Exterior Front Door Installation

On the coldest day of march, I decided it was the perfect time to replace the front door. If you were to look at it you’d see light shine around all the sides and you’d see the dew condense on the single pane glass ancient luan door. This project involved removing a custom door frame that was made of solid 2 inch hard wood, and working a bunch of concrete. When I removed the frame, I found the most interesting installation technique i’ve ever seen: they mortared 3 inch common nails in reverse into the wall, then they took the custom frame and probably whacked it into the wall. Superb. Anyway here’s some photos.

Door: 500$ (it took like 4 months for the door to arrive)

Screen Door: 300$ (same day depot run)

Exterior Trim and Jamb extension: 120$ - I opted for that new faux wood plastic stuff they sell at lowes. Rot proof and holds up.

Extras (free): Interior Trim, spray foam, caulk

Total: 920$ ish

Front Door Before and After

The area above the door I left to make my life easier. I will eventually be ripping it out for a portico.

Left - before, Center - Zoom on rot, Right - after

The Adventure

When I removed the door, it was about a week after the new door arrived. I set the new door against the house, and a strong gust of wind came and blew the door onto my railing. The railing impaled the door.

I was able to fix this with Bondo all-purpose fiberglass patch in about an hour. I have yet to paint the door.

Left - when the railing destroyed the door, Center - the hole that i had in my house while I fixed the door. Right - Shimming the door with the hole during install.