Our back door opens outward into our back patio. We would like to reverse it so it opens inward into the house. The reason being we'd like to install a glass storm door so we can keep an eye on the kids without letting in bugs. I'm sure it can be done since the frame around the door is wood, but how expensive would this be to do. I haven't called out for bids yet, but I'd like to know what my window of cost might be. I should add my patio is covered, but it wasn't when we had the house built, which is probably why the door was positioned on the outside of the door frame to prevent rainwater from getting inside.

 

PROBABLY not that difficult, but what kind of siding is on the exterior of the house? THAT could make all the difference!

 

Thanks for the reply. The exterior of the house is brick, except for the soffit and fascia which is wood, but I'll be adding vinyl soffit and fascia shortly. I'm confused though why you ask about the exterior of the house. Please explain.

 

How the door jamb is trimmed on the exterior, and retrimming it after you reverse the jamb, is the trickiest part of the job. Pictures would be helpful. Can you put some on a website (like Yahoo!, Angelfire, etc.) and post the URL to that site?

Otherwise, it's probably not difficult at all. Remove the casing from the interior side and the exterior trim. Use a Sawzall with a fairly long blade to cut the nails that are holding the jamb in place and push the door and jamb out of the opening. (You'll have to turn the threshold around at this point.) Then spin the door around and reinstall it. As long as you don't remove the door from the jamb, you can treat it just like a pre-hung door. Make sure you seal it well under the threshold with several good lines of silicon caulking.

Then it's just reinstalling the interior casing and the exterior trim, caulking all the joints, and repainting the exterior trim and interior casing.