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Exterior door installation, that is what I am talking about. Moments ago we took out an exterior door right here and I am going to get ready to put in a new one. Now, you are probably wondering installing an exterior door is not a job that I can do, Tim. Well, the answer is maybe and maybe not but if you follow some of the steps that I am going to show you in the next few minutes, I think you might be shock to see how easy it really is. Let us get started right now.

The first thing you need to do is need to make sure that the door is going to be at the right height with respect to the finished flooring. All too often, carpenters who do not know what they are doing will actually install the door on the sub-floor of the house and when the finished floor gets installed, all of a sudden, there is not enough room for an area or a throw rug and it becomes a nightmare.

Now, what I have already done and I did this before I uninstall the original door is right here, I put down this piece of plywood that is three-quarters of an inch thick. It is actually sitting on top of the sub floor.

Here is the sub floor of the house right here. This is a piece of plywood and I have added this actual three-quarter inch piece of plywood on top that to get this door up in the air so that an area or throw rug will fit.

The first step in the process to actually put a thrashing underneath the door that is important so that water does not contact the strip of plywood, the sub floor underneath it and even the floor of choice. We want to keep water outdoors. There are different flashing systems but I am going to use a waterproof membrane that is very sticky, that is a lot like giant pieces of masking tape. We are going to put on a couple of strips and you will see how it works. It actually keeps the water outside, in case, some of the water rolls underneath the doorway.

[Demo]

Okay, I am going to get ready to put the last piece of flashing in and it is really important that it is put on the right place or in other words our other work is for nothing. Here is not you do not want to do.

You do not put the flashing in so it is flashed with the front edge of the plywood. What is supposed to happen is that the flashing is supposed to overlap the exterior siding or the brick or whatever material you have outside so that if water actually comes underneath, it will flow over the flashing and then flow over the siding and outside and it will never get to the wood that is part of your home.

The flashing is installed. I am really happy with it. I made the corners nice and watertight and now it is time to actually check the rough opening from wherever and then see where it might have to adjust the door when we put it into the position.

Okay, the seal is nice and level. It is really within tolerance and now what I am going to do is basically just kind of set the door up in here and see what it looks like. I should fit perfectly. Let us go ahead and do that right now.

Check it out, we have got the door in place. Here is all we did. It is pretty heavy so I had a helper actually, two of them. Somebody stood inside so we could lift the door up. We had a tilted back in place to get pass this piece of green trim up here and then we brought it into position.

Now, to secure it temporarily, I went ahead and put two sets of shims up on either corner and that makes the door kind of nice and tight and wanted to do was from the inside to look to see how the reveal around the door looks and it is perfect. The reveal is nice and even and the door opens and closes easily so the next step is simply to nail into the position using the shims and as we put them in we constantly check to make sure that the reveal is correct and that the door is opening and closing perfectly. It is really pretty much that easy.

Look what I have found, the written installation instructions, very important and what you really need to pay attention to in the instructions is where you are supposed to place the nails and how frequently you are supposed to place the shims. So, read the installation instructions.

I looked at the instructions but like I told you I already knew what they said to do and they say to install the first set of shims within four to six inches of the top of the door and check it out that is exactly what I have got. I have got four inches right there, right where they are supposed to be.

Now, that is the first thing to do. You put those in on either side of the door and get the door nice and tight and I am going to use sixteen penny galvanized finish nails on the outside of the door and nail it into the rough gem on the wall.

I have got all four corners of the door nice and secure. Shims are there, it is nailed in placed. The door is not going anywhere. The only thing left to do to finish really is to put the shims in per the instructions twelve inches on the center from the shims I already have, put some across the top, of course, insulate it and then trim it out. It is that simple. I am going to show you that in a few other videos that follow this one.

I am Tim Carter from askthebuilder.com.

Exterior door installation, that is what I am talking about. Moments ago we took out an exterior door right here and I am going to get ready to put in a new one. Now, you are probably wondering installing an exterior door is not a job that I can do,... click to read more