I have recently purchased an older and currently I am in the midst of tearing out all of my existing windows with more efficient, sound rated windows. These windows are new construction not the replacement type so I am well versed in squaring and accurately hanging these windows.
My question is this…how much will I be increasing the level of difficulty by trying to replace my current slider with a French Door? I am somewhat new to the home construction end of things, however; I have been building fine furniture for the past 8 years and am no novice to working with my hands. Could someone out there outline a thumbnail procedure for placing these doors as well as outline the common pitfalls.
Many thanks,
Cousin of Kubli Kahn
Replies
Two pitfalls would be an out of square rough opening, and an odd size opening. I have been finding that the RO's here are about 1" too narrow, so I have to go with a replacement door, not one for new constreuction, and even then sometimes it's too tight.
Do it right, or do it twice.
you set a french door set the same way as a slider or a window. Be sure the sill is set level and the sides plumb. Pay attention to what way the water runs and read the instructions first.
Excellence is its own reward!
I've been thinking this thru a little more and don't think I answered your main Q.
One pitfall could be that since what you have is old and it curently has a slider, you have a 50/50 chance of finding some sill rot when you remove the old one. You want to be prepared to repair that with materials on hand or to have a couple sheets of plywood to fasten up over the openning once you expose things whiule you run to the lumberyard for whatever you discover you need for repairs.
Excellence is its own reward!
Excuse me, but we here at Breaktime have voted now these types of doors shall be called Freedom doors.
Carry on.
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Figured someone would chime in with that one. The whole reason I opened the thread was to watch the ensuing flame wars. Thanks for getting thing going there T. :-)>Kevin Halliburton
"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard-
The first question is are you purchasing prehung or not.
If you make your own frames, you have more work, but you can work out the problems easier.
Rather than plywood for closing up the opening, I would use some heavy plastic. Assemble it so you can roll the plastic up to work and roll it down and tape it in place at night.
Door pan at the bottom. Flashing at the sides and top.
Yes, I will be purchasing pre-hung French doors and am still undecided if they will be in or out swing.
If you get a lot of wind, then outswing for sure. They usually price a little higher from my recent experience. We are putting french....um, I mean Freedom doors in a very windy spot, but after speaking with several door people, they all agree that outswing doors will be fine. Hope they are right! I guess we will look into Phantom screens if we decide we need a screen.
Paula
Just curious - Why would an outswing be better in the wind? Seems like the wind would grab the door when you open it and whip it around. An inswing wouldn't have that problem.
BTW - I hate hanging french doors. Can't seem to keep 'em straight - They keep going down on me.For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put them in the same room and watch them fight it out.
I'm guessing...
Outswing would be better in the wind in terms of keeping its seal, the pressure on it would push the door against the stops, versus away from the stops.
Though a good door with a good latch would probably be ok, unless your expecting a tornato in which case it doesnt matter. Parents had "freedom :) " doors on the back of their house in st louis, wicked winds would come down from the hill in the back of the house and in the 14 years I lived there, I never noticed any problems with the doors buckling inwards. I believe it was a marvin, not certain.View ImageGo Jayhawks..............Next Year
Yes, with outswing the wind pushes the door closed. Now I know some of you *think* you have wind, but seriously, we have WIND!!!! LOL! It is not uncommon to have day after day after day of 60+ mph wind, and then you get those occasional 80-100 mph wind. I think any inswing fr...freedom door would take a beating. If I could afford a really good door, it might not matter, but alas, I can't, so outswing made sense.
I still don't see it being any tighter than a multipoint latch set on an inswing.
So tell me, How do you let the dog out when it is blowing 80 + MPH with an outswing? And then, ho w can he lift his leg in that kind of wind? Talk about marking the territory!
LOL.
Excellence is its own reward!
Just don't be down windView ImageGo Jayhawks..............Next Year
And then, ho w can he lift his leg in that kind of wind? Talk about marking the territory!
Have a dog here that raises both rear legs to mark. Would love to see that in an 80 mph!!!!
If I raised both hind legs to mark my teritory, I'm sure it would work! Lots of people would stay away....
Excellence is its own reward!
You guys are BAD! :-) In a good way of course.
I could see how even a really nice door would get beaten up in that wind. At first things would be fine, but over time that constant high wind might start to work it all loose. I really don't know. Since we couldn't afford a *really* good door, we opted for outswing just to be safe. This door goes onto a deck anyway and there is another entry to the same deck off the mud room, so it probably won't get used all that much. Anyway, sorry to kind of hijack the thread.
No hijack, those are good points of participation.
My opinion has come to be - for exterior doors, that the ideal is to have it clad, behind a storm door, under a deck roof, with three point locking hardware. Anything less, is - well, - less.
You make some good arguments fro outswing, especially under a porch roof.
Now - how about the doggy door?
;)
Log home, right?.
Excellence is its own reward!
Yes, log home. Good memory!
Doggy door goes in the door from mudroom to deck, which is just a basic door. At least that was the original plan. Hard to say at this point.
Our other door is clad. Our Hurd dealer just so happened to have a green glad 6 ft door that had been in their showroom and they wanted to get rid of. So there we got an excellent door for $300. They had lots of nice doors that were sitting in their "bonepile" for various reasons. A good place to score a nice door for cheap if you can make it work.
my vote is always inswing with a storm door....
and french double doors are overrated .. double trouble with screen doors..
outswing into a mud room don't count.. outswing into the elements is asking for trouble
in most instances a single hinged door with a matching fixed panel will accomplish the same thing but with less problems down the road.... except for that one pair to get the baby grand in and out
and the excess wind seems like a good reason not to have french doors anyways.. or sliders...
buthey, whadda i no ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
What no one has mentioned. Sliding doors one person can install. Freedom doors come as one unit. The ones I just installed (Anderson Freedomwood) was 275 lbs. With the new 5 point locking system, inswing will tolerate very high winds. If you get one door fixed you can get a nice sliding screen on the inswing models and and it looks like double opening Freedom doors. With a nice low cost screen , that can be removed for the winter.