June 13, 2019
#315
Gentle reader,
This will not be a how-to, so much as a, this is what I had to overcome, article.
NOTE: If you are viewing this on a computer, clicking on any picture will open a second window over this one. You can click through or use your right and left arrow keys to look at the photos. They will be larger than seen here. If you are viewing it on a device such as a phone or tablet, I do not know if that works the same way.
That's Heidi, she declined to come out on the deck while I did the final task. Gretchen, our other Dachshund and Mini, our surviving Prague Ratter, helped cheer me on while they tried to catch some rays.
Mini, Gretchen, Maria (now in Heaven) and Heidi. We used to be cat people and still have two. They all get along and sometimes nap touching each other. Just like Bill Murray's character warned in the film Stripes. Prague Ratters are the smallest dog breed in the world and are rarely found outside of the Czech Republic. But this is about screen doors.
Years ago, when we had the cheap Hylton Homes windows replaced in our house, we also had the cheap sliding doors replaced with the French doors you see here.
This photo, I found on the Internet, when I searched: "rolling screen doors". I do not recall the name of the company which built the ones we had, but they looked just like these. They worked well for years. However, they do not keep pets inside. Mo, our now also-in-Heaven cat, found out that he could slide right under a screen and wander around outside. Much to our dismay.
Heidi found that if she poked her nose at the bottom of the metal upright portions you see in the center above, that they would pop open. Adding a second pair of magnets at the bottom did not help. We had to keep a baby gate across the door and in Mo's case, build a barrier between the right door and screen frame. He found climbing the baby gate to be no problem. Silly old Mo.
Finally, we decided we wanted real screen doors, but not the aluminum or plastic ones we have on the single doors elsewhere in the house. We chose instead to go old school: wooden screen doors. Below is a link to the company that builds the doors that we chose. Lowes carries theirs and another brand that is cheaper, but flimsier. We are NOT endorsing this company. Frankly, as you will read, we had issues, some I will not mention, with their doors.
This is the same photo as at the top of the article, but full sized. At least it is on my PC as I write this.
This company's doors, and we have NO affiliation with them or any other company, as I mentioned are thicker and heavier than the other brand that Lowes carries. They also designed them with removable frames that hold the screening material . That was a selling point. Lowes had them at $69.99 a piece.
The screen frames are mostly plastic and held in with screws. They come off of the doors easily and the company stresses that one MUST either seal or paint the doors or void the warranty.
First problem: Our doors are 34 inches wide. Both company's doors (at least at Lowes) only come in 32 and 36 inch widths. We could not make the opening larger, so we had to go with the 32 inch wide models. Both are 80 inches tall and I had to shorten them to fit.
Second problem: They come with NO hardware. There are numerous options and accessories on their website, but not in the store. So we found a pack of all-white hardware to use in the hardware aisles at Lowes. We bought two.
Third problem: The doors are from different eras or design styles. The screen frame on the left door (from the outside) is larger and there is a barrier of wood all the way around the inside edge of the frame. That made it difficult to mask that area, but I succeeded. The other door (right one from the outside) the frame is on the inner edge of the wood. Same physical opening and one cannot see the screen's frames when the doors are closed. Far easier to mask those edges.
Forth problem: Both new doors are not SQUARE! As I always do on a project, I made careful measurements and scale drawings (I took drafting in high school, back when they used pencils and rulers and all kinds of things, no computers) before starting.
When I laid out all the pieces on the dining room floor, and did the measurements, that's when I found they were not square. I had to do careful figuring on A: How to shrink the outside opening to fit the 32 inch doors. B: How to cut the pieces of wood the doors would hinge off of that would make the doors as parallel as possible and still fit the opening and LOOK like they are square.
Because I am six foot three inches high, capturing an image of square items and making them look square is not easy, due to my height.
Above is the left door installed. Sadly, the doors being one inch thick and wood being attached to come either 3/4 of an inch or 1 1/2 inches thick, AND not having a plane to take 1/2 inch off of a "by 2" board, I had to buy 3/4" thick "by 1" wood. That is technically: Fifth problem.
Larger images of the installed left door above and right door, below.
The small openings you see at the lower corners of the door frame are where I had to cut away the face of the aluminum threshold to be able to mount the rolling screen door's housings. I will cover them with angle-aluminum pieces, they do not open into anything but the metal or the threshold.
Then there was the problem of making the doors fit together and SEAL to keep flying and crawling things from entering the house AND keep four legged family members from going outside with a poke of their nose or push of their paw.
The width of the 1 by 3 inch board precluded using the white knobs that came with the hardware kit. So, this solid stainless steel cabinet pull does the trick.
The "fixed" door, which would only be opened if we needed to move something large in or out of the house, needed to have a piece of wood glued to it for the moving door to close against. I chose a 1 by 3 (actually 3/4 by 2 1/2") for this purpose.
However, that made it impossible to use the standard hook and eye closer. I carefully bent it in a vise until I got the shape I wanted that would keep the door tight.
Below shows the two pieces that we salvaged from the rolling screen door frames which secured the top and bottom of the left (from the outside) rolling screen. Careful cleaning and in the case of the moving door, spacing, allows the top of both doors to seal. I added the white handle seen to allow one to pull the door's top inward to allow the slide bolt to seat in the hole.
While the fixed door fits tight against the door frame at the top and the threshold at the bottom, it does not seal on the edges. We thought of that and bought neat white rubber weatherstripping that comprises of two rows of sealing material. Below, shows it installed on said 1 by 3.
The moving door did not seal at the top, so I sliced one half of the seal off to make it fit and seal the top of the door.
You can see the rubber seal closer in the photo below. I still need to touch up the Phillips screw holes with white model paint so that they will not rust and streak the doors.
The two generic screen door hardware kit came with a total of two of these "L" handles, two with round knobs plus six spring loaded hinges. They do not close the door quickly or tightly enough, so I will be adding a long coiled spring.
What wooden screen door is complete without a spring to bang it closed?
Once again, the first photo. If you look closely, you can see that the wood pieces that hold the hinges secured to the house are wider at the top on the left one and wider at the bottom on the right one. All to make UN-square doors fit in a square opening.
The final piece of wood, also a 1 by 3, I added across the top to direct rain out and away from the top of the doors and prevent it from seeping in through the top.
Lastly, I cut the two 36" wide aluminum and rubber "sweeps" down to 32 inches and attached them to the bottom front of both doors. This is the final weather/insect barrier. I hope.
It was was far easier to install standard "storm" doors to the single doors on the rest of the house, but I welcome a challenge and am happiest fixing, tinkering, designing, fabricating and building things. I've been remodeling the house since I retired two years ago and this is the latest achievement.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is your kind words and comments that inspire me to create more articles.
Scott
June 13, 2019
#315
