WE Type 11, Regular Wood Phone Booth.

[TelephoneBoy]

Hi All, I'm here on this forum since I need assistance with a Western Electric Type 11 Phone Booth.  I recently acquired a 1962 WE Type 11 phone booth (I can't get any pictures as I am away and won't be able to get pictures till a few weeks from now, but it is a regular WE phone booth).  The problem I am facing is, I am moving into a new house and the stairs in my new house or tight, and to make matters worse the door sizes are standard!  The door sizes are 30'inch but the phone booth is about 32' I believe, but even removing the panels it is still around '31, you also need hand space to bring the booth in and this is IF I can get it up the stairs (obviously with help can't do it by yourself obviously).  I seriously doubt I am going to be able to bring it up the stairs, and I don't have the option of destroying my stairs, or removing my door frames to get this thing through.  I've been looking for disassemble instructions, and have been unsuccessful even through the BSP's.  There is no option of putting this booth outside or anything like that.  In my current house, I live in a old houses before door sizes were standardized and they fit through my doors fine, even height wise so getting it out of my current house is not a problem, and it's on the first floor of my house so I am not worried about that.  But the house I'm moving into is after 2010, and I've measured the door sizes and all and it's not going to go through, I have no idea what to do.  I need to get disassemble instructions or I am just going to have a booth free roaming in the middle of my foyer, which is not fun.   I don't want to pay money for somebody to disassemble for me, I want to do it myself and if I could get the proper instructions, I know that I could do it. 

[LarryInMichigan]

Did you check out the BSP documents on telephonecollectors.info and  http://wedophones.com/TheBellSystem/bell_system_practices.htm?

Larry

[ChrisW6ATV]

I am very surprised that a 2010 house in the USA would have a 30-inch front door. (My 1920s house has those narrow doors, but I replaced my 30-inch front door with a 32-inch one.) You would need to pull out the hinge pins and remove the front door, even a 32-inch one, to get your booth in (unless you can truly open the door a full 180 degrees inside the house, flat against the wall next to the doorway).

But that only gets the booth inside the house. Getting it up a set of stairs, indeed, you would have to figure out if you could disassemble the booth to achieve that. My type 11 booth does not appear to be able to be disassembled in any non-damaging way (that would allow for matching reassembly).

[5415551212]

My guess is its going to be more economical and safer to hire a carpenter to remove your door rather than disassemble the booth. Carpenters I know would probably assist with unique small job like that after work in exchange for pizza and a 6-pack of dark brown carbonated beverages. If you dont know any carpenters ask around.