I need some assistance. During Katrina, we had 3 feet of water in our house, but suffered no structural damage. During a slight lull in the storm, my wife stepped outside and our storm door was pulled from it’s hinges. While replacing the storm door I decided to upgrade our exterior door. The new pre-hung door closes well, there’s an even gap between the slab and jamb, the door compresses the weather stripping equally all around, and finally it checks out level and plumb when checked from the jamb. My problem is two-fold. First, the jamb leans in toward the interior of the living room at the top latch side. There is nearly a ½” difference between the wall surface and the jamb which will greatly interfere when I try to attach trim. This difference is very visible from the outside too– the top latch side of the door leans in by that same 1/2". The jamb and wall alignment looks good on the hinge side. Again, the door closes and seals well. I’ve inspected the door for manufacturing defects, but can’t detect anything wrong. Now the second part of the problem involves the new storm door - both the interior door and storm doors are hinged on the same side. Once I install the storm door, its top edge of the latch side hits the stop while the bottom edge is out about ¾”. If I fix the issue with the interior door I exacerbate the problem with the storm door. Neither door is racked that I can determine. My last idea is to put the storm door up and adjust the pre-hung exterior door for the best fit of both and leave it. If you have any other ideas, I would certainly welcome them cause I'm stumped. LOL

Builder Bob - Obviously NOT

 

Welcome to the forums. Sorry to hear about your damage... my wife and I were happy to be able to do some volunteer work in the Houma, LA. area, 1 year ago. We enjoyed our stay there, everyone was so hospitable.

Before I jump to any conclusions about your door, maybe you could check two things. If you have a 6 ft level or something that is perfectly straight that you can use as a straightedge, put it on the door to see if the door itself is warped. Sometimes they are curved which will give you fits. Check the storm door in the same manner. If both of them are perfectly flat and not cupped, try this:

Close the door until the latch almost touches the strike plate. Observe the gap between the door and the jamb. Is it straight? If it is, then you probably don't have a problem with the door being out of plumb. If it's not straight, the door needs to be adjusted to make it more plumb than what your levels are telling you.

You can also reduce the 1/2" lean by pushing the entire latch side (top and bottom) of the jamb out 1/4", at the expense of having the bottom be recessed into the drywall by 1/4". It could be a wall thickness problem that has nothing to do with the door itself. If your wall has varying thicknesses, you'll never get it lined up perfectly everywhere.

Once you diagnose the entry door then we'll tackle the storm door problem.

My first thought would be that on the exterior side of the jamb, the brickmould needs to be pulled away from the jamb and the sheathing and stick a 3/16" shim behind it on the bottom latch side and the top hinge side, then a 3/32" shim behind the brickmould on both sides near the middle of the door, while the brickmould remains tight on the top latch side and the bottom hinge side. Then the storm door needs to be shimed out 3/16" on top latch side and bottom hinge side (By installing shims behind the face of the z-bar, behind where the face screws are installed. But I wouldn't attempt any of that until you get the entry door where you want it.

 

XSleeper

People from both LA and MS have have been blessd by the efforts of volunteers such as yourself - thank you for you and your wife's part of helping the rebuilding effort. I should have mentioned that I had checked the gap between the door and jamb with it nearly closed and it's dead on. I've also put a 6 foot and a 3 foot level on the door and checked from every possible angle - I didn't do this on the storm door, but will once the door problem is "solved." I'm off work this Friday so I will try your suggestion of spreading that 1/2" between the top and bottom and see where that leaves me. My main concern has always been making sure the door seals and closes properly. I will let you know the results Saturday. We're hosting a small group meeting from church Sunday afternoon and my wife tells me this problem will be solved. LOL Thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions on this.

Bob

 

I know this may sound dumb but I installed a door in my house awhile ago and had the same problem.It latched good ,sealed good but stuck out on the outside top.After all the work I did to make it look good it turned out my good 4ft level had apparently been dropped and was not reading correctly.After adusting the vial I saw how off I was in my door installation.I see you said you used two different levels,but is there a chance your level is out of adjustment?

 

Larryu

I really hadn't given that idea much thought since I've had two different 6 foot levels on it plus a 3 foot level and the door worked so well. I'll check them out today before I start working the door issue again and see. Thanks for the suggestion. I would really hope that would be the answer.

Bob