How to Install A Storm Door - Step by Step!

in this video i'm going to show you how to install a storm door and we're going to do it right now [Music] so this is the door that i'm installing the storm door on i want to put a storm door here so i can open up the door and let some fresh air in and also this is what it looked like last winter so i want to avoid getting snow and rain in there and it eventually gets into the wood and can rot it out and swell up the door itself so i want to avoid all that so i'm going to install a storm door uh to get the right size door they're all standard sizes so you measure the actual door this is a 32 by 80. so that would be the size storm door you want to get and when you install this door it actually the pieces sit on this trim this is typically what an exterior door will look like you'll have your threshold here and then these pieces of trim butt up to the threshold on both sides and then your storm door sits on top of this trim so once you get the measurement of the door you can get your storm door and i have mine right here it's an emco and you can see it's a 400 series it's a white door with nickel hardware the door handle and stuff um and it's a 32 by 80. so i like to put this down flat on saw horses like this it makes it way easier to work on and then i'm going to cut along where it says to cut and open this up and start the install all right once you got your door opened up here make sure you got all your stuff inspect the door make sure the window's not broken or any scratches or big dents or anything make sure you're happy with that and then make sure you have your instructions these ones were hidden under the door over here in case you're looking for those i still recommend reading these instructions in fact they're really great since the last time i installed the door these have improved drastically they have all colored pictures and everything step by step so the installation since the last time i put a door in has changed a little bit they made it easier i've probably done about 200 doors in my lifetime and they're all kind of similar i'm going to show you the new way that they recommend they give you these pieces to help out so i'm going to do it that way because it does look a little easier now one thing you'll notice is there's no door handle on this already you're going to have to install it but that means that this can swing left or right and i'm going to make it so my hinge is on this side typically you're going to want to have the door swing the same way as the other door you know have the handle right here and you just want to make sure that it's not going to hit this door handle that it's not going to interfere and i don't know why you would but if you want to you can have it over here i just think that's a little awkward opening the door this way and then opening that one so i'm going to install it where the hinge side is over here and the door handle is over here so this is the door handle that's going in here and i measured 40 and a half inches off of the threshold that's where they recommend this and this looks like it's going to be fine it's going to be close to the deadbolt but i'm going to have enough room if it was down here i would not it would probably be about here so i got enough swing with the door handle so it can go down and they give you exact measurements in the instructions um so you can make sure that you don't interfere with the door handle that's already there oh another thing to keep in mind is the rough opening from the what is typically here is brick molding that comes with a lot of these doors i have pine but this opening should be about 32 inches for the rough opening it could be a little less it could be a little more uh same thing with the height the height is not as big a deal but luckily very nice of them they include this spacer right here if it's bigger so if the opening happens to be bigger you can put this spacer in and tighten your screws and this hinge piece will still be tight make sure you put it on the hinge side and because you don't want the hinge to be flopping around so if it is a bigger opening install this first right here otherwise mine is perfect so i'm just gonna use the opening that's there now that you've decided which side is the hinge side and which side is the handle side you got to kind of look at it as like this is the inside of the door you can tell because of the screws here and the other side is has no screws and has like a a nice molding around the outside of the window so picture this from the inside of the house i know that my hinge is going on this side and it can be confusing so make sure that this weather stripping is touching the inside of the door like this and just make sure you're putting the hinge on the right side in the right way so when you go to attach this you just turn it like this and you want to attach these brackets into the door like that now that you have your hinge side you want to look and you'll see bolts all along the side here you want to leave the top one and the bottom one in sorry they're more like screws and then you want to take this screw out and this screw out two middle screws now you want to line this up right here and measure this and have the top of the door have the hinge being held out about 3 16 of an inch from the top and then we're going to hold this up here and mark these holes so we can attach the hinge to the door i've marked 3 16 of an inch right here and these go in just like that like that like this one and they actually give you a drill bit which they never did before that's one of the improvements that they made and i'm going to pre-drill these i'm going to go in about an inch i'm going to hold my hinge here and make sure all of these pieces right here are flipped the right way you don't want to attach this and have them get stuck and make sure you use the right screws these ones are unpainted they're i think they're about an inch long that started okay so you want it to look something like that held about 3 16 of an inch away and i got two started that'll make it easier to attach these hold them up here pre-drill and get the screws in sorry for the wind it's not a good idea to do a storm door on a windy day either but that's what i'm doing so now the hinge should work just like this now on the bottom of the door you'll see this door sweep it has this little channel here where you want to slide in this weather stripping so you want to just get it started like that and then pull that the whole way like that i'm going to take some pliers and try and sneak in here and pinch this just crimp the end of that so it doesn't move and do the same thing on the other side now you can trim this off on each side now you want to center this sweep just tap it a little bit make sure it's even on both sides i'll make sure it's tight against the door and i'm going to pre-drill right at the bottom of this notch right here i want to go through the door be careful same thing on this side now i'm going to install these small painted screws and on the other side on the opposite of the hinge this is one of the new things they include and this will help with installation it'll help to sit the door on the bottom of the threshold of the door that goes on this side like that and here's another new handy uh thing that they included this goes on the handle side opposite of the hinge about six inches up from the bottom of the door and it just sits in like that and that'll help to tell you where this door should go and help with installation this will rest up against that molding now before we install the door on the hinge side just going to install this piece over where if you were going to put the handle on this side there's a hole there so this piece goes right here to cover that up got my screws ready on the hinge side and i have a level just to double check for plumb uh before i put the screws in so i'm gonna grab the door set this on the bottom and then butt this up tight against the trim and check for plumb and put my screws in the hinge side here we go check this it's pretty much perfect [Music] looking good let's open it up nice okay a little tip for you on a windy day like it is today be careful it might be a good idea to just keep this locked into place because i have seen these things just go flying and breaking so watch out for that now on the inside of the hinge you'll see some screw holes you want to put some screws in there as well now on the top you can open the door and install your rain cap and engine like this like that now this is going to sit on top of this piece and then what you want to do is get an even gap so i'll put a screw in this side because i know it's going to sit flat on the hinge and then make sure your your gap is even here which it is put one on the side now in the situation that you're able to get screws on either side but here the opening was a little bigger and there's a gap here you're going to have to put a plug in here so before you attach these screws you want to put that plug in from the back side and then i'll show you what to do from there but i have some molding here that i can attach this screw to the rain cap is all set now this is the plug that they give you to put here if there is nothing to attach to and then you'll have to install this rain cap extender put screws in there and uh that is for this model anyways you might have a different model so you might not have to worry about that at all now you can remove this piece that is not needed anymore and this is something another new thing that they include in the kit these are spacer foam pieces which you put right here one right there one in the middle and one at the top and what it does is when you go to install this side piece those spacers are actually going to touch this piece and that's how you're going to know how much of a gap to have when you install that piece pretty cool that's a nice addition oh you can open up the door this piece in shut the door and then like i said hold this piece against those foam pieces and that'll give you a nice even gap all the way hold this piece up tight to the ring cap move it over to that spacer and attach your screws [Music] there's another foam piece right here so i'll make sure that door is closed push this over now once that piece is attached you can open the door and peel these off and discard them now this is specific to my door you might not have to do this but this piece goes right here and then it creates a nice seal against that so i'm going to take all of these screws out along the edge so i can attach that piece i may have installed this piece a little early because this template for the door handle has to sit just like that but i just loosened these screws a little bit so i can sneak it in there so you want to take your this is a door handle hole template and make sure this is the top and you want to take these edges and line them up with the hole that's mortised out in the door just like that and then make a mark up here and then i'll sneak this in here and fold this around here and just hold the paper right to that mark and then what i like to do is take the smallest drill bit i have in my arsenal and just make a little mark make sure this template is in the right place i'm just gonna just make a little mark with this in each of these locations i'm gonna do the same thing on the inside of the door this is what's going to go here so you have a little room for error i'm going to take that eighth inch drill bit just enough to get through the metal now make sure you follow your guide for what size holes the these are on mine the bottom and the top are half inch and then the middle ones are three three-quarter and i don't recommend using um a paddle bit like this i like to use good old-fashioned drill bits because these can go in and then catch on the metal or the plastic whichever your door is and just tear it up and make a mess normal drill bits make a lot smoother of a hole make sure if your door is metal you're using metal bits and for a plastic door you can use a wood bit so i'm going to drill this just enough to get through the metal on this side and a little bit of the wood and then i'll go to the other side and do the same thing finish the hole because again if you go through to the other side it can tear that metal or plastic up and make a bigger hole than you want so just be careful when you're doing this that's all i need i can't stress enough how important it is to have sharp drill bits the ones just make this a whole lot harder we got our big old honking three quarter inch and you could do some step ups if you if you felt like it where you know you do quarter and then half and then three quarter if you worry about the uh bit wandering but i have nice sharp bits so we should be good [Music] they're very sharp you take this foam out of the door don't need that and you want to determine this is for a left and a right so this is actually not going to work because this flap part needs to be flipped around because it needs to sit in like that so i need to take this faceplate apart and turn this and then reattach it to make it proper for this type of swing carefully take that off just spin that put that back on reattach the face plate this goes in here now you can install this piece goes just like that and on this side this plate goes like this and get the lock set in there like that okay attach the screws tighten those down not going to all the way yet now i can put the door handle on i'm going to take one of these nylon washers make sure it sets in there that in through like that and then you're gonna see on each of these right on the inside of the handle is a set screw that you want to tighten with an allen key after it's put this nylon washer here that one there you can hold that together and tighten those down [Music] which way should the door handle be like this or like this i'm gonna leave it like that just to mess with you i'm gonna pre-drill some holes here and here attach these screws and then because this does still have some play to it i just want to make sure this is even like there's an even gap like that and then i can tighten these screws in now i can attach the striker plate over here start with these holes you can adjust this however it works out for you you see it go back and forth so i'm gonna go in about the middle and see how that works out let's try that that's perfect the lock lock works good now i can attach these two screws yeah that bit's definitely warped i'm gonna throw it away right after i'm done now one feature i really love about this door is this you can pull this down and there's a screen right there so i gotta attach this handle which is really simple two screws just make sure you attach this so that the clip goes up like this install your screws [Music] there you go that way it locks that in the bottom you can adjust your sweep take this piece out don't need that anymore now just push this down until there's no daylight showing you might need a screwdriver to help you kind of tap this because it is tight just a light tap yeah i like that right there tighten those screws up now we're going to install the door closer and this happens to have another uh upgraded design which i actually really like um you want to measure about two inches from the window and about right there is where we're to put our bracket so i'm going to hold this in the center of that and i'm going to pre-drill all these holes now you can position that bracket and only put this screw and this screw in for now just like that so make sure it looks like this where this little loop piece is over here and then this is just set against the hinge rail and then put the screw in [Music] and then you take this piece and it has a little hook right here so you want to hook that in it goes just like that open up the door and install this one [Music] and those screws are so long because they want you to get into framing because there can be a lot of pressure put on this now you want to take your piston and this piece here goes like this this is what you use to hold the door open and then you just put this in here put the short pin in through here and then another upgrade they give you is this little clip you want to pull this piston open snap this clip into place and it's going to hold this out where it needs to be it's going to sit in between those bumps and the piston now you can take this piece and use your long pin and you can see it has holes here that through like this and then you want to hold this even so measure two inches down just like you did on the other side to the center like that and then you can do pre-drill some holes here make sure you don't drill through the door completely install that screw do another one now you can open that door and take that clip off now the speed that this closes is up to you but there is an adjustment screw right here and it's closing a little slow so i'm gonna adjust it out like this let's see how that does that's better now one last thing are these pieces here and they go along this channel to cover up the screws and it goes all the way around the way you install these is you put this side in first right here and then give a little snap you can even use a hammer if you want but you should be able to go along and just snap it into place nice so that's it there was a lot of steps but pretty easy all together and i did the half screen out here because i don't want my dog jumping through the screen or anything like that and if you know we bump the the car seat or something into the bottom we don't want to rip the screen but they have all kinds of different doors uh hopefully this helped you out they're pretty similar all to install so if you enjoyed this video make sure you like it and if you want to see more like this you can click hereish and hearish and check those videos out and if you haven't subscribed yet definitely consider it i have a ton of home repair and time lapses and all kinds of stuff thanks for watching

Channel: The Fixer

Views: 59,635

Rating: 4.9468369 out of 5

Keywords: diy, how to, do it yourself, easy, house, house repair, maintenance, How to install a storm door, storm door, home improvement, screen door, door, front door, home depot, install, how to install a screen door, installing storm doors, renovation, how to install, storm, install a storm door, diy storm door, how to replace a storm door, installation, storm door installation, storm doors, home remodeling, diy ideas, home repair, the fixer, emco 400 series

Id: PBwhWYK3D24

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021