Quote:
Originally Posted by psicodude
I need to replace my front door. A few years ago, some drunk dude tried to break it down by kicking it in. At the time, insurance denied the claim because there wasn't any visible damage. Fast forward a few winters and summers, and there is now a visible crack in the wood edge and the door doesn't seal very well.
The frame itself appears to be in good shape so I was hoping to save some time/money and just replace the slab itself. Is it worth a few hundred bucks to purchase just the slabs? I'm concerned that the hinges and hardware holes will never line up perfectly and cause a bunch of issues. Do I just suck it up and buy a pre-hung door?
Anyone ever try installing an exterior door themselves? I consider myself to be quite handy and it doesn't appear to be an overly complicated job. Too much hassle for a few hundred bucks?
Also looking for recommendations on where to make the purchase. I'm in the deep South and am thinking either Supreme or Maxgreen.
Thanks.
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If, in some perfect world, you managed to cut out the hinges to perfectly match your existing opening, the rest of the door won't fit either. You'll find there might be some binding, which will need to be planed down or machined down, there will be some twisting, where one corner makes contact with the doorstop, but the other corner does not, , you'll find that the strikeplate and latch might not line up well with your slab details, you'll find you have to push harder than expected to make it latch, you'll find that there may be large gaps at the top, or the base, or the sides, you'll find that the door may scrape along the ground.
The doorframe was built to fit the door that is in there. Even the prehung doors are adjusted to the opening and the door that is inside it. Swapping out the door slab
can work, but you may find a series of issues you may not know how to deal with. One way to possibly test that, is to take another door in the house that is there already, and install it in the frame you want to replace. Just keep that in mind. Getting a prehung door and frame is likely the easiest and fastest way to get a decent job done.