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| by:
Iain Mitchell
photos: Roger Yip |
AGAINST THE WIND |
| Seal
out the cold and damp with a new storm door |
There are few things around the house more aggravating than
a storm door that’s seen better days. From a comfort standpoint
it lets in drafts that can more accurately be described as winds,
which is also a concern on the energy-efficiency front. What’s
more, an old storm door is usually a real heel-grabber, invariably
catching your foot as you’re stumbling through with an armload
of groceries. Here’s your chance to rip out that offensive portal
and rescue your ankles and energy bills in one fell swoop.
Storm doors available on the
market today have distinct advantages over the ones you could
get even 10 years ago. For one thing, depending on the style
you choose, you can get a lot more glass now, with two big lights
rather than the three-skinny-panel look. If you don’t want to
use the door for ventilation you can get a storm door with a
picture window that fills its entire height. Another advantage
is the hardware; it’s a lot sturdier than the cheap latches
that crumple under the pressure of your thumb.
We picked up this door, an Aluminart
model at Home Depot for $270. Not the cheapest available, certainly,
but we were looking for a door that would stand the test of
time. This model comes with two pneumatic closures, one for
the top and one for the bottom, giving the door a lot more authority
when swinging shut. Like all such closures, their strength can
be adjusted with the valve located on the door end of the cylinder.
Closing the valve makes the door close more slowly, while opening
it up makes the door swing quickly into place.
This door, like most higher-end storm doors, also came equipped
with weather stripping and a series of rubber sweeps on the
bottom to keep out drafts. You may have to trim these a little
once the door is installed if they interfere with easy opening
and closing.
| WHAT
YOU'LL NEED |
 |
| A
hand-held screwdriver, hammer, drill-driver, hacksaw,
tape measure, level and assorted drill bits are
all you need for this job. The 7/8" bit shown here
actually came packaged with the door hardware. |
|
The first tip that the instruction manual gives is to remove
the glass and screens from the door before commencing any work
to ensure they don’t get damaged. This is good advice, as it
also makes the door a lot lighter to carry around. Lay the door
out on a couple of sawhorses to install the hinge strip—most
screen doors ship without hinges attached so you can mount them
on either side. Of course, the same instruction manual also
advises you to mount the hardware on the opposite side of the
door from the hinges—seems obvious but perhaps some people need
the help.
Once you’ve got the door in place
and the hardware mounted, including the closures and the safety
chain on top, you can reinstall the glass. Gently tap the plastic
support strips into place using a wood block to protect them.
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