How to Accurately Measure for a Storm Door
There are several reasons why you would want to add a storm door over any exterior wood doors or decorative entries that grace the portals of your home.
If you live in a storm-prone area, you'll probably even want to install one if your doors are made of durable metal.
A storm door not only increases security by providing an extra, potentially locked, layer of protection between your family and the outside world, but it also helps protect your beautiful exterior wood doors from severe weather damage.
Keep in mind, though, these reasons only apply to storm doors that are properly fitted and hung, which means you need to take the right measurements in order to actually protect your exterior wood doors and get the most out of your storm doors.
Here is how to make sure that happens.
Orientation and Outswing Are you left-handed or right-handed? Do you have a single door or double exterior wood doors? These are questions you'll have to ask yourself in order to decide how the storm doors will open.
This won't directly affect your measurements, but this decision will determine where the hinges are placed - and that's important when you're ordering new storm doors.
If they belong on the left side, you need to take measurements for a left-hinged outswing.
If they're on the right, it's a right-hinged outswing.
You'll need to send this information along with your measurements.
Measuring Height When you're measuring for height, it's not enough to just measure in one spot.
Instead, measure in three places, from the top of the threshold to the underside of the top trim.
Start by positioning the tape measure on the top of the threshold, which may be made of brass, silver, wood, or concrete.
Bring the tape measure all the way up to the inside of the top trim.
Your measurement should be somewhere between 80 and 81 inches, if your home is new.
If the home is older, the measurement for your wooden exterior doors may be between 96 and 97 inches.
Now, you need to take this measurement twice more.
In total, you should have one measurement for the left, one for the right, and one for the center of the threshold.
If they're all the same, well, you probably have a new house without much settling.
If the numbers are different (and they shouldn't be drastically different), choose the smallest of the three and write it down.
Measuring Width When you're measuring width, always measure from left to right on the inside of the trim.
Similar to what you did for the height, you will need to take three measurements here.
Start by measuring at the top of your exterior wood door and work your way down to the bottom.
Again, you're going to write down the smallest measurement to ensure that you won't have to trim any part of the door when it's ready to be installed.
Now that you have accurate measurements for the storm doors you'll need to shield your exterior wood doors and enhance your home's security, you can give them to your general contractor, take them to a home improvement store, or give them to the custom exterior wood door designer who initially made your doors to obtain the storm doors that best suit your needs.
Keep in mind that as long as the width is the same as a standard stock door, you can pick up a storm door at most home improvement centers.
But if you have unusual measurements, you may need to buy custom storm doors to match the measurements of your existing exterior wood doors and entrance ways.
Remember, if you think it's a custom size, measure twice to double-check your numbers, and then head to an exterior wood door designer with your measurements in hand.
If you live in a storm-prone area, you'll probably even want to install one if your doors are made of durable metal.
A storm door not only increases security by providing an extra, potentially locked, layer of protection between your family and the outside world, but it also helps protect your beautiful exterior wood doors from severe weather damage.
Keep in mind, though, these reasons only apply to storm doors that are properly fitted and hung, which means you need to take the right measurements in order to actually protect your exterior wood doors and get the most out of your storm doors.
Here is how to make sure that happens.
Orientation and Outswing Are you left-handed or right-handed? Do you have a single door or double exterior wood doors? These are questions you'll have to ask yourself in order to decide how the storm doors will open.
This won't directly affect your measurements, but this decision will determine where the hinges are placed - and that's important when you're ordering new storm doors.
If they belong on the left side, you need to take measurements for a left-hinged outswing.
If they're on the right, it's a right-hinged outswing.
You'll need to send this information along with your measurements.
Measuring Height When you're measuring for height, it's not enough to just measure in one spot.
Instead, measure in three places, from the top of the threshold to the underside of the top trim.
Start by positioning the tape measure on the top of the threshold, which may be made of brass, silver, wood, or concrete.
Bring the tape measure all the way up to the inside of the top trim.
Your measurement should be somewhere between 80 and 81 inches, if your home is new.
If the home is older, the measurement for your wooden exterior doors may be between 96 and 97 inches.
Now, you need to take this measurement twice more.
In total, you should have one measurement for the left, one for the right, and one for the center of the threshold.
If they're all the same, well, you probably have a new house without much settling.
If the numbers are different (and they shouldn't be drastically different), choose the smallest of the three and write it down.
Measuring Width When you're measuring width, always measure from left to right on the inside of the trim.
Similar to what you did for the height, you will need to take three measurements here.
Start by measuring at the top of your exterior wood door and work your way down to the bottom.
Again, you're going to write down the smallest measurement to ensure that you won't have to trim any part of the door when it's ready to be installed.
Now that you have accurate measurements for the storm doors you'll need to shield your exterior wood doors and enhance your home's security, you can give them to your general contractor, take them to a home improvement store, or give them to the custom exterior wood door designer who initially made your doors to obtain the storm doors that best suit your needs.
Keep in mind that as long as the width is the same as a standard stock door, you can pick up a storm door at most home improvement centers.
But if you have unusual measurements, you may need to buy custom storm doors to match the measurements of your existing exterior wood doors and entrance ways.
Remember, if you think it's a custom size, measure twice to double-check your numbers, and then head to an exterior wood door designer with your measurements in hand.
