Evad, Efiwym’s brother, and I agreed to barter our skills. He would lay the carpeting for our second-floor bedrooms, and I would install his sun room patio door.
It should not have been a difficult project as I installed a patio door for our house. The project had some minor hiccups, but surprisingly it went well. I also installed a patio door for my daughter. In fact, I watched many This Old House episodes about window and door installations. I took mental notes of their methods that I could use them on this installation.
We decided on a Saturday to tear out the old door and get the new one in place. There would be finish work inside and outside to do but getting that new door in was the only thing we needed to have done for now.
I came prepared with tools and supplies for the new door. Evad, my brother-in-law, had ordered the door and it was in his garage. He told me he took the measurements and ordered the replacement door. He said the door should fit. Why wouldn’t it fit? It was a standard six-foot sliding patio door. I got my tape rule and measured it myself. Yes, the width of the new door matched the old one.
It was fairly easy to remove the old door with the help of my Ryobi® reciprocating saw. This door was not lacking nails, but I got them all. We pulled the old door frame out of the opening and placed it with the old doors in the garage. I went back and checked around the opening. The wood around the opening and the sill were dry. No rot here.
I prepped the opening by installing door/window self-adhering flashing around the opening. I guess we were ready to put in the patio door frame. We did not remove the sliding or stationary door. Even though the door was not light, we were able to move it from the garage to the opening. Before I laid down a bead of caulk, I wanted to dry-fit the door.
We slid the door towards the opening, tilted it to slide the bottom of the door into the opening and lifted the top in place. The top jamb hit the door header. We slid the bottom out so we could limit the angle of the door. Nope, it still was hitting on the top. Evad held the door, while I stepped back to see where the door was hitting. The whole door jamb was hitting across the top. What was going on?
We slid the door to the side. I looked at the header and did not see anything protruding from it to prevent us from getting the door in the opening. I got on my knees and checked the bottom of the opening. I thought I would have noticed something when I put down the flashing. The sill was smooth and level. With a shrug of my shoulders, I decided to check the height of the opening. The measurement was 79 inches. I measured the height of the new patio door frame. It was 79-1/2”. Well, that’s a problem. I went and checked the height of the old door. It was 78 inches. These old doors were not of a standard size. Neither one of us ever measured the height of the door.