Our entry door was a hurting unit, barely able to latch and badly leaking heat in the winter. It was time for a new one, a fiberglass model that required less maintenance than wood and steel.
When the Pella people showed up to deliver and install the door, they removed the old door and paused. Below the threshold, rot was everywhere. Like a surgeon closing up a terminal cancer patient, the crew boarded up the opening. Installation would have to wait until that rot was removed and good wood installed.
Digging out decay
The excitement of putting in a new door immediately turned to dread — of digging out decay that went down, down, maybe to China. Door and window leaks are fairly common, but this water damage was bad. In addition, dirt had worked under the door, rotting the subfloor, floor joists, sill joist and rim plate.
We had no choice but to bust out the entryway floor tile (photo 1) and then remove the dirt and rotten wood. Using treated lumber, we built a unit of a sill joist/sill rim and fixed it to the sill block using adhesive and a powder-actuated nailer (photo 2). A strip of 3/4-in. plywood covered by a waterproof moisture barrier fit between this unit and the sidewalk.
Next, we added blocking and insulation between the joists and fastened 3/4-in. plywood with screws to create the new subfloor for the entryway. We also made a sill plate of 3/4-in. plywood. (To read about the new entryway tile, see “Entry Tile Project.”)
Fixing rotten studs
The job appeared to be done, but a closer look at the trim studs and king studs on both sides revealed more rot. To replace the rotted sections, we first had to remove the stucco (photo 3) with an angle grinder.
We placed a treated block beneath the new sections of the studs (photo 4) and covered the exposed wall with a waterproof moisture barrier. Later, we applied a stucco patch.
The final step of this portion of the project was to apply a weatherproof sealant beneath flashing that covered the exterior facing part of this new unit as well as the bottom part of the studs (photo 5).
Pella: Take 2
Now the Pella people could do their job, knowing that they stood on solid ground. They double-checked to make sure the opening was the right size as well as plumb and level, especially at the bottom. The crew said the opening needed to be 3/4-in. wider than the door and 1/2-in. taller.
Next, they ripped a treated 2x4 and nailed it to the outside of the flashing that we had installed (photo 6); this widened the sill area on which the door would be mounted. They applied flashing over the sill and up the sides of the studs and then added a weatherproof sealant to the flashing (photo 7).
It took two workers to carry the door to the entryway, place it on the caulked flashing and raise it upright, Iwo Jima-style (opening photo). They took care to place the bottom in position — not slide it, which would have messed up the distribution of the sealant. They centered the door and proceeded to plumb and square it as needed, taking care to not over-shim (which bows the jambs inward).
The rest of the installation went according to Pella’s explicit instruction sheet. No surprises, thankfully; there had been enough already. The result was an excellent upgrade to the entryway we use the most (photo 8) and a nice bump in the curb appeal of our house.
Door installation tips
Door installation varies from house to house and from one door manufacturer to another, but here are a few tips from this installation:
Shimming
Place cedar shims (cedar holds up well to the elements) behind each hinge location between the jambs and the framing. Also shim in other places as needed to square the door in the opening, starting 6 in. from the bottom of the door. Typically, shims go above and below the latch and at each end of the latch jamb. With a half-circle transom, place shims in the “10 and 2 o’clock” positions.
When shims are in place and the door is set, trim the shims flush with the frame by scoring with a utility knife and snapping the ends.
Sometimes after all is squared and shimmed, the door still doesn’t appear to be square, judging by the gaps around it. In this case, shim in the gap on the outside edge of the jambs to make the gap around the door uniform in width (photo 9). No one will see these shims because trim will cover them.
Insulating
Apply low-expanding foam insulation that’s formulated for use around windows and doorjambs (photo 10). Shoot in a little at a time so as not to overfill the cavities. Don’t fill to the edge; leave about a 1/2-in. gap between the foam and the surface of the drywall.
Do not use low-expanding foam insulation where the gap is tight. One side of this door was snug against a wall, so we used fiberglass insulation.
Squaring the door
In theory, if the door’s threshold sits on a level surface, the jambs will be plumb and square. However, DIYers know that theory and application are separate spheres that sometimes don’t overlap.
Shimming can solve a lot of problems, but not all. For example, after shimming, there was still a gap at the top of the door on the latch side. To solve this problem, we replaced one or two of the short screws in each hinge with 2-1/4-in. screws (driven through the shims behind each hinge and into the framing). When we drove the longer screw in the top hinge, it drew in the door just enough to make the far edge rise and eliminate the gap.
Another way to close gaps around Pella doors is by using plastic E-shaped shims that the company provides. Placing them behind the leaves of the hinge adjusts the gap around the door.
If the gap at the bottom of a Pella door needs adjusting, you can turn an adjustment screw to lower and raise the threshold.
Filling the exterior gap around a half-circle transom
From the outside, the fins were trimmed to fit the opening and then nailed. Along the sides of the door, this fin area was then filled with a ripped 1x4 (treated). To fill the curved top, the crew used 4-in. sections of this same 1x4 material, only the ends were slightly angled so that many side-by-side sections created a curve (photo 11).