Front doors play an important role in a home’s curb appeal. Whether plain or elegant, every door begins with a basic door at the center. From here you can upgrade a door’s style and add features like the sidelights and curved transom glass shown here. Regardless of which features you add (or don’t), you will also add trim to the door on the outside and inside of your home, providing one more way to dress up your home’s entrance.

When ordering any exterior door, there is certain information you need to provide beginning with which way the door swings when you open it, i.e. to identify which side of the door will have the hinges. Exterior doors are always measured from the outside, i.e. as if you are standing outside the house and knocking on the door.

Purchasing a new exterior door is not as easy as making a trip to Home Depot. After picking your new door (read Front Doors and First Impressions), you will need to provide several key pieces of information when ordering the door. We see all sorts of mistakes made when we install replacement doors at my handyman business. These problems were what prompted me to write this article after one homeowner had us install a new sliding patio door, and only after it was installed did my technicians lean that she wanted the door to slide the other way. We had to remove the door, reconfigure and re-install the door because it wasn’t ordered correctly.

This article outlines the information we use to order doors through a local building supply company, Harvey Building Products (there are different regional building supply companies throughout North America). For something as critical as an exterior door, we recommend spending a little more money to get a quality product versus dealing with installation and maintenance issues. Doors are large and difficult to ship so they are more prone to damage. We’ve also had problems installing customer supplied doors that are warped due to improper storage.

What Size is the Door?

Doors are referred to by their width and height. A typical front door may be 3 feet wide and 6 feet, 8 inches tall. In the trades, this is called a 3-0 x 6-8 (or 3068) door. When you are replacing a door, you can measure the size of the existing door and that should be the size of the new door.

If you are replacing the door and the surrounding door frame (called pre-hung) or adding a new door, you must allow several inches around the sides and top of the door for adjusting and shimming the door inside what is called the “rough opening”. A good rule of thumb for replacement doors (existing flooring in place) is to add:

• 2-1/2″ to the width of the door (1-1/4″ for each side)
• 3-1/2″ to the height of the door

Normally exterior doors are 1-3/4″ thick (interior doors are less at 1-3/8″). Exterior doors are usually solid core so the extra thickness allows for more insulation. In measuring a door’s size, the thickness of the door jamb is what’s important. The door jambs are the upright pieces of wood that form the sides of the door frame. They are an integral part of the frame to ensure a tight fit between the door and the frame surrounding the door.

Forgetting (or guessing) on the width of a home’s exterior walls is one of the most common reasons why a door installation doesn’t go smoothly. The width of the door jambs is determined by the width of the wall framing,  either 2×4s (older homes) or 2×6s (newer homes). The door jambs will cover the rough framing that holds your door in place. Using a pre-hung door from the manufacturer helps insure that your new door is level and plumb for smooth operation of the door.

Door Hinges, Swing and Hardware

Once you’ve determined the door size, you need to identify where the hinges go and which way the door swings. These questions can be very confusing for homeowners and sometimes for contractors too. Here is one technique that works fairly well:

• Stand outside the house and face the door.
• Determine if the hinges are on the left (left hinged) or right (right hinged).
• Identify if the door swings into the house (most common) or out.

Determining where the hinges for screen doors go is more challenging. Most often the hinges will be on the same side as the entry door, with the screen door swinging out while the door swings into the house. At times, the homeowner may prefer to switch the storm door hinges to the other side to accommodate the natural traffic flow in and out of the door.

Homeowners may reuse existing door hardware or select new hardware including a new door handle. It is easier to have the manufacturer drill out the holes for the hardware. This will save you installation time but you must be prepared to specify the type of hardware you plan to use when you order the door.

• Are you using a standard entry lockset or custom hardware requiring different openings?
• Will there be a deadbolt lock? A single bore allows for a door knob only while a double bore supports an additional deadbolt lock.
• For double entry doors, it is also important to indicate which door will open first.

Door Casings

After a door is installed, trim is used to cover the gaps between the door jambs and the exterior siding plus casings on the inside, to cover the gaps between the door jambs and the drywall. Your interior casings should match the other trim used in your home for windows and interior doors.

The most common exterior trim is called brick molding and it is typically ordered with the door, for delivery at the same time.

Tips for Ordering Other Exterior Doors

Exterior doors must be researched, ordered and installed with care as they affect your home’s interior comfort. You’ll want to consider using dual pane versus single pane glass for energy efficiency. Here are a few tips to help you start researching each of these doors.

• Screen/storm doors are used in conjunction with entry doors. Door hardware for the inside door requires 3 to 4 inches clearance. An extension jamb kit can be used to build out one or both sides of the door, required when you have glass panels or sidelights surrounding your front door.

Note: Less expensive storm doors are cheaper for a reason. The manufacturer has left several manufacturing steps out and these become part of the door installation process or “assembly. Try to avoid this situation, which almost always costs more when labor and material costs are added together. Another problem we’ve run into is following the manufacturers instructions and finding too little support under the door because the storm door extends beyond the door threshold.

• Sliding patio doors may include 2, 3 or 4 panels. A 2-panel door will have one active (sliding) door and one inactive (stationary) panel. For 2-panel doors that come assembled, a homeowner must specify which side is active. Patio doors with more than 2 panels will be delivered unassembled due to size and weight. The assembly process is critical to the door functioning properly so take care to follow instructions carefully and test the ease with which the door slides before installing.
• Swinging patio doors are typically 2 or 3 panels wide. The active panel has hinges where it is attached to the inactive panel and the latch is on the opposite side, where the active panel meets the door jamb. Swinging patio doors tend to be more secure and energy efficient than sliding patio doors.
• French doors contain at least 2 active panels that swing in or out from the center of the unit. They use a 3-point locking system to secure the door the the head jamb and the sill or threshold below the door.

Author: tinagleisner: Tina Gleisner is passionate about helping women home owners LEARN about their homes, CONNECT with home professionals committed to delivering quality home products, and CREATE homes that support their lifestyle. Leveraging her experience as the owner of a handyman business, Tina created the Assn of Women Home Owners at www.HomeTips4Women.com.