That is the real cost of a renovation: not the door, but the wall around it. Anyone who budgets only the cost of the installed door and forgets the repainting ends up several hundred lei per room out. The reason a patch will not do is mundane: emulsion applied today over emulsion from five years ago reads as a stain, no matter how well it is colour matched.

The four renovation scenarios compared

Not every renovation looks the same. Site situations fall into four groups, and the first useful decision is to identify which one you are in. The durations in the table are indicative, for a team that has fitted filomuro doors before, and include the technical waiting times rather than just the labour.

Read as prose, the table says three things. First: the only scenario with no extra cost is the one where the wall does not exist yet, whether that is a new build or a re-partitioning. Second: keeping the existing opening is almost always cheaper than widening it, even if it means a door 5-10 cm narrower than you wanted. Third: widening an opening in a load-bearing wall is not an installer decision, it is a structural engineer decision.

• New partition wall: the cleanest renovation case, because it behaves exactly like a new build. The only trap is finished thickness.
• Existing opening kept: the most common one. The door is ordered to the real opening, not to the size of the old door.
• Existing opening widened: comes up when the old door was 70 cm and you want 90 cm. Requires structural checking and a new lintel.
• Opening closed and moved: treated as a new wall, with the caveat that the filled area must reach the same finished thickness as the rest.

Existing wall thickness, the first filter

Before any discussion of cost or colour, a renovation passes or fails on a single number: the finished wall thickness. The standard frame profile measures 75 mm across the wall, and to that you add the 30 mm inner border on each face, the zone that takes filler and paint. The sum gives the absolute threshold: 100 mm of net, finished wall.

In a renovation this measurement carries a subtlety almost everyone misses. You do not measure bare blockwork, you measure the wall as it stands now, with its plaster on. A 115 mm brick wall with 10 mm of plaster on each face is a 135 mm wall, and the frame is ordered at 135, not 115. Standard depths are 100, 125 and 150 mm, and above those the profile is cut to order up to 250 mm, which covers even the thick load-bearing walls of older houses.

The one case that stops the project is the 7.5 cm aerated concrete partition, common in flats built after 2010 to separate a bathroom or a dressing room. Even finished, that assembly stays at 95-100 mm and no frame will fit. The fix is doubling the wall with a stud layer on one face, which moves the project into the new wall scenario.

Measuring the opening in a finished wall

The opening rule is the same as on a new build: the structural opening must be 70 mm wider and 50 mm taller than the door leaf. What changes is the reference.

On a new build you measure bare blockwork and know the plaster has not arrived yet. In a renovation, if you measure over the existing plaster and the team then cuts back 10-15 cm to fit the frame, the real opening turns out larger than the one you measured. That is why the correct measurement is taken after the finish is stripped, or by probing the blockwork in two or three points. A leaf ordered 3 cm too large cannot be corrected, and a new order means another 4-5 weeks of waiting.

The second reference that changes is height. It is measured from the finished floor level, and in a renovation the floor is often already there, which simplifies things: you measure straight off the existing wood or tile without estimating anything. Deviations between the four corners of the opening are normal in older properties and are corrected on installation with shims and foam, while concealed hinges adjustable on three axes even out the reveal to 2-3 mm on all sides.

The band of plaster around the frame

This is where it is decided whether the result reads as an invisible door or as a repair. After the frame is fitted, the polyurethane foam must be left to stabilise for at least 24 hours before plastering, otherwise its pressure distorts the profile over the following 2-3 days. The rule is identical on a new build and in a renovation, but in a renovation the temptation to rush is stronger, because people are living in the house and want it finished.

The correct order is: controlled cutting back over 10-15 cm, frame installation, 24 hours of waiting, plaster up to the edge of the 50 mm masking tape, filler, then paint across the whole wall surface. If the floor is already laid, it is protected with sheeting and cardboard across the whole working area rather than just under the opening, because dust from the cutting travels everywhere anyway.

An already laid floor, an advantage in disguise

Contrary to expectation, an existing floor is an advantage in a renovation. The most frequent error on new builds is ordering the door before the floor build-up is decided: switching from 5 mm vinyl to 15 mm engineered wood leaves the gap out by a centimetre. In a renovation that problem disappears, because you measure the finished face directly.

The gap under the door stays at the reference 8-10 mm above the finished floor, except for windowless bathrooms where 12-15 mm is chosen deliberately for air transfer. One detail deserves attention in renovations: thresholds between two materials. If bathroom tile sits 4 mm above hallway wood, the level is taken from the thicker material, otherwise the leaf catches on the high side at the first change in humidity.

When filomuro is not worth it in a renovation

There are three situations where the honest answer is no. First: a 7.5 cm aerated concrete wall you do not want to double, because doubling eats 10 cm of the room and moves the socket positions too. Second: a cosmetic refresh where the paintwork is not being touched. If you are not prepared to repaint the wall in full, the result will carry a visible band around the door and you lose exactly the effect you paid for. Third: walls with rising damp or active cracks, where any rigid installation will show up as an uneven reveal within months.

Otherwise a renovation is good ground for filomuro, precisely because the timing of installation on site is more flexible than on a new build: you are not tied to the plasterers' programme across the whole house, only to your own room.

Can a filomuro door be fitted without cutting into the wall?

No, not if the wall is already plastered. The frame has to make contact with the wall structure, and the 30 mm border on each face has to be embedded in the finish in order to disappear visually. Without cutting back the 10-15 cm band, the frame would sit proud of the plaster and stand out in relief, which is the opposite of a door flush with the wall.

How much more does a filomuro door cost in a renovation?

The door costs the same, from 2,796 RON including VAT for Minimal and from 3,693 RON for Signature. The difference comes from labour and finishing: the controlled cutting back, rebuilding the plaster over the worked area and repainting the whole wall. As an order of magnitude, add the filling and painting cost of that room on top of the standard installation budget of 600-900 RON on masonry.

Can I keep the old 70 cm opening?

Yes, and most of the time it is worth it. A filomuro door is made to order in any dimension, so a leaf is built to suit the existing opening rather than the other way round. Widening to 80 or 90 cm involves structural checking, a new lintel and rebuilding the finish over a much larger area, so 4-6 extra days on site.

How long does installation take in an occupied house?

Fitting the frame itself takes 2-3 hours for an experienced team, and the leaf is hung and adjusted the same day. The rest is technical waiting and finishing: 24 hours for the foam to stabilise, then plaster, filler and paint. In total a room is back in use in 2-3 days, with only one day where the space is genuinely unusable.

If you are renovating and want to know from the outset whether your wall will take a filomuro door, measure the finished thickness and the width of the existing opening and send us those two numbers. The configurator on the site gives you the price for your dimensions, and at the showroom on Bulevardul Dacia 153-155 you can see in person how the junction between frame and wall looks once finished.