DIwYatt: Replacing the Storm Door - Part 1

When we moved in, the storm door didn’t come with a key, and the hardware on it was a little bit rough-looking.

So when we had the chance to save 10% on a purchase at Home Depot in the fall. We decided to purchase a new storm door even though it sat in the garage for a long time…in the box…

We opened it when we got it to look at the directions and what it would entail, but it got cold before we got around to working on this project. The garden project also took precedence, but we had a little break and decided to work on this one.

For Part 1, I removed the old door. I will preface this with the fact that I have never done this before. So if you see something that could have been done better, or it didn’t make sense, let me know and I will try to explain myself. But, be warned, my explanation may be, “Your way is WAY better.”

So I started by removing the two pneumatic hold-open and closer pieces, as well as the spring. I removed the brackets from the door jam at this point as well, because most new doors come with new hardware.

A tip for this is to open the door and use the hold-open tab to remove the tension from the closer.

Then, you can remove the pins at either end to release it from the bracket on the door and door jam.

After the door was free, I removed the plastic strip that covers the screws on the outside of the door. If you take a screwdriver and slide it under the cover at the bottom, you can pry it out of the track and pull the remaining cover out by hand.

The rest of this project involves removing A LOT of screws.

So make sure your battery on your drill is charged, as well as your back-up battery.

The next piece to remove is the door. It is handy to have a helper for this part. It’s also helpful to have a helper who does more than take photos. Thanks, Liss.

I opened the door and removed all of the screws from the hinge except for the top and bottom screws. They will hold the door in place until a helper is available to hold the door up. Once Melissa was available to help, I held the door and she removed the remaining two screws.

Now, it is time to remove the final pieces of the old door, the frame. Order didn’t really matter here, so I started by removing the sides, and then removed the top.

I kept all of the hardware from the old door. It is still a functional door, so we may try to sell it to someone. It would be a perfectly fine door with a little paint for the hardware, or with new hardware I guess.

We also cleaned up all of the door frame. It was kind of gross with dirt and bug mess.