25 tips for installing a Double Storm Door

hey everyone storm door guy here if you're watching this you probably just watched the time-lapse video of me doing the install from start to finish on here if you didn't catch that uh look for that on my channel but I'm going to walk through step by step what I did to install these double French Al Larson Trade Winds storm doors so first off when you're doing the double or French storm doors the first thing that you're going to install contrary to the directions is the header rail you want to install the top piece first you want to get it as close to the top of the um door opening as you can and you're also going to put a level right on top of that once you level that that's going to make your life so much easier after you get that leveled you're going to put a screw in the top middle top left and top right just to temporarily secure it then you're going to take the hinge rail bar here and before you attach it to the door you're going to put it in the opening and pre-drill the top screw hole that'll let you know exactly where you need to put it then you take that Rail and install it on the door before you put the door in the opening then when you put the door in the opening you've already got that top screw set so you know exactly where it needs to go put in the top screw uh to secure the door in the opening then move to the bottom you're going to put a level on the bottom there and shift the door left or right until it's level then you're going to attach the bottom screw now since you've already leveled the top and you've leveled the bottom that door is going to work perfectly then you're going to come to the operative side so you first do the nonoperative side the one that you don't use all the time then you go to the operative side and do the same thing take that latch side frame drill the top hole and then attach it to the door once you attach it to the door you put the door in the opening screw that top screwed down so it's secure and then go to the bottom adjust the bottom left or right make sure you put a level on that and then drill and screw the bottom hole there once you do that you're going to want the reveal here to be between a/4 and 38 of an inch between the two doors if you've leveled everything perfectly it should be good if you're opening is too um wide then you can tighten the Jam screws here you can put in a jam screw on the interior to shift the whole door away from you which will increase the Gap here now once you've got both of those doors installed um your next step is to drill out for the door latches you'll put the templates on drill in the marked holes and then attach these guys so now you've got the doors up you've got the door handles on on um in this instance I had to attach the bottom expander plates before I installed the doors since they sit directly on the concrete so if yours sits directly on concrete there's no Gap or no step down um put those expanders on first it'll save you a lot of headache later so we've got the doors in we've got the doors on and now you we got the handles on your next step is going to be to install this uh asgo piece it's what locks the non-operative door into place the biggest thing you're going to have to remember when you cut it you're going to measure from the top of the top hole here to the top of the T asrial 36 and 5/8 in for standard height doors so if your door is between 80 and 81 in you're going to measure from the top of the top hole here to the top of the rail 36 and 5 58 in and cut it straight off that way the door latch and the deadbolt will line up perfectly in the holes but that's only for doors that are standard Heights of 80 to 81 in if you have an odd height oversized or undersiz consult the manufacturer directions for the appropriate Mark now once you do that you're going to um measure from the top of the the top of the door to the threshold you're going to take that measurement you take your tape measure up here measure from the top to the bottom on your T asle and then cut it off whatever that that distance is then you're going to have to notch it out so you'll open the door put the T asle up here and just Mark with a pencil where you want to cut that off and you're going to notch it just past the weather stripping B there once you do that test fitted in the door I usually um insert pre-drill and insert a screw at the top and at the bottom hole here just to secure this T ASR gon and then test fit the door to make sure you have appropriate clearance between the operative and the non-operative door when you're good there put in the other two screws and you're ready to rock and roll then your next step is to do the slide bolts there's two slide bolts top and bottom and this is what holds the nonoperative door into place you can see my Notch here for the um T asrial so that it clears the header rail there but you're going to drop this slide bolt just maybe an eighth of an inch past the top you don't want the the header there to hit the top of the slide bolt and not close so you sink it just a little below the top of the frame here pre drill and insert those two screws and this should slide up and down on the trade winds here I'm not a big fan of the plastic slide bolts but that's what the manufacturer gives us to work with so we go with it and the bottom one same thing you want to raise this slide bolt just slightly above the bottom of the of the frame so when you push this down the bolt extends past the frame now after you've got that on you're going to close the door and Mark where you have to drill out a hole for the slide bolt to go into this one the frame was a little low from the header of the door so I had to add a block and then drill out a hole for the bolt to go into you'll line up the same thing in the bottom right here pre-drill so you'll want to pre-drill with an E8 in drill bit and then use a 38 in spade bit to go right into the center of where your slide Bolt's going to go and then rock it back and forth to create an oblong shape once you've done that you're 90% of the way there congratulations I'm going to lock these guys back up and then once you've got those guys in you're going to step inside follow the directions and attach the door closers now once everything is lined up the door's working good then and only then will you put in these screw covers that cover the screw heads to finish everything off now um on the non-op of door these keys don't work because the dead won't go straight into the T asrial so you can just toss these and then yeah make sure all the screws are in the door um I forgot to mention that when you do the top and bottom screws um after you've got everything lined up and leveled before you do the door handles just go ahead and fill in all of the other screws around the door both on the jam interior and exterior and that is an overview of how you install a double French Larson Tradewinds storm door if you like this video be sure to smash that like And subscribe button and check out my other videos for tips and tricks on how to install storm doors or the honest no BS reviews hope you all have a great day

Channel: Storm Door Guy

Views: 4,415

Keywords: storm door guy, diy storm door, the home depot, screen door, renovation, installing storm doors, storm door, diy projects, diy projects for home, home depot, storm door installation, how to install a storm door, installing double storm doors, installing a storm door

Id: CmLtPF4GZAE

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023