Replacing garage side door

Towny

I have a house that was build in 1978 with exterior stucco in Southern California. The existing door has warped and the laminate is coming off from all the rain we had a couple of weeks ago.

I would like to replace the door, but not sure if going with a prehung or just replace the door with a steel door. There isn't any sill at all on the door. Just the concrete floor of the garage with a 3/4" lip down to the side concrete patio.

From what I have read on this forum, replacing an original door with a prehung may be a little difficult given how the door frame was originally put in.

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

jlhaslip

You should have little difficulty replacing just the slab.
Your greatest challenge is to mark and cut out the hinge gains.
If I were doing it, I would cut a piece of wood that is shorter than the height of the opening and place it along the hinge side and tight to the door header jamb and mark the top of door, as well as all the hinges (top and bottom). Transfer all the hinge marks to the slab using the top of door mark referencing the top of the door. Knife across the slab edge to prevent splintering. Using a sharp chisel, cut the hinge gains shallow and sneak up on the depth of a single hinge thickness.
Or a router template jig if you have one available.
Hang the door, cut the holes, assemble the hardware, done. About an hour worth of time. More time required if the neighbours bring beer.

Changing the entire door and jamb would involve cutting out stucco and re-trimming. Yuck!

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Dairylander

Rather than creating this story pole, you can just use the old door as a template to transfer the hinge mortise locations to the new slab.

Kevin M.

If the exterior door trim is a standard brick mold or similar you could remove it and cut the existing frame out with a sawzall. Of course, you have to be careful removing wood next to stucco. If you have a standard size rough opening you could get a nice therma tru fiberglass door, pre-hung and pre drilled for your hand set and deadbolt. The nice part about a new prehung is you get new weatherstripping and thresh-hold.

You may be able to take your old door in to the local lumberyard and have them match the hinges to a new door blank for a small charge. If you buy the door from them they may mortise out the hinges and drill your holes for a nominal fee.

Option three would be to find a carpenter who works for beer.

Kevin

bjbatlanta

I'd opt for the new pre-hung fiberglass with a "no rot" jamb and "composite" brick mold. As stated above, comes with weather strip and threshold. Pretty much the last door you'll need....

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Ron6519

You will probably not find a steel or fiberglass door to put into an existing frame. These doors can not be cut.
Pull out the whole unit and replace it with a pre hung unit.
Ron