Video Series: How to Replace an Old Entry Door

Length: 1:09
Produced By: Brian Pontolilo, Justin Fink, and John Ross

Replacing a weathered or inefficient entry door can have a great impact on the comfort, appearance and value of a home. Today we’re in North Andover Massachusetts with Manny Silva who runs Lightning Builders. Manny recently wrote a popular article for Fine Homebuilding on his approach to replacing an entry door. The trim and siding details here are a bit different from the house shown in the article, but Manny’s technique is the same.

All Videos in This Series

Introduction

How To Remove an Old Door, Trim, and Siding

How To Flash a Rough Opening

How To Trim a New Door

Getting Ready for Door Installation

Door Installation, Final Air Sealing, and Patching the Siding

The first step is to remove the door being careful not to damage the weather resistive barrier and saving as much siding as possible, to be reinstalled later. Next, Manny will prep the opening for the new door, creating positive drainage at the sill, integrating new flashing details with the existing house wrap, and setting screws in the rough opening to plum the door during installation. With the door lying on his work table, Manny attaches the new trim to the door with pocket screws, which can actually be done at any time, even days before he plans to install the door. Finally Manny will install the door, take care of the final weatherization steps, and patch the siding. Let’s get started…