multitool does the trimming.
F. With your helper on the other side of the door, shut the should suffice. However, if the jamb bows
door and “read the reveal”—the gap between the door and between shimming points or doesn’t seem solidly
the jamb edge. Working from both sides, drive pairs of
anchored, add two more pairs of shims, each pair
shims until the reveal along the head jamb is even (usually
1
spaced equidistantly between the others.
⁄8 in.). Nail shim points.
Doors, Windows, and Skylights
111
tion sill/threshold already attached—usually
screwed to the bottom of the jamb legs. In new
construction, this combo sill/threshold sits
directly on the plywood subfloor, although in
some installations the doorsill sits directly on top
of the floor joists with subflooring and finish
flooring butting up against it.
3. Install a sill pan, even if the doorway is pro-
tected by an overhang. Given the popularity of
rubberized self-adhesive flashings these days,
most builders fashion a sill pan from membrane
After planing down the hinge stile, use a small router
such as the Moistop Corner Shield®. Because
(laminate trimmer) to mortise the hinge gains deeper.
most of these products are flexible and self-
Clamp scrap to the door edge to provide a wider base for
the router. You could use a chisel, but a router will get the sealing, they can be easily fitted into corners or depth exactly right.
rolled to create water dams. If your region gets
driving rains, a prefabricated metal or plastic sill
If you must reduce the width of a
pan is another option. Whatever the pan materi-
door, use a power plane on the hinge
6.
al, however, fold its ends and back edge up—as
Check the reveal around the door one last
stile of the door. Planing down the
shown in the drawing below—so the pan will
time, make sure all shims are snug, and then
lock stile is not advisable because
confine any water that gets under the sill. All sill
locks have specific setbacks from
trim the shims flush, using a utility knife, a
pans should be caulked well inside corners and
door edges and you’d need to move
Japanese saw, or an oscillating multitool. That
face bores, too. So, it’s far easier to
along seams. If you use a bituminous membrane,
done, you’re ready to install handles and locksets
plane hinge stiles.
make sure the sealant you use is compatible with
(see pp. 121–124) and door casings (p. 118 and
the membrane. Butyl-based sealants are usually
chapter 17).
a safe bet, but check manufacturer’s specs for
Instal ing an Exterior Door
both products.
Installing a prehung exterior door is much the
same as an interior door installation, so consult
the preceding section if any step below is insuffi-
ciently explained. Exterior door units are inher-
ently more complex to install, however, because
of the need to make them weathertight. If you
zzzzzz Sill Pan for exterior Door
discover rot in the existing door frame or the sur-
P R O T I P
Flashing strips
rounding framing, attend to that before installing
overlap pan ends.
a new unit.
If you custom-ordered door units
Rear lip turns up
with the casing preattached—
PRePPINg tHe OPeNINg
to stop water.
perhaps to match existing casing
Most of the prep work involves leveling and
on the house—apply a bead of
Floor pan
caulking around the exterior of
weatherproofing the bottom of the opening.
the RO rather than to the back
That’s where water is most likely to enter and
face of the casing; if you caulk
damage flooring, subflooring, and framing.
the casing, you’re likely to get
When installing an exterior door, cover the work
sticky fingers lifting it into place.
area with tarps to contain the mess and heavy
If it’s necessary to remove a
cardboard to protect finish floors.
frame after pressing it into caulk,
1. Before ordering the new door unit, measure
reapply a continuous bead of
the height and width of the RO and the thickness
caulking around the opening.
of the wall. Check the trimmer studs for plumb,
Pan ends turn up
the header and sill for level, and corners for
2 in. onto studs.
square. Generally, the RO will be 2 in. wider than
the door—or 1⁄2 in. to 1 in. taller and wider than
Front lip overlaps
the framed unit. (When the prehung unit arrives,
flashing, sheathing.
check all these measurements again—and the
dimensions of the unit as well.)
Whether fabricated from sheet metal or
bituminous membrane, floor pans can
2. Determine the height of the finish floor. In
protect doorway openings from getting
most cases, prehung doors come with a combina-
soaked by standing water.
112 Chapter 6
leveling a Doorsill
In standard construction, the doorsill sits on the subfloor and the finish floor
butts to the sill, but in many older houses, the sill sits directly on top of the joists
and the subfloor and finish floor butt to the inside edge of the sill. Now and then,
you even see the sill notched into the joists.
there are several ways to level an exterior doorsill. After you’ve installed a sill
pan, place a spirit level across the bottom of the rough opening and insert pressure-
treated wood shims under the sill until it reads level. tack shims to plywood sub-
flooring to keep them from drifting, and then install the prehung door unit. If the
subfloor is concrete, use construction adhesive to spot-tack the shims. Or you can
place the door frame into an out-of-level opening, use a flat bar to raise the low end
If the subfloor isn’t level—common in older homes—one
of the frame sill, and insert shims under the sill until it’s level. to prevent flexing
option is shimming beneath a doorsill and then filling
between shims, space shims every 12 in. beneath aluminum/combination or oak
between shims with a cementitious mix. Cedar shims are
sills, or every 6 in. to 8 in. beneath aluminum sliding-door sills.
OK over a dry concrete subfloor, but if the doorway is
damp or unprotected, use plastic shims.
the problem with any of these solutions is that many sills—especially hollow
aluminum ones—are so thin that they may flex between shim points. If there’s
1⁄4 in. to 1⁄2 in. of space under the sill, use a 1⁄4-in. tuck-pointing trowel (see the
bottom photo on p. 230) to push dry-pack mortar into the spaces between the shims,
4. Before installing the door, weatherproof the
compacting the mortar as best you can. (Dry-
pack mortar has a minimal amount of
sides of the RO by folding building paper or
water—just enough to activate the cement. If you squeeze a handful, it will keep
housewrap into the opening (see p. 119), making
its shape but there will be no water glistening on its surface or on your hand.) Or fill
sure that it overlaps the upturned edges of the sill
under the shimmed-up sill with nonshrinking mortar, such as an epoxy mortar/grout.
pan. Alternatively, if you haven’t yet installed a
the only way to correct an out-of-level opening without shims is to rebuild it,
water-resistive barrier, you can attach flexible,
which is rarely simple. For example, you can remove the subfloor and power-plane
self-adhesive flashing tape to the sides of the RO
the joists until they are level, then install pressure-treated plywood. But if nearby
that will overlap the tops of the sill pan. Flashing
floors are out of level, you may need to level them next.
tape comes in widths up to 12 in. and can be eas-
ily shaped and smoothed around the corners of
the RO. Finally, to direct water away from fram-
ing, the outer lip of the sill pan must overlap any
exterior flashing beneath the sill. To keep water
out, above always overlaps below.
exterior door frames are made from heavy stock,
milled to exact specifications, and reinforced
DRy-FIttINg tHe DOOR
with sturdy sills, so they rarely arrive out of
square. Place the unit back in the opening and
Once you’ve prepped the opening, place the door
check that the reveal is even.
unit in it to see what needs doing. This is a dry
run, so leave the door in the frame. You’ll need a
3. Assuming the reveal is even, remove the
helper for this sequence.
unit from the RO. If the bottom of the opening
is not level, attend to that now, as described in
1. Test-fit the door frame in the opening.
“Leveling a Doorsill” above. Then caulk the
Center it right to left in the RO; there should be
bottom of the opening with a triple bead of caulk.
1⁄4 in. to 1⁄2 in. of clearance around the frame so
it can be shimmed. Then, margin the frame—
INStAllINg AN exteRIOR FRAMe
center it within the thickness of the wall. Jamb
edges inside and out should be flush to wall
There is no one right way to install a prehung
surfaces, or 1⁄
exterior door. Some carpenters prefer to install
16 in. proud to accommodate fram-
ing quirks.
door frames with doors in them. Others prefer to
remove the door, plumb and attach the hinge
2. Is the door frame square? If it is, there will
jamb, rehang the door, then attach the other
be an even reveal (gap) between the door and the jambs. Although the photo sequence shows the
jambs all the way around the door. If not, the
door removed, both methods are described here.
frame is skewed. To square it, remove the frame
from the opening, and tilt the frame to one side
until acute corners (less than 90°) become square
and the reveal is even all around. Factory-made
Doors, Windows, and Skylights
113
entry Door essentials
Start by selecting an entry door whose architectural style fits your
house. then refine your choices by considering climate, the orientation
panel
of the door toward prevailing winds or strongest sun (south and west),
and to what extent the entry is protected by, say, a porch roof or eave.
As a rule of thumb, wood door makers recommend that an overhang
stave core
stick out from the house an amount equal to at least half the distance
from the doorsill to the underside of the eave. If the depth of the over-
hang is less than that, a fiberglass or steel door may be a more durable
choice for that location.
stile
Materials
Aesthetics aside, picking an entry door is a trade-off of durability,
maintenance, price, and energy efficiency. long term, a cheap, leaky
Cross-section of a quality door.
door will cost you plenty.
Wood. Quality wood doors feature panel-and-frame construction,
with mortise-and-tenon joints at the corners for greater durability.
(Doweled joints aren’t as strong.) traditionally, panels have floated
free within the frame to allow for expansion and contraction; today’s
energy-efficient models also add elastic sealants around the perimeter
rail
of the panel to cut air leaks and moisture penetration. to minimize
warping, many panels have engineered wood cores with 1⁄16-in.-thick
veneers, whereas their frames have solid stave cores of the same hard-
wood species—mahogany is a favorite because it wears well. the
beauty of wood doors is that they can be clear-finished, stained, or
painted, but, for my money, I’d get a factory finish with an exterior-
grade, oil-based varnish or polyurethane with Uv-protection. Whatever
steel. economical but unexciting, steel entry doors are nonetheless
the finish, however, wood doors should be refinished every one to
durable, energy-efficient, and easy to maintain. the knock is that they
three years.
don’t look like wood, and so they look out of place on older homes. But
Price: With standard glazing, $250 to $5,000—and up.
that’s not a negative on a newer house with sleek lines. Most residen-
Energy profile: Not great. On average, wood doors have an R-2 value,
tial steel doors are made from 24-ga. steel skins over an engineered-
although more efficient ones achieve R-5. Interestingly, doors with
wood or steel frame; internal cavities are filled with an expanding
low-e glass have higher R-values than wood doors without glazing.
foam, typically polyurethane. Steel doors are sometimes required by
Fiberglass. Spurred by energy efficiency and surface details that
code for multifamily houses, where there’s a shared wall between living
are almost indistinguishable from wood, fiberglass doors have been
space and an active garage, and where houses are located in a fire
gaining market share for the last decade. typically, fiberglass skins are
zone. In those cases, codes also will specify the core insulation, the
applied to a wood-composite, laminated veneer lumber (lvl) or steel
thickness of the steel skin, and so on. Steel doors need repainting less
frame to lend rigidity; the core of the door is then filled with insulat-
often—every three to five years—but don’t put it off. If the steel skin
ing foam. Fiberglass doors are dimensionally stable and surprisingly
begins to rust, it can go fast.
sturdy. Better-quality models look very much like wood because they
Price: Unglazed, $125; with standard glazing, $175 to $700 for a
were created from molds taken from actual wood doors—including
midlevel steel door. But when you price the door, get a quote on the
period moldings and wood grain. Once painted, they’d stump an
whole entry system, including the frame.
Energy profile: Not quite as good as fiberglass but close. Some models
that can be stained. As with wood, though, the most durable coatings
hit R-8.
are factory finished. If you choose to stain the door, you’ll need to
Weatherstripping and thresholds
restain it every two or three years. Fiberglass entry doors come with a
wide variety of glass patterns, too.
For best results, buy an entry door system with integral weatherstrip-
Price: With standard glazing, $175 to $2,200.
ping, in which a kerf (slot) is milled into the door frame. Integral sys-
Energy efficiency: Among the best for doors, expect R-8 or higher.
tems have close tolerances, tight fits, and nylon-jacketed foam strip-
As fiberglass expands and contracts at the same rate as glass, glazing
ping that can be compressed repeatedly without deforming or losing
seals are especially stable in such doors.
its resilience. this type of weatherstripping is often called Q-lon®,
114 Chapter 6
after a popular brand. In general, avoid weatherseals that are held in
place by an adhesive; they aren’t as durable and they can migrate out
of position.
there are many sill-threshold combinations to choose from. First,
examine the existing sill because, especially in older houses, there’s a
lot of variation in how sills were detailed. (See “leveling a Doorsill” on
p. 113.) If your present sill is nonstandard, take photos of it and share
them with the lumberyard person who’s selling you a replacement door.
Ideally, you can find a sill/threshold combination that will not only be
weathertight but also relatively easy to install.
Sweep gaskets seal the bottom of the door, typically with a neo-
prene gasket in a metal channel that screws to the bottom door rail.
the sweep also may be mated to a gasketed channel in a threshold.
Better-quality sweeps are adjustable and have replaceable gaskets, as
they become abraded in time. In general, avoid bristle-type sweeps
because they don’t block air or water as successfully and aren’t durable.
entry Door Hardware
there’s a plethora of door hardware, but apart from finishes, styles, and
other aesthetic considerations, hardware choices can be boiled down to
a few essential differences between hinges and lock assemblies.
hinges. Any prehung door you buy from a reputable supplier
Renovation 4th Edition Page 27