Livaudais Front Door

Ms. Livaudais wanted her front door changed out to a solid blank 6 panel steel door because she felt that it afforded more security.

The single entry door showed it's age and also had light leaks all around the edges. Light leaks are evidence of a bad seal which allows air to flow in or out.

When we first met, I told her that she needed to get a left hand swing door with a frame for a 2"x6" wall. A door frame for a 2"x6" wall is 6-1/2" deep while a 2"x4" door frame is 4-1/2" deep. Her wall's thickness was a total of 5-1/2" deep. The plan was to trim the frame down an inch so that the door frame was a one piece unit which would allow it to sit in the wall right.

The original door was made for a 2"x4" wall and installed flush to the outside. It looked odd because the inside part of the frame was furred into the room an inch to flush with the wall while the door was set in an inch deep into the wall.
Her flooring had a hole behind the door that was uncovered because of this.








We went down to Lowe's early the next morning to pick up the door to install that day. Low and behold- All 2"x6" entry doors are special order, cost twice as much, and was ready for delivery in two weeks! Not happening, and now we know.

I tried to locate a 2"x6" frame kit to no avail, and then considered building a frame from scratch.

I then decided that I would do the same thing that the previous installer did, except I was going to remove the pre-installed brick mould, fur the frame out an inch on the exterior side of the door frame instead of the inside, and then nail the brick mould back on. This would allow the door to be flush to the inside wall like most normal doors are.

She bought the 2"x4" wall fitted door and everything went according to the plan that was laid out. I had the new door squared up and tacked in. I wanted to test the door before I shimmed it in permanent, so I rehung the door and gave it a test close.







Light was leaking at the top left corner and half way down it like the original door did. I checked all the flush points and they were right on.

What caused this problem was that the left or right wall at the bottom of the opening was out of alignment with the opposing wall, causing a twist in the opening. There was no fixing this here and now, realigning the wall is a whole other job in itself. Yay! What to do....

I had one of two options here,

1. Keep the door flush so all the trim works out perfectly and the door frame fits good with the major light/air leak showing, or

2. Counter twist the door till it was plumb. This meant the top left and bottom right of the door was going to stick out of the wall about a 1/4" and cause the trim to be a little funky, leaving a must caulk joint. This option sealed the door.

Earlier she said that she wanted a door that sealed tight more than anything else. She got her wish.








Most exterior entry doors are just nailed through the brick mould and maybe one or two fasteners on the inside of the frame by the framer.  See my entry door install page for details.

I fastened the brick mould to the wall, and did a 7 point shim job on the frame itself, securing it in with 3" screws.

All the air gaps were foam insulated and the inside trim put back on. I caulked all the joints and filled all the holes to get it ready for paint of which the homeowner wanted to do the painting herself.

I finished the day out there by installing a 30"x30"x12" wall cabinet over the refrigerator and trimming out the underneath her base cabinets.