How to Install a Glass Storm Door

RON HAZELTON:
Well, I'm headed just up the road to Guilford, Connecticut. I'm gonna visit Chris and Gina Tracy. Now they have a very drafty back door, so I'm gonna see if I can come up with a solution for them.
GINA TRACY:
Well, this is the ugly door.
RON HAZELTON:
Well, the door may be ugly but the setting out here is gorgeous.
GINA TRACY:
Oh, the setting is beautiful.
[BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]
RON HAZELTON:
All these trees and everything. Nice scalloped design here. You don't care for that, huh?
CHRIS TRACY:
No.
GINA TRACY:
Mm-hmm [AFFIRMATIVE]. Yeah, watch this, ready. [LOUD SNAPPING SOUND]
RON HAZELTON:
Whoa, that will shatter the tranquility, huh?

GINA TRACY:
Right.
RON HAZELTON:
So let's take a look from the inside, 'cause I know one of the things you wanted to change was the effect of looking outside when you're in here.
CHRIS TRACY:
Right.
RON HAZELTON:
Well, tell me what you were thinking.
CHRIS TRACY:
Well the, the kitchen's fairly small and it's a beautiful view out there, but you don't see half of it. So if we can get a nice full view window, you'll be able to enjoy the outside through the seasons.
RON HAZELTON:
Okay. So there are, there are times of the year when you leave this door open — that one's closed either with a screen or with a, with glass in it.
CHRIS TRACY:
That's right.
RON HAZELTON:
You want to have it unobstructed.
CHRIS TRACY:
We'd enjoy it.
GINA TRACY:
Okay.
RON HAZELTON:
Okay, let's go to work.
GINA TRACY:
And I'm gonna go to work.
RON HAZELTON:
Okay, see you in a while.
GINA TRACY:
I can't wait to see my beautiful door.
RON HAZELTON:
You'll be proud of us.
[BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]
The first step for Chris and me is to unscrew and remove the old door. Then we measure the height and width of the door opening.
CHRIS TRACY:
I'm looking at 31 and 7/8ths.
RON HAZELTON:
Pretty close to 32, yeah. So, if the measurements are 30, 32, 34, 36 and 80 to 81 inches in height, those are all standard measurements. It means we can get a standard door.

So Chris and I head off to the local home improvement center. Around these parts, fall is just beginning to make its appearance. New door is arriving on the scene just in time.

I just want to put these towels over these sawhorses because that keeps from scratching the — surface up there. This is such a pretty door.
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah.
RON HAZELTON:
Durable but, you know, why take any chances?
CHRIS TRACY:
Absolutely.
RON HAZELTON:
Hey, see these yellow tabs right here?
CHRIS TRACY:
Yes, sir.
RON HAZELTON:
These are just shipping tabs. So just pull these out. They should pop off.

We remove the screen and glass to make the door lighter and easier to work with.

I've taken all the screws and all the parts for the door and put 'em in a muffin tin like this, separated them out. Now, this is a great way for me to keep everything straight and not lose something.
Our first assembly step is to mount the hinge frame to the side of the door, using sheet metal screws.

Now, you notice down here, this hinge piece is longer than the door.
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah.
RON HAZELTON:
We're gonna have to trim —

First, we measure the height of the door opening —

— we'll flip this over.

— transfer that measurement to the hinge, then cut the hinge to length. [SAWING SOUNDS] Finally we slip the door bottom into place. We'll adjust it to fit later.
[MUSIC]

CHRIS TRACY:
Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls is being brought to you by The Home Depot and by GMC.
[SOUND CUT]
RON HAZELTON:
A tad on the noisy side.

Chris and Gina Tracy hate their storm door. So we've taken it down and are about to put up a brand new one.

Let's set this in —
CHRIS TRACY:
All right.
RON HAZELTON:
— and then bring it to my side as far as you can. Just hold it right there, okay.
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah.
RON HAZELTON:
I want to put one screw in right up there at the top.
CHRIS TRACY:
Okay.
RON HAZELTON:
This is called a top mounting frame. It's actually the top of three frame sections. Just slip that right in there.
CHRIS TRACY:
Okay.
RON HAZELTON:
Once the top frame is in position, we attach it with screws. Then slip the side frame into place and secure it as well.

Now let's do a test open.
CHRIS TRACY:
All right, ready?
RON HAZELTON:
Mm-hmm [AFFIRMATIVE].
CHRIS TRACY:
Ta dah.
RON HAZELTON:
It clears?
CHRIS TRACY:
Look at that.
RON HAZELTON:
Clears on that side, right?
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah, looks terrific.
RON HAZELTON:
Next, we turn our attention to the door bottom.

— we're gonna push this down so that it's in contact with the threshold.

Then from the inside, we drive in a screw to lock the bottom in place. Next, it's the door closer.
CHRIS TRACY:
Pin back in, okay.
RON HAZELTON:
Okay, that should work.

Then the latch set and —

And finally, a quiz. Okay, a little baseball quiz here, right.
CHRIS TRACY:
Uh oh.
RON HAZELTON:
So the batter stands at home —
CHRIS TRACY:
Plate.
RON HAZELTON:
And if you have — you don't have a ball, you have a?
CHRIS TRACY:
Strike and this is the —
RON HAZELTON:
This is the strike —
CHRIS TRACY:
— strike plate —
RON HAZELTON:
— plate.
CHRIS TRACY:
I gotcha.
RON HAZELTON:
So now you know where the origin of this comes from.
CHRIS TRACY:
I never knew it was a baseball origin.
RON HAZELTON:
There's a lot of things to like about home improvement.
CHRIS TRACY:
That's incredible.
RON HAZELTON:
But the trick is —
CHRIS TRACY:
It's a guy thing.
RON HAZELTON:
— what's gonna happen is, we're gonna mount this up here and then you see over here the, the latch.
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah.
RON HAZELTON:
And the dead bolt have to fit right into these holes.
CHRIS TRACY:
Right.
RON HAZELTON:
So the trick is to get this in exactly the right place so they'll line up both with the latch and the dead bolt. Well, so we'll call it plumber's putty. I call it adult play Play-Doh. All right, so I'm just gonna pack this in here and close the door.

And I'm going to put the dead bolt out — press it out a little bit. Wiggle a little bit.
CHRIS TRACY:
Yeah.
RON HAZELTON:
And then we're going to open this up. Now you see what we've got right here? Got an impression where the dead bolt went and right there, the edge of the — of the —
CHRIS TRACY:
Latch?
RON HAZELTON:
— oh, I have the latch here, right.
CHRIS TRACY:
There you go.
RON HAZELTON:
So now, we just take this and place it right on top of the impressions.
CHRIS TRACY:
And now it's perfectly centered.
RON HAZELTON:
And we're exactly in the right spot.
RON HAZELTON:
Now that we know the strike plate is perfectly positioned, we screw it in place.

All right, we're almost there. This is the glass panel. Door also comes with a screen. Now these are held in place with this keeper. It just slips right in here. We can snap it into place like this.
CHRIS TRACY:
You did a pretty good job here, Ron, huh?
RON HAZELTON:
Isn't it nice?
CHRIS TRACY:
It looks great.
RON HAZELTON:
Yeah.
CHRIS TRACY:
It sounds great.
RON HAZELTON:
Hey.
GINA TRACY:
Wow!
RON HAZELTON:
Come on out.
GINA TRACY:
Whoo hoo hoo.
RON HAZELTON:
Nice, huh?
GINA TRACY:
Very nice.
RON HAZELTON:
And when the weather changes, you can pull the glass out, put the screen in.

GINA TRACY:
That is beautiful.
RON HAZELTON:
Why don't you guys step inside, see how the view looks from in there.
GINA TRACY:
Ooh, look at this.
CHRIS TRACY:
Great.
RON HAZELTON:
Hey.
CHRIS TRACY:
Looks great, does what we wanted.
GINA TRACY:
It's so quiet.