Storm Door Installation in Wilmington, DE

A full-view storm door is one tall pane of glass in a narrow frame. It shows off the entry door behind it and lets the full daylight into the hall. When the weather warms up, the glass panel comes out, and a screen panel goes in its place, so one of the two panels is always in storage somewhere in the house. It suits a homeowner who likes the look of the front door and doesn't mind changing panels in spring and fall.

A ventilating door, sometimes called self-storing, has a glass sash in the upper half that slides down over the lower glass to open a top screen. Nothing comes out of the door, and nothing has to be stored. The trade is more frame across the glass, since the sashes need tracks to ride in. For a back door that gets opened for air on summer evenings, a sash you can drop with one hand is the practical choice.

On a door with a retractable screen, the screen rolls up into a housing in the door and comes down when the glass is lowered. You get a clear view through glass in winter and a screen in summer without swapping panels or looking through a screen you don't need. The rolled screen lives inside the door, so it stays clean and out of the sun when it isn't in use.

A storm door doesn't hang on the house wall. Its frame screws to the brick mold, the outside trim that surrounds the entry door, so that trim sets the size and the fit. The width is measured between the inside edges of the brick mold at the top, middle, and bottom, and the height is measured from the sill to the underside of the head trim. Storm doors are sold in a handful of stock widths and heights; the three measurements pick one. The trim also has to sit flat in one plane: where a board is cupped or bowed, the hinge rail can't bear tight against it along its length.

Jimmy probes the brick mold and the foot of the door frame, because the hinge rail is screwed into that wood from top to bottom and the closer pulls against it every time the door shuts. Soft trim won't hold those screws for long. At the bottom, the new door carries an adjustable expander with a sweep, which is lowered onto the sill so it follows the sill's slope and closes the gap. If the probe finds rot in the trim or the jamb behind it, that wood has to be made sound first, since a new door can only hang on solid wood.

The entry on a Wilmington row home can be narrower than the smallest stock storm door. A door that doesn't fit the opening needs a custom size or a modified frame. The style relies on a brick row-house facade, too: a full-glass aluminum door can look out of place there, and a door with a traditional profile may suit it better. The closers that come with a stock door are set up for a standard opening and can slam a narrow door, so the closer is adjusted during installation.

A 1990s colonial in Hockessin may have an entry framed around a stock pre-hung door with stock trim, and a stock storm door is made for that opening. What matters there is which way the entry faces. A south or west door takes afternoon sun on the glass, and some entry door makers warn that heat trapped between full glass and their door can damage its finish, so the glass choice is checked against the entry door. An entry open to the wind needs a closer and a wind chain that stop a gust from throwing the door past its hinges.