French Exterior Doors.

Read a few threads that popped up in search. But didn't see some of the info I'm interested in.

Wife has wanted french exterior doors since we moved in. Amongst the arguing about me getting a bike, it was levied against me she never got her doors (something that hasn't crossed my mind since it was last brought up vs some active attempt at denying her doors.) So it may be buy her pretty project item to keep order in the house.

Was going to see thoughts about having the whole shebang done by someone, vs home depot purchase and DIY, vs Home depot buy and have their sketchball contractors do it.

Other than man handling the giant thing, it seems somewhat simple? Tons of options on home depot, I'll have to run style by her, but I'm envisioning something that isn't just 2 big window panes to discourage dogs jumping on it wanting to go out... (I like these more expensive Jeld Wen brand advertise more insulative glass coatings?

I have a flyer for Renweal by Anderson with a sale and a year of no interest etc. Would be nice to pay it over 3-4 months than just a one chunk going into the holiday season.
Edit: Odd, google reviews they have an absurd amount of reviews 5 star, but when I look at random online review sites, pretty dreadful reviews.... paid/bot spammed reviews I wonder?)

Do you live in an HOA or a community with a covenant of any kind? We have very few strictures among our covenant, but oe of them is that we have to get the "architectual committee" to sign off before getting a permit. It's outrageous, but it's a requirement. Dammit.

I've heard both good and bad things about Renewal By Anderson...especially that they're hideousy expnsive, when compared to other companies. Good luck! :)

Is your current slider a standard size, or one of the extra large?

If standard, you're looking at "custom" cost at Lowes (and probably Home Depot). If you already have the bigger opening, those are the ones they stock. Sense level: none.

For Lowes, the way it works is you pay a 99 dollar fee and the contractor comes out and measures. He then sends that back and they do the order. If it's the ones they stock, you pay the store price. If it's the standard one, they custom order and you get to pay like $600 extra for a "custom" standard. Hooray!

We were going to get French doors until Lowes surprised us with the extra cost.

You'll also get charged for the brick moulding and door knobs/locks, etc.

If custom, you're looking at about $1700 bucks total (with the vet discount).

I'd pull the casing to get the right RO (rough opening), it's important. Stud to stud should be around an inch bigger than the new door. IMO, Pella makes the best exterior doors but they aren't cheap.

We bought a good quality one from HD and had it installed. Easy and no issues.

We had to go the "custom" route through Lowes, which is one of the reasons we didn't do business with Lowes again for almost 10 years. My wife wanted some very specific things(having worked for a window and door manufacturer several years prior), which they proceeded to screw up EVERY single item, including the RO size. We ordered a 6'0" door with right opening inswing, the "special order" that took 6 weeks to arrive was a 5'0"(60 inch) left opening door with the wrong lights in it. Given that we were installing in October, this was a problem, as the error wasn't discovered until the old slider had been forcibly evicted from the side of the house. Fortunately, Home Depot had a decent quality door that checked off almost all of the boxes in stock that day, all we had to do was change the lights out when they came in (correctly ordered) about a week later.

Contract it. Shop around and get reviews, get quotes from at least two folks.

I can't imagine the difference between the cost of the door, and door installation are bank breaking different. IMO Are you replacing a slider with this French Door set up?...or?

Yes replacing slider with french. I'll double check, I swear there isn't much of a casing to pull away to check the RO. It's like the edge of the door/sill just inside the layer of painted drywall. No like flashing/edging like I've seen in a few video's.

Need to dig up the original paint and some other materials to repair a replacement I suppose.

For contractors, am I looking for remodel types, or not sure going about finding the right types other than what home depot provides. Lowes website is kinda ass, so been happier with what I'm finding on HD so far. Need to go in person and see what they have to demo in store etc vs just making a shopping list of the different sill pans/insulation/sealant etc I'll want if DIY.

Do you plan to do the internal blinds? Those are neat.

Folks that do it every day are gonna have everything they need and they know what to do. Not the first rodeo kind of thing.

I've installed French Doors on an interior jamb, but not an exterior one. What's your time and headache worth?....pay the difference and call it good I think.

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Originally Posted by CavSct1983

Do you plan to do the internal blinds? Those are neat.

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Yeah, those are cool.

I agree with all the above. A few things to consider.

Wall thickness, 2x4 or 2x6, it can impact your threshold/ flooring and jamb exposure.

True double opening French doors can be a pain, the secondary door eats up wall space and it's tougher to weatherproof. Also, some of the cheaper units are not real secure.

Make sure the correct flashing is used on the exterior, if you hire a contractor, tell him its going to be inspected by the city.

Not hard at all, the toughest part is lugging the thing around!

Are you thinking of french doors with screens?

Don't forget about interior trim either. They want to know if it's casing finished or drywall wrap and will affect the order detail as well.

FWIW, I don't know if they used to build them taller, or our old house was oddball, or the builder got some odd size special deal-e-o on their (aluminum) patio doors, but I found our old door was several inches taller than the current offerings. Enough that I had to scab a 2x4 onto the header and fix up the interior drywall. Exterior wasn't too bad, i just added a wider brick mold/casing to the top along with the new brick mold/casings on the side to cover up where we had to cut back to get at the nail fin to extract.

^^^This is the kind of shit you can run into if you're going to hump this kitty.

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Originally Posted by Otterbatcat

^^^This is the kind of shit you can run into if you're going to hump this kitty.

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Oh, more fun was finding some moron had split the rim joists right under the effing door, and one joist end was warped. They had no shims under it, plumbed and attached on the nail fin only and had glued the door frame directly to the underlayment flooring. Thankfully, it never leaked. We only found that after tearing out the old door and (rotting) exterior kickplate.

Explained the hump that door track always had.

Running into someone else's crap work always costs you more time and money, and the aggravation to boot.

Since you're on the north end of the front range anyway, I'd suggest checking out D and I pre-hung doors I'm Loveland. They're really nice guys and I've found their pricing to be very reasonable. I've purchased a couple dozen doors from them over last few years. They're in the industrial area to the south of the east Loveland Wal-Mart.

If you go the route of "their" installers the quote will be for a basic install. Pull out, put in and reinstall the trims. If it requires bigger opening, smaller opening, prep and paint etc...will probably add to the quote. Not that it shouldn't, just be prepared and know what you're getting for the quoted price.

Fuck the French and their doors. [emoji16]
Hope the home project works out well though.


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3ebcabc0bb.jpg

Wait... are we talking about doors that muslims can just walk through or the original type which open from the center?

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Originally Posted by CavSct1983

Wait... are we talking about doors that muslims can just walk through or the original type which open from the center?

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[ROFL1]