Exterior Door Replacement-Measuring Your Door
Posted On: May 6, 2014When you’re doing an exterior door replacement project, you have preparation work to do. The main task before ordering a replacement door, is accurately measuring your current door. This is to make certain that your replacement door is the right size.
While the measuring isn’t a complex task, it’s a very important one. That’s because if one measurement is even slightly off, your replacement door will either not fit at all, or it will mean a lot of extra work for your exterior door replacement project.
Your door opening may also call for custom built doors, and ordering a stock door for your exterior door replacement wouldn’t be reasonable. You need to have the measurements exact, or your safety, security, and comfort will be at risk, from your poorly functioning door.
Trim and Jamb Dimensions
To get your overall door size, including the trim:
- Hook your tape measurer on the outer edge of the trim, and measure to the other side
- Hook your tape measurer under the sill of your door, and measure from the bottom of the sill, to the top of the trim
- Open your door, and measure the jamb (distance between interior and exterior trim)
Measuring your wall’s thickness like this is especially important. If your jamb is too wide for your replacement door, the door trim won’t lay flat against the wall. If it’s too think for the door, a strip of wood can be added to build up your jamb, so that it’s flush with your wall.
These three dimensions will serve as your overall size, with the trim applied.
Inside Dimensions
When getting the inside dimensions for your exterior door replacement, you’ll have to remove the inside trim. With the trim out of your way, measure from the bottom of the door’s sill, to the top edge of the jamb. Then, measure the width of the door again, from the outer edge of the frame on one side, to the outer edge of the other side.
Ordering Your Replacement Door
Now that you have your measurements, you can order your doors. You will be able to determine if stock doors are a good fit for your home, or if you would be best to get custom built doors to suit your needs.
Professional Exterior Door Replacement
When getting a replacement door, it’s always a good idea to have a professional in, to make sure that it’s done properly. Your door is a large hole in your wall, and you want it to be completely blocked off (when you aren’t walking through it, at least!)
If you want quality installation of your doors, whether they are stock-ordered, or our custom built doors, contact us today. We serve Columbus, Ohio and all of central Ohio, including Springfield, Zanesville, Mansfield, and Chillicothe.
(Image and excerpt from “How to Measure Replacement Exterior Doors.”)
