How to Supervene upon an Outside Door

DIY techniques for a weathertight outside door installation

Time

Multiple Days

Complexity

Intermediate

Cost

Varies

Introduction

Replace a worn, drafty front end door with a stylish new energy-efficient i. Replacement doors come pre-hung in a weatherstripped frame and you lot don't have to be a master carpenter to practise a first-class job. We'll show yous the techniques that will event in a perfect, weathertight installation.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • 10d finish nails
  • 10d galvanized casing nails
  • 16d galvanized casing nails
  • 3-in. deck screws
  • 4d cease nails
  • 6d finish nails
  • Backer rod
  • Minimal expanding cream
  • Polyurethane caulk
  • Coil of flexible self-sticking flashing membrane
  • Transition molding Transition molding (optional; Photo thirteen)
  • Treated lumber to build up the sill (optional)

Prehung Outside Door Installation

pre hung door installation Family Handyman

Rarely can you complete a project in a weekend that will save you money and dramatically improve the looks of your business firm similar hanging a new front door. In this article we'll show you how to gild a prehung outside door that fits like a glove. Then we'll testify you lot, pace by step, how to get your old door out and the new one in.

If y'all can handle basic carpentry tasks, you'll take no problem installing a new pre-hung entry door in a day. Effigy on another day to end the details and first painting the door. Front door paint adds personality and curb entreatment.

Video: How to Hang a Door

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Project pace-by-step (xix)

Pace one

Figure A: Measure Your Quondam Door

In virtually cases, simply order a new door the same size as the erstwhile one. If you lot alter the size or add sidelights, you'll have to reframe the opening and alter many details. This usually doubles or triples the size of the job. Hither are the 4 sets of measurements you lot'll demand to social club a door (refer to Effigy A for extra details):

Door size

  • Mensurate the width and superlative of your old door.
  • Round these up to full inches to find the size of the replacement door you'll need.
  • For example, if your door measures 35-three/four in. wide and 79-1/two in. alpine, you'll guild a 36-in. past eighty-in. door.

Jamb width

  • Measure out from the backside of the interior trim to the backside of the exterior trim (Figure A).
  • Specify this jamb width when you lodge your new prehung door.
  • This guarantees that the interior trim will fit affluent to the wall without adding "jamb extensions."

Rough opening

  • Yous'll demand to remove the interior trim for accurate measurements of the rough opening.
  • Mensurate the opening width between framing members and from the lesser of the sill to the top of the opening.
  • Compare these measurements to the crude opening requirements of your new door to make sure it will fit.

Outside opening (or "masonry opening" if you have a brick or stone door environs)

  • Measure out to the outsides of the exterior casing, so from the bottom of the sill to the superlative of the trim.
  • Compare these measurements with those of a prehung door that has standard two-inch-wide "brick molding" trim.
  • If the framed door with standard trim is too small to fill the space, or if you want a different trim style, yous take 3 options.
  • The best solution is a door with wider, flat casing to fit the opening. Yous can always add together a piece of decorative molding overtop to estimate the mode of your existing outside trim. (Nosotros ordered 2-1/4-in. flat casing and reinstalled the existing decorative molding.)
  • Second, you lot tin order your door with standard molding and fill the gap with additional strips of wood.
  • The final option is to order the door without exterior molding and make your own to fit.

Step 2

Remove Your Old Door

  • Tap the swivel pins loose with a hammer and smash set.
  • And then swing the door open and lift it off.
  • Protect the floor with a dropcloth. The former door will be heavy.

remove old door

Step iii

Pry Loose The Former Trim

  • Pry the interior trim loose from the door frame.
  • Protect the wall with a wide putty knife.
  • If you plan to reuse the trim, first score the intersection between the molding and jamb with a utility knife.

pry off old door frame

Footstep four

Pry Off the Exterior Trim

  • Slice the caulk joint between the siding (brick) and exterior trim.
  • Pry the trim from the doorjamb with a pry bar.

pry off exterior trim

Step 5

Remove the Jambs

  • Cut completely through the side jamb with a handsaw.
  • Pry the jambs loose and pull them out of the opening.

remove door jambs

Stride 6

Jamb Removal Close-Up

  • If yous plan to reuse the interior moldings, pull the nails through the backside with a pliers or nipper to avoid dissentious the face.
  • Cutting through 1 side jamb makes information technology easy to tear out the entire frame.

remove door jam with saw

Step 7

Prepare and Install the Sill

  • After the door frame is out, check the condition of the framing and subflooring in the sill area.
  • Cut out and supersede whatever rotted woods.
  • If the sill on your new door is thinner than the one you lot removed, you may have to build up the sill area. Nosotros were lucky. Our brick opening was level and plumb, simply this isn't ever the instance.
  • Kickoff by checking the sill area with a two-pes level. If you lot're building information technology up equally nosotros testify in the photo beneath, it's easy to level it with shims at the aforementioned time.
  • Set the sill height so the door just clears carpeting or rugs when it swings inward.
  • Build up the sill area to the proper height with treated lumber. Add shims to level it.
  • Level the sill area with pairs of shims spaced about 4 inches apart.
  • Then ready the door in the opening for a test fit. Hold a level against the hinge jamb and adjust the door and frame until the jamb is plumb.
  • Check to see how the casing fits against the siding. If the siding is and so far out of plumb that the door frame and casing don't fit in, either cutting back the siding or trim the casing. It looks better if you can cut the siding, just it'due south usually more practical and easier to trim the casing.
  • Mark the casing in areas that demand trimming.
  • And then take the door out and trim the casing with a belt sander or circular saw.
  • One time level, fasten it with coated deck screws.

install door sill

Pace 8

Install Flashing Tape

  • Installing flashing record volition protect the sill from water intrusion. Purchase the flashing tape from lumberyards.
  • If you lot're installing a door in a newly constructed wall, you tin buy a special plastic sill flashing kit instead. One brand is Jamsil. Details volition vary depending on the doorway situation.
  • Cover the rough sill expanse with self-sticking flashing record.
  • Wrap information technology upwardly the sides of the opening and over the front edge.
  • Set the door in the opening, plumb information technology and check the fit.

install flashing

Step 9

Figure B: Sill Detail

  • The idea is to channel water away from the wood. If your domicile is congenital on a concrete slab, the door frame volition probably rest directly on the slab.
  • Figure B illustrates how to correctly install your sill to reduce any futurity potential of water damage.

Step x

Utilize Caulk

  • Make sure the building paper is intact effectually the frame edges. If not, slide strips of No. fifteen felt behind the siding and tack it to the framing with staples.
  • When you're sure the door will fit, caulk forth the sill and behind the casing and tip the door into the opening.
  • Apply a bead of polyurethane caulk along the sides and top of the door opening and at the sill according to the manufacturer's instructions.
  • Y'all'll likely need two tubes.

Step 11

Tack in the Prehung Exterior Door

  • Make sure the doorsill is level.
  • Then center the top of the door in the opening and tack it into place with galvanized casing nails.
  • Plumb the hinge-side jamb and tack the bottom corners.

Tack in the prehung exterior door

Pace 12

Shim the Hinge-Side Jamb

  • Shim behind each hinge.
  • For large spaces, kickoff with small squares of plywood.
  • Then stop with pairs of shims.
  • Brand sure the swivel-side jamb remains plumb.

Shim the hinge-side jamb

Step 13

Shim the Latch-Side Jamb

  • The goal is to center the door in the opening and shim the sides until they're plumb and straight.
  • Shim at the superlative, heart and bottom of the latch-side jamb and at the summit until the gap betwixt the door and the doorjamb is consistent.
  • Score the shims with a utility knife and break them off.
  • When you're happy with the fit, blast through the jamb into the framing at each shim location.

Shim the latch-side jamb

Step fourteen

Replace the Swivel Screws

  • Supervene upon a screw in each hinge with a three-inch screw driven into the framing.
  • Drive additional casing nails every 16 in. along the sides and top of the exterior trim.

Replace the hinge screws

Step 15

Figure C: Drip Cap

  • If your door is exposed to the weather, direct h2o away from the door with a metal drip cap overtop as shown in Figure C. You lot'll find baste caps at dwelling house centers and lumber yards.
  • Brick openings like ours and doors protected by porches with roofs don't require a drip cap.
  • If the drip cap is damaged or missing, install a new one before you set the door frame in the opening.
  • Cut the metal drip cap to fit and slide it under the siding and building paper (Figure C).
  • If nails are in the way, slip a hacksaw bract nether the siding and cut them.

Step 16

Insulate Around the Door

  • Fill the space betwixt the doorjamb and the framing with minimal expanding foam insulation (y'all'll need about two cans).
  • After the foam has expanded and skinned over, loosely stuff any remaining space with strips of fiberglass insulation.

Insulate around the door

Step 17

Install Interior Trim

  • Cut and install new interior trim or reinstall the old trim.
  • If at that place's a gap betwixt the new sill and the existing flooring, cover it with a beveled transition.

Install interior trim

Step 18

Utilize Caulk Backer and Caulk

  • Printing foam backer rod into the siding/trim gap.
  • Apply a neat bead of caulk between the siding and the door trim.
  • Cutting a trim lath to fit nether the sill and screw information technology to the framing.
  • For gaps wider than three/16 in., insert a foam backer and apply caulk over it.
  • Most doors crave an boosted trim board under the sill to back up its outer border.
  • Finally, remove the door and pigment or stain and varnish the door, jamb and trim.

Apply caulk backer and caulk door

Step 19

Editor's Note: Buying a New Prehung Outside Door

Most abode centers stock prehung outside doors in a limited number of styles.

  • Common jamb widths for stock doors are 4-nine/16 in. and 6-9/16 in., and they usually include 2-inch wide brick molding for exterior trim. These doors work cracking for newly constructed walls and for replacing doors in newer homes.
  • But if, after measuring the jamb width and opening sizes for your existing door, you lot discover that y'all need a different size jamb or that your exterior trim is wider, then you'll save a lot of headaches by ordering a door to your verbal specifications.

There are iii types of doors to choose from.

  • Steel doors are popular because they're cheap and require piffling maintenance.
  • Fiberglass doors won't warp or rot, and the more expensive models are difficult to tell apart from real woods.
  • You'll detect the widest selection of styles in wood doors, merely be prepared to spend extra time maintaining the end.

Prehung exterior doors are available at home centers and lumberyards. If you can't discover what you're looking for in stock, you tin society it.

  • Accept forth your measurements and a sketch showing which way the door swings.
  • If you plan to install a new entry knob and deadbolt, pick them out before yous order the door.
  • So ask the salesperson to have the door drilled to take your hardware. It'll cost a fiddling extra, but it's well worth information technology to avoid the nerve-racking chore of drilling into a new door.
  • Don't forget to order hinges that will match the finish of your hardware.

Get some ideas for a new door after looking at this stunning door options.

Buying a New Prehung Exterior Door

Originally Published: May xx, 2022