How to Replace an Exterior Door

DIY techniques for a weathertight exterior door installation

Time

Multiple Days

Complexity

Intermediate

Cost

Varies

Introduction

Supercede a worn, drafty forepart door with a stylish new free energy-efficient ane. Replacement doors come pre-hung in a weatherstripped frame and y'all don't take to be a master carpenter to do a showtime-class job. Nosotros'll show you the techniques that will consequence in a perfect, weathertight installation.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • 10d terminate nails
  • 10d galvanized casing nails
  • 16d galvanized casing nails
  • 3-in. deck screws
  • 4d stop nails
  • 6d finish nails
  • Capitalist rod
  • Minimal expanding cream
  • Polyurethane caulk
  • Curlicue of flexible self-sticking flashing membrane
  • Transition molding Transition molding (optional; Photo 13)
  • Treated lumber to build upwardly the sill (optional)

Prehung Outside Door Installation

pre hung door installation Family unit Handyman

Rarely can you lot complete a project in a weekend that will save you money and dramatically better the looks of your house similar hanging a new front end door. In this article we'll testify y'all how to lodge a prehung exterior door that fits like a glove. So we'll bear witness you, step by pace, how to get your old door out and the new one in.

If you lot can handle basic carpentry tasks, you'll have no trouble installing a new pre-hung entry door in a twenty-four hours. Effigy on another 24-hour interval to stop the details and starting time painting the door. Front door paint adds personality and adjourn appeal.

Video: How to Hang a Door

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Project step-by-step (19)

Stride i

Figure A: Measure Your Onetime Door

In most cases, just club a new door the same size as the old one. If you alter the size or add sidelights, you'll take to reframe the opening and alter many details. This normally doubles or triples the size of the chore. Here are the iv sets of measurements you lot'll need to order a door (refer to Figure A for extra details):

Door size

  • Measure out the width and height of your erstwhile door.
  • Round these up to full inches to observe the size of the replacement door y'all'll need.
  • For example, if your door measures 35-3/4 in. wide and 79-1/ii in. tall, y'all'll order a 36-in. by 80-in. door.

Jamb width

  • Measure from the backside of the interior trim to the behind of the exterior trim (Figure A).
  • Specify this jamb width when yous society your new prehung door.
  • This guarantees that the interior trim volition fit flush to the wall without adding "jamb extensions."

Rough opening

  • Y'all'll demand to remove the interior trim for accurate measurements of the crude opening.
  • Measure out the opening width betwixt framing members and from the bottom of the sill to the superlative of the opening.
  • Compare these measurements to the rough opening requirements of your new door to make certain information technology will fit.

Exterior opening (or "masonry opening" if you have a brick or stone door surround)

  • Measure to the outsides of the outside casing, and then from the bottom of the sill to the top of the trim.
  • Compare these measurements with those of a prehung door that has standard 2-inch-broad "brick molding" trim.
  • If the framed door with standard trim is too pocket-sized to fill the space, or if you want a unlike trim style, you have three options.
  • The best solution is a door with wider, flat casing to fit the opening. Y'all can e'er add together a piece of decorative molding overtop to judge the style of your existing outside trim. (Nosotros ordered 2-one/four-in. flat casing and reinstalled the existing decorative molding.)
  • 2nd, y'all tin can lodge your door with standard molding and fill the gap with additional strips of wood.
  • The concluding choice is to order the door without outside molding and make your ain to fit.

Pace 2

Remove Your Quondam Door

  • Tap the hinge pins loose with a hammer and nail gear up.
  • Then swing the door open up and lift it off.
  • Protect the flooring with a dropcloth. The former door will be heavy.

remove old door

Stride 3

Pry Loose The Sometime Trim

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

pry off old door frame

Pace 4

Pry Off the Exterior Trim

  • Slice the caulk joint between the siding (brick) and outside 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

Step half dozen

Jamb Removal Close-Up

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

remove door jam with saw

Pace 7

Ready and Install the Sill

  • Later on the door frame is out, check the condition of the framing and subflooring in the sill area.
  • Cutting out and replace any rotted woods.
  • If the sill on your new door is thinner than the one you removed, you may have to build upward the sill area. We were lucky. Our brick opening was level and plumb, but this isn't always the case.
  • Beginning by checking the sill area with a two-foot level. If you lot're building information technology upwards every bit we show in the photo below, it's easy to level it with shims at the aforementioned fourth dimension.
  • Prepare the sill pinnacle so the door merely clears carpeting or rugs when it swings inward.
  • Build up the sill area to the proper acme with treated lumber. Add shims to level it.
  • Level the sill area with pairs of shims spaced about iv inches apart.
  • And so set the door in the opening for a test fit. Hold a level against the swivel jamb and suit the door and frame until the jamb is plumb.
  • Check to see how the casing fits against the siding. If the siding is 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, merely information technology's usually more practical and easier to trim the casing.
  • Mark the casing in areas that need trimming.
  • Then have the door out and trim the casing with a belt sander or circular saw.
  • Once level, fasten information technology with coated deck screws.

install door sill

Step eight

Install Flashing Tape

  • Installing flashing tape will protect the sill from water intrusion. Purchase the flashing tape from lumberyards.
  • If you're installing a door in a newly constructed wall, you can buy a special plastic sill flashing kit instead. One brand is Jamsil. Details will vary depending on the doorway situation.
  • Embrace the rough sill area with cocky-sticking flashing tape.
  • Wrap it up the sides of the opening and over the front end edge.
  • Ready the door in the opening, plumb it and check the fit.

install flashing

Stride 9

Figure B: Sill Particular

  • The thought is to aqueduct water away from the wood. If your home is built on a physical slab, the door frame will probably rest directly on the slab.
  • Figure B illustrates how to correctly install your sill to reduce any hereafter potential of water harm.

Step 10

Apply Caulk

  • Make sure the building newspaper is intact around the frame edges. If not, slide strips of No. 15 felt behind the siding and tack it to the framing with staples.
  • When yous're sure the door will fit, caulk along the sill and behind the casing and tip the door into the opening.
  • Apply a bead of polyurethane caulk along the sides and elevation of the door opening and at the sill according to the manufacturer's instructions.
  • You'll probable demand 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

Step 12

Shim the Hinge-Side Jamb

  • Shim behind each hinge.
  • For big spaces, start with small-scale squares of plywood.
  • Then finish with pairs of shims.
  • Brand certain the hinge-side jamb remains plumb.

Shim the hinge-side jamb

Step thirteen

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 top, middle and bottom of the latch-side jamb and at the elevation until the gap between the door and the doorjamb is consistent.
  • Score the shims with a utility knife and interruption them off.
  • When yous're happy with the fit, smash through the jamb into the framing at each shim location.

Shim the latch-side jamb

Step 14

Supervene upon the Swivel Screws

  • Replace a screw in each hinge with a three-inch spiral driven into the framing.
  • Drive boosted casing nails every 16 in. along the sides and top of the outside trim.

Replace the hinge screws

Step xv

Figure C: Drip Cap

  • If your door is exposed to the weather, directly h2o abroad from the door with a metal drip cap overtop every bit shown in Effigy C. You'll find drip caps at abode centers and lumber yards.
  • Brick openings like ours and doors protected by porches with roofs don't require a baste 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 manner, slip a hacksaw blade under the siding and cut them.

Step 16

Insulate Around the Door

  • Make full the infinite between the doorjamb and the framing with minimal expanding cream insulation (you'll need about two cans).
  • After the foam has expanded and skinned over, loosely stuff whatsoever remaining infinite with strips of fiberglass insulation.

Insulate around the door

Step 17

Install Interior Trim

  • Cutting and install new interior trim or reinstall the old trim.
  • If there's a gap between the new sill and the existing flooring, cover information technology with a beveled transition.

Install interior trim

Footstep xviii

Apply Caulk Capitalist and Caulk

  • Printing foam backer rod into the siding/trim gap.
  • Utilize a dandy bead of caulk between the siding and the door trim.
  • Cut a trim board to fit nether the sill and screw it to the framing.
  • For gaps wider than iii/16 in., insert a cream backer and apply caulk over it.
  • About doors require an additional trim lath nether the sill to back up its outer edge.
  • Finally, remove the door and pigment or stain and varnish the door, jamb and trim.

Apply caulk backer and caulk door

Step 19

Editor'southward Annotation: Buying a New Prehung Exterior Door

Nigh home centers stock prehung outside doors in a limited number of styles.

  • Common jamb widths for stock doors are iv-nine/16 in. and vi-nine/sixteen in., and they usually include two-inch wide brick molding for exterior trim. These doors work great 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 discover that y'all need a different size jamb or that your exterior trim is wider, then you'll salvage a lot of headaches past ordering a door to your exact specifications.

There are three types of doors to choose from.

  • Steel doors are popular because they're inexpensive and require little maintenance.
  • Fiberglass doors won't warp or rot, and the more expensive models are hard to tell apart from real wood.
  • You'll find the widest option of styles in wood doors, but be prepared to spend extra fourth dimension maintaining the finish.

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

  • Take along your measurements and a sketch showing which style the door swings.
  • If you lot program to install a new entry knob and deadbolt, selection them out before you order the door.
  • Then inquire the salesperson to accept the door drilled to have your hardware. Information technology'll toll a little actress, but it'due south well worth it to avoid the nervus-racking job of drilling into a new door.
  • Don't forget to order hinges that volition 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 twenty, 2022