I’m getting this about third hand, but I’m the one that’s going to be
sent shopping and you guys have always steered me right <vbg>
My in-laws have recently moved into a house with a outward-opening front door (I’m guessing steel skin over something or other). The prevailing breezes catch the door and tear it out of her hand, and it
winds up 180 degrees to where it started. All of the spring-and-chain sorts of things I’ve seen are probably ok for a screen door, but I’m doubtful about how long they’d last on a heavy door being popped open by the wind. Suggestions please? I’m sort of thinking hydraulic door closer, but the ones I’m most familiar with are on interior doors and I wonder about how they hold up as travel-limiting devices.
Many thanks for suggestions of types, models, etc. Commiseration for
long distance hardware shopping also gratefully recieved. <g>
Kay
Replies
Not really a whole lot available, other than chains and a few different sorts of rods in slides. All of these can be torn off by a strong wind. The only really reliable option is a post outside, positioned to catch the door, and I've seen doors bent in the middle by one of those.
What they should make, but don't (AFAIK), is a sort of seat belt retractor. A cable or belt fed from a spool. No resistance when the door is opened normally, but if it moves suddenly then the cable reel locks and keeps the door from opening further.
Something like this: http://secure.mycart.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=3392561
Edited 5/3/2005 9:41 pm ET by DanH
An outward opening main entry door is an aberration. The screen/storm door is supposed to open outwards; the main door opens inwards.
I've had my own storm door yanked out of my grip by the wind once or twice when I've been laden down with shopping, backpack, my son's lunch kit, and all the other junk you inevitably have to try to carry into the house from the truck when you get home from picking up the chillun's after work. Anyway, it usually slaps up against the woodpile on the front porch and stops at 90 degrees. No damage so far other than a small ding or two to the varnish...but it's a solid wood 1-3/8" custom storm door.
If your in-laws are okay living without a storm door, seems to me the best solution would be to pull the entire door, frame and all, and flop it so it opens inwards. Unless there's something very odd about the layout inside the main entry, that oughta solve several problems at once.
If you do go for a chain, get the kind with a long spring built in to absorb the shock, and set up the chain hooks so they can't pull out when stopping a heavy door. For the door side chain hook, I'd drill through the door and put a through eye-bolt in with a fair-sized washer on the outside. The hook plate that attaches to the header on the door frame usually pulls on the screws in shear, so it's less likely to pull out, but it should be screwed in with nice big hardware just the same, like #12 or #14 screws that go all the way through to the framing. Set the chain length so the door can't swing more than 90 degrees.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I thought outswing entry doors were an aberration, too, until I became familiar with the huge south Florida residential building market.
There, in the east coast counties beginning with Palm Beach, and going down through Dade, most all entry doors swing that way. It must be thought that a door in that config is better in hurricanes.
Dunno about the hurricane theory, but there's a weird thing up here in the Land of Perpetual Ice and Snow....
In a climate like ours, where the temp in winter routinely hits -30C at night and can dip as low as -40C, it is a rare house that is equipped with a screen/storm door. Most main-entry door-sets come as a single, pre-hung, metal-clad slab with no openable windows nor any provision for attaching an after-market storm door.
In summer, the temps can go as high as +30C (real close to 90F), and we have these little beasties called black flies that you really don't want to come in and visit you if you leave the front door open to get a little cross breeze in the house. Still, no screen doors on the great majority of places. I find this aberrant.
I also find it a source of income, as I suggest to my clients whose places are set up this way that I build them a custom door and custom fit it to their existing door frame. I build them with swappable screen/winter window inserts, and as they are stained & varnished solid wood, mortise & tenon construction with raised panels, they tend to look better than the original factory-stamped slab.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Kay, a heavy duty spring chain will work if installed properly. The chain brackets need to be bolted through the door on one end and mounted on the door header with screws long enough to reach framing on the other. The screws should also be large enough to resist being broken.
The bolts through the door can be made less hideous by using sex-bolts, yes, thats what I said. Insert nuts are another name for them, there is a picture below. If you have a commercial door company in your area they can fix you up with a heavy duty commercial chain and the hardware.
A hydraulic door closer will work, but the screws will rip out of it just as easily as a chain. Hydraulic door closers also cause a door to open and close more slowly in colder months, and gives the wind more time to get ahold of it.
Another advantage is, if the chain breaks, the replacement cost is $20 instead of $100 for a closer.
SEX BOLT
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