Storm Door
This weekend it was a new storm door for the kitchen, our main entry to the house.
When I bought this house, more than ten years ago, the kitchen had a ratty old aluminum storm door for the kitchen. There was probably nothing wrong with it when it was installed, it formed another layer over the entry way. But when I cam on the scene, that door had seen better days. It was missing the glass pane, the screen was held in with ducktape and the latch, well, it didn't latch. In the wind, it would snap open with a bang and then you waited for the ill adjusted closer to slam it shut again. At one point I decided no storm door was better than that storm door.
But with the coming weather, I decided it was time for a new one. I did watch the architecural salvage place for one, but nothing came up. And when I went to buy one, it became obvious as to why. I have a very out of the ordinary dimensioned door, apparently. Nobody made a stock door to fit it, and even many of the custom ones would not make one tall enough. I had been hoping to get one that would allow me to take out the header that a previous owner had installed to cut down the hieght enough to fit the old door. But even with the tallest custom door I could find, I was still going to have to cut down the hight three inches. There are worse things (like going another winter without a storm door).
The door actually ended up being much less expensive than I thought it would. I had tried one of the big box home improvement stores. Even though they couldn't get me a custom door tall enough, they were twice as expensive as my local lumber yard /home improvement store. I went with a vinyl clad, steel edged wood core door. It has an extruded aluminum frame and a 1 over 1 double sash window with a screen. And unbeknownst to me, the gasket around the frame has a magnetic strip that helps make a teight seal without excessive compression. Pretty cool.
Installing it wasn't too bad, but it did take a while. For a custom door, there was a lot of things I had to do... I can understand the shimming, but I was expecting things like the hinges would be pre drilled and ready to go. It wasn't complicated to put up, but it did take a while.
But now that it is up, what a difference. One of the first things we noticed was the suction when we open and shut other doors from the kitchen. And this morning, we could let the light in without the breeze. I feel bad that we didn't do it earlier, it would have been nice to be able use the screen to ventilate the kitchen in the warm weather. And the solid bottom panel is the right hieght to let my now walking son look out the door.
When I bought this house, more than ten years ago, the kitchen had a ratty old aluminum storm door for the kitchen. There was probably nothing wrong with it when it was installed, it formed another layer over the entry way. But when I cam on the scene, that door had seen better days. It was missing the glass pane, the screen was held in with ducktape and the latch, well, it didn't latch. In the wind, it would snap open with a bang and then you waited for the ill adjusted closer to slam it shut again. At one point I decided no storm door was better than that storm door.
But with the coming weather, I decided it was time for a new one. I did watch the architecural salvage place for one, but nothing came up. And when I went to buy one, it became obvious as to why. I have a very out of the ordinary dimensioned door, apparently. Nobody made a stock door to fit it, and even many of the custom ones would not make one tall enough. I had been hoping to get one that would allow me to take out the header that a previous owner had installed to cut down the hieght enough to fit the old door. But even with the tallest custom door I could find, I was still going to have to cut down the hight three inches. There are worse things (like going another winter without a storm door).
The door actually ended up being much less expensive than I thought it would. I had tried one of the big box home improvement stores. Even though they couldn't get me a custom door tall enough, they were twice as expensive as my local lumber yard /home improvement store. I went with a vinyl clad, steel edged wood core door. It has an extruded aluminum frame and a 1 over 1 double sash window with a screen. And unbeknownst to me, the gasket around the frame has a magnetic strip that helps make a teight seal without excessive compression. Pretty cool.
Installing it wasn't too bad, but it did take a while. For a custom door, there was a lot of things I had to do... I can understand the shimming, but I was expecting things like the hinges would be pre drilled and ready to go. It wasn't complicated to put up, but it did take a while.
But now that it is up, what a difference. One of the first things we noticed was the suction when we open and shut other doors from the kitchen. And this morning, we could let the light in without the breeze. I feel bad that we didn't do it earlier, it would have been nice to be able use the screen to ventilate the kitchen in the warm weather. And the solid bottom panel is the right hieght to let my now walking son look out the door.
Labels: Do it yourself, DYO, renovations, storm door
posted by MMP at
5:45 PM
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