Removing Old Door

Shannon came over to help with a nice Saturday project. Neither of us knew what we were in for.

According to the online videos and how-to's, the first step is to remove the old door, casing (both interior and exterior), and the door frame. Of course in these videos it takes about 12 seconds to do all this. For us, the big sticking point was the security door which is by definition a tamper proof metal door. A lot of prying and hammering and sawzalling removes the security door and the exterior casing.





The interior casing takes a bit more control in the removal so that the casing can be
reused after the new door is installed. Alternating flathead screwdrivers down the length of the moulding creates a gap for the pry bar. A couple pulls and the casing is off.






The door frame requires cutting through a lot of screws or nails that are holding the frame in place. A sawzall with a metal blade (or even a wood blade) can easily make these cuts. One good kick and the door frame is down - not really, I carefully push the framing down and out of the way. The result is referred to as the rough opening and the goal of the rough opening is to have a sill that is high enough to allow the door to open and the width/height are large enough to fit the door. This "simple" goal becomes the bane of our afternoon.