How hard is it to just get a new one and switch it out? Can I just do the measurements and get one exactly the same size? I don’t know how uniform doors are.
The size was no problem for us (you may need to shim a little) but when we got the old door off, it turned out that the jam was rotted and the entire thing had to be replaced. That was beyond my skills.
Doors are actually very uniform these days … generally 32", 34" or 36" wide and 80" tall … so if you measure your existing storm door, a replacement the same size ought to be common …
How old is your house OP? Modern houses usually have standardized door sizes while old houses are more likely to have odd sized doors.
I was just thinking of replacing one exterior door and measured it as 28" by 78".
WOW … that is an old house … maybe time to spend the extra money and reframe to a 36" door? … the last time I saw a 28" exterior door was a pre-depression era house …
If this was an exterior door, I think it would be considerably easier to buy a standard door that’s solid with panels that will still look okay when you’re done and cut it down to size instead of tearing your house apart. A homeowner (that has to ask) could buy a door and cut it, see if it fits, play with it, nothing bad is really going to happen. If they screw it up, they can drop the old door back in and try again later.
But redoing the jamb is a pretty big deal.
As for the storm door, I can’t imagine it would be worth it to redo the jamb just for that. Personally, I’d probably shop around for a while to see what I could find. Check the local salvage places and if I really couldn’t find anything, call up a custom window or door shop. Many of those places can knock those out pretty easily.
I agree it would be easier to cut down a wooden door, hang it and install weather-stripping/threshold … but you’d lose the high R-value of a pre-hung steel door that comes with better weatherstripping/threshold, nevermind that steel is more durable than wood …
I also agree that this job is beyond the typical homeowner’s abilities … however, a carpenter can come in the morning and have the new door set and secured by afternoon … we’re just moving the king-studs and replacing the header … the big nasty here is having to wait overnight after the drywall is taped, then another overnight after the drywall is finished, then overnight for the primer to dry, overnight for the paint to dry and THEN install the trim … but these tasks are within the typical homeowner’s abilities …
The question is whether a day’s labor for a carpenter is worth the energy savings having a superior door in place … and having a much wider door … and being able to buy a storm door “off-the-shelf” rather than having one custom made …
Although HomeDespot carries 28" pre-hung steel exterior doors … the best of both worlds eh? …
As a small part of a big remodeling project, we had a new storm door put on our sun-room. The contractor ordered the replacement after eyeballing the existing door and the new door was 1/4 inch too wide.
Instead of consulting with us about what he should do, he cut 1/8 inch off of the bricks on each side, so the door would fit. He did this with other doors and windows open, so we had a fine layer of brick dust everywhere.
I’ve replaced storm doors in the past. The metal frame is oversized and cut to fit the opening. The door itself has some minor adjustment for width and height.