Frame and hang a french door

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Author Message   hello Citizen Username: Hello Post Number: 170 Registered: 7-2003 Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 9:05 am:        situation: replace a large double-window with a pre-hung home depot french door (already on site). dimensions are perfect. house has cedar siding. plaster walls, hardwood floors inside, new deck outside. baseboard heat already moved. i'll help with teardown- you must take waste away. you must waterproof and seal outside, and trim outside and inside. i'll paint. $550 for one day's work.   jgberkeley Supporter Username: Jgberkeley Post Number: 3130 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 10:47 am:        I've done that on my house. I think you are looking at two full days worth of work if not more. You are going to need to build a sill plate into the wall at a level to allow the pre-hung door to be level with the floor. This is not all that easy as you will be working to build structure internal to an existing wall. Then you will likely need to re-support the header if the current one is not the full width of the new door. You will need to engineer this area to support the wall weight loads. Then the fun part. When installing the door, you have to shim and adjust it so the the pre-hung frame is exactly square with the doors installed. Measure from corner to corner in a cross, and both numbers must be exact. The shims and supports must be sturdy and not subject to settlement or the door will begin to shift over time. Then you have doors that stick. Hear me. I did this and made some mistake someplace. I now have a French door that snaggs high duing the winter and low during the summer. I have about 3 months a year where it works just fine. Good luck. George   hello Citizen Username: Hello Post Number: 171 Registered: 7-2003 Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 12:24 pm:        thank you for that, jgb. i really appreciate it. i've done single doors before myself (on a newer home) yet agree with the concern about the sill plate height in these homes.   deborahg Citizen Username: Deborahg Post Number: 677 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 11:36 am:        Hey JGB, your house looks great with the new paint job. Gorgeous color! I tried