Installing Larger Exterior Door

Hello my fellow DIYers!

It has been awhile since my last post, but I have a good one here that I would like to share!

Recently I noticed that the door to my garage was rotting near the base were the rain was splashing off the concrete side walk. My original intent was to remove the trim around the door and replace it with Hardie Plank boards to prevent it from happening again and just ignore the door damage until it got worse. This would have been such a simple repair I wouldn't have even posted anything about it. Well I ended up receiving a FREE door from one of my coworkers who used it temporarily when working on his house. It was perfect! Metal exterior door with insulated Star energy ratings (no more rotting)! But of course it isn't that simple. The door was 4" bigger than my existing door. 

Original 32" Door
(you can see the rotting wood on the bottom left)

So here are the steps I took to finish this door out and what I did to make everything look like it did when the builders first installed the door.

Materials:

(1) Exterior Door

(1) 2"x 4"x 10'

(1) 2" x 12" x 8'

(1) 2" x 4" x 8'

(2) 2" x 4" x 12' (Hardie Plank)

Hurricane Straps

Framing nails and 2.5" screws

Wood putty

Paint  

Step 1: Scoping and Demo!

The first step in completing this project was scoping out how I wanted to shift the framing of this door way. To keep things simple I shifted this door all on one side and kept the original door handle side the same. This was also were my electrical switch was and I did not want to mess around with having to move my electrical wires.

Notice the Electrical on the right side of door

Actual Door Frame Removed

I then moved to the demo stage. I needed to open up the framing of the doorway by 2" which required me taking out the original studs put in the doorway. To do this I used a hammer and pry bar as well as a metal blade on my reciprocating saw to cut out the stubborn nails. I was able to savage most of the hurricane straps from the original framing and ended up reusing them when going back at the end. This process ended up taking longer than I expected. I took my time in not damaging anything that would be difficult to replace such as the house siding.   

Top 2" x 12" Board Removed

Before removing this 2" x 12" board I did cut the 2" x 4" board that would be the replacement for the new side frame and put it in place. I am sure the house wasn't going to fall over in such a short time, but I put it in place just to be safe. When sizing this new hole I added an inch on the overall size of the new door frame. My frame was 37.5" from outside to outside of the frame. So I cut a new hole in my wall 38.5" to give myself additional room for shimming.  

I marked all of my cuts before I started. I did not want to make a mistake here and end up having to repair siding. I then moved on to cutting the siding and opening up the actual hole in the house. I used a concrete blade on a grinder to get a smooth cut. This surprisingly worked really well and I was able to get a smooth cut all the way through the hardie plank siding. I then used a circular saw to cut through the OSB wood on the inside. 

Concrete Blade on Grinder

Opened Hole for the new door frame

To reinforce the hardie plank siding I used my nail gun to replace the nails that were cut off when widening the siding. These nails will be covered at the end with the new hardie plank trim pieces. 

Nailing Siding Back

Step 2: Going back with the new Frame

This step is really easy for those who have ever build a new wall or have ever completed framing on a house before. For those who haven't seen this before I used my nail gun to toe in the 2" x 4" boards into the existing top and bottom frame pieces of the wall. I then reinstalled the hurricane straps on both the top and bottom of these boards. 

Toed Board

Hurricane Strap Reinstalled

Next I went back with the longer 2" x 12" board on the top of the frame. These boards were originally 2 2" x 12" boards with a piece of OSB between them. I was able to pull out original OSB and put it between the new longer boards. I did put the OSB in half so that it would be more distributed on the outsides of the sandwiched board. Nails were also put into all three of these boards before going back. The new boards were then toed back into the original vertical studs and also nailed horizontally from the side studs. I also went back with hurricane straps like there were originally built. This finished the framing time to move to the door install!

Original OSB Sandwiched between
the 2" x 12" boards

Toed into original Vertical Studs

Step 3: Installing the new Door Frame

When installing the new door frame there will always be gaps on the sides and top to allow for shimming when squaring up the frame. This is the extra inch that was put into the new hole when I cut open the exterior siding.

I started with the door handle side of the frame making sure to use a level on both the top, bottom, and side of the frame. I then used shims and the scrap hardie plank siding to lock everything in place. I used natural wood shims on this project and after completing this step I should have used the composite shims. The natural wood shims are only going to rot with time and also when nailing through these shims they like to split and break on you. 

Use Composite Shims!! Not these

Shimming Sides of Frame

More Shimming. I used the cut off
Hardie plank for additional thickness

The shimming and squaring of the door frame is a two person job. Having those extra set of hands is a must to get this frame perfect and not having the door drag on one side when opening and closing. I used both the nail gun and 2.5" screws on this frame to make sure it isn't moving. The screws are great for making small adjustments in or out on the frame, but the nail gun is much quicker!

The final product of this build was a new door that is not going to rot in the future! I was very happy with the way it came out and very pleased with the whole project. I did go back with hardie plank trim that I did not talk about, but you can see it in the final pictures below. 

Finished Inside

Finished Project Outside before Trim

Finished Project Outside after Trim and Paint