Americans are increasingly becoming fond of storm door. A storm door comes with many upsides. They enhance the visual beauty of the entrance and along with that, add extra security. Before we discuss the many benefits of storm doors and their installation process, let’s define storm doors for dummies, assuming many of them are reading this article.
What’s a storm door?
A storm door is basically an extra door placed outside of the main entrance door. The purpose of a storm door is to offer the main door protection from bad weather conditions. Snowfall during winter months can cause damage on wooden door. The extra moisture can cause the door to peel or rot. Installing a storm door means resting fully assured knowing the main door won’t be damaged.
Storm door installation
If you live in New Jersey, you know how hard it is to find a competent door installation and repairing professional. Not that there’s any paucity of them in New Jersey, but they are either not as skilled as they claim or charge an arm and a leg. Unable to hire a professional for storm door installation NJ, some go to the DIY route and install the doors themselves.
The DIY guidelines are everywhere, from countless online sources to YouTube videos. The doors can be easily found in stores and they come in every shape, color and material. This article is not a DIY guide per se. I want the readers to know a thing or two about storm door installation NJ, so that they are not duped by an installing professional.
Before installation
Couple of things you need to understand before you install the storm door. Perhaps the most important of them is the accurate measurement of the door. You need to measure the length and the width of the entrance door and the the door opening width. Measure it on all sides; top, bottom and middle. The height of the opening must also be measured to get an idea of door of what size would be needed. What if the opening of the door is not like normal openings. In that case, you’d have to order a custom door.
How to install one
Once you are done with the measuring part, it’s time to install the door. You may or may not hire a professional for storm door installation NJ, but don’t forget to read manufacturer’s instruction. The work starts with installing drip cap frames. Check if the frames arrived with pre-punched holes. Pre-punched holes make installation easier and offers long-term protection from bad weather. Other than drip cap, you need latch side z-bar. Z-bars are attached to both sides of the door frame. You might have to cut it to fit the length of the frame on both sides.
After cutting the z-bar, next task is to mark the accurate location of the hinges. For that the door must be hoisted and placed into the opening. Storm door installation BJ becomes very easy when the actual locations of the hinges are obtained. Next step is to screw the hinges to the door frame. But before doing that, check one final time whether the door’s measurements are correct i.e. it is leveled. If the door opens without any obstruction and closes the same way, it’s leveled. When you are finally done screwing the hinges, the door is fixed.
Understand a storm door
Other than the frame, with which almost all of us are familiar, a storm door has a glass panel. The glass panel occupies the upper portion of the door. The lower portion of the glass is called screen panel. Other important parts of a storm door are pneumatic door closer, retaining clips, adjustable sweep, etc.
A pneumatic closer adjusts the time the storm door takes to close. Normal doors also have pneumatic closer so that its movement can be controlled. With a little tweak, you can either speed up or slow down the closing of the storm door. It’s very simple. The door has a screw on the end. To slow its closing, turn the screw clockwise and to speed it up turn it anticlockwise.
Adjustable sweep fits with the door’s width. Retainer clips must be placed carefully. The door’s longevity depends on these clips.
Alternative to DIY
Whie I encourage DIY, I also advise people to have an open mind. The alternative to DIY storm door installation NJ is hiring a professional. If you are not confident about pulling the job on your own, consider hiring one. As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of them in New Jersey. You may have to give yourself a bit of trouble comparing their quotes, checking their past clientele, but in the end you may find someone worthy of hiring.
Summing up
If the installation work is too complex for you or if your budget allows, forget DIY and hire an experienced storm door installer. The knowledge shared here in this article may still come in handy.