When I remodeled my kitchen, I decided that the new look also required the installation of a new door. My neighborhood is not rumored to be one of the safest neighborhoods in my city, so when I switched out my door, I changed a screen door in for a door with reinforced steel bars decoratively mixed into an aesthetic stain glass upper.
The existing door, like I said, was a screen door and was very light and easy to remove. All I needed was pliers and a hammer. Here is how I did it:
First, I removed the door from the hinges. I could do this part myself, because it was lightweight. Simple unscrew the hinges to lift the pieces apart. My house and my screen door were old, so all I had to do was twist the top bolt off with a pair of pliers. I sprayed the door with some grease so that the hinges came apart easier. It had been awhile since the hinges had been treated, so I figured that they may have grown together and I would need all the help I could get – but it really wasn’t that bad.
Next, I simply pulled the supporting bar out from the center of the hinges. The hinges slipped apart without a problem. I unscrewed the door-side hinge from the door and screwed it into my new door. To make sure that I screwed it into the correct spot, I had to measure the length up from the bottom of the door.
I should mention that if your new door is not the same size as your old door, the door might not fit onto your doorframe. Especially if you have an older house, like mine, it is important that you measure before you purchase and install the door. Many older doors have to be custom built to fit houses because the stock-size doors are all a little bit smaller. This can also be more expensive and intimidating, but it is worth it.
So I measured the location of the hinge from the floor to the hinge and from the hinge to the edge of the door to make sure that I got everything in the right spot. I then screwed the door hinge into the door. I had some help holding the door in place while I fit the pieces of the hinge back together.
Once the two sides of the hinge were interlocked, I had help holding it until I was able to get the support back into the middle and the top screwed on again. However, when it was all over, I had a fully functional and fully flush door to use.
The new door did also require a new locking mechanism, which I also had to purchase and install because the old system had an outdated deadbolt lock.
The new door brought me a greater sense of security and pride. It not only looked better, but it was stronger and tougher. I would definitely recommend a door change to anyone – especially folks with unsafe screen doors protecting them from the outside.