Front door installation

Front door installation – main stages of work. Before installing the entrance doors, remove the old structure. The actions may differ depending on the design of the case and the condition of the opening. In any case, first remove the door leaf from the hinges. It is heavy and will interfere with the work. Use a crowbar to lift the leaf, and the upper hinge will jump off the inner rod. To remove the non-detachable hinges, unscrew the mounting screws.

Then dismantle the door frame. It is attached from the side of the room. Lightweight structures are fixed with anchors. If so, there will be holes in the side frame for hardware. If the anchors cannot be unscrewed, they are cut off with a grinder. Massive models are often attached with pieces of reinforcement welded to the lugs.

Dismantling is sometimes done with a grinder. First, clear the gap from the mounting foam and cement mortar and then cut out the fasteners. In metal entrance doors, the door frame is often welded to the door frame. The anchors are located on the apartment side. The door frame of wooden models can be easily removed with a crowbar or pried up with an axe blade. Once the fasteners are removed, the door frame is taken out.

Preparing the doorway

After dismantling, the opening in the wall may be damaged or slightly unsuitable in size. When measuring the opening with an old entrance door, it is not clear how much space is occupied by solid concrete or masonry, and how much by polyurethane foam and plaster. The insulating material is completely removed. The doorway is prepared as follows:

• Inspect the damage and assess whether the size of the door frame corresponds to the opening. If it is smaller, remove the material with a hammer drill in accordance with the measurements of the door frame. A gap of 1.5-3 cm between the frame and the opening is acceptable.
• The shape of the opening may be disrupted when dismantling the old frame. If necessary, it is reduced by applying cement mortar or expanded.
• Loose sections of the opening are removed to the masonry or concrete. Cement mortar is applied to the required level. The frame fasteners must enter the dense material. Then it is firmly fixed. Large chips and cracks are hermetically filled to prevent drafts. Minor roughness is acceptable – they will be hidden with polyurethane foam and putty.
• If the wall is made of fragile gypsum blocks or aerated concrete, the opening is reinforced with a metal frame. It will hold the entire door structure.
• The threshold can be reinforced with an embedded element – a bar or brick. It is checked for strength and replaced if necessary.

Front door installation – stages of work

Before starting the installation, the location of the door frame is determined. From the outside, it can be flush with the wall or recessed towards the living space. In the second case, breaking into the door is more difficult, however, the opening angle of the door leaf is reduced. There may also not be enough space to install a second door. If the door leaf is flush with the wall, the door leaf opens wide and there is free space in the slope towards the apartment.

The entrance door is installed in the following stages:

• The product is disassembled to separate the frame and the door leaf, wiped from dust. First, the frame is installed. Before removing the door leaf, the position of the leaf is marked with masking tape relative to the frame at the top, bottom and near the lock.
• The frame is inserted into the opening and fixed with wooden wedges. The vertical and horizontal alignment of all the posts is checked with a laser level.
• The position of the frame is precisely adjusted so that its mechanisms and locks work properly.
• Wooden wedges are placed for alignment until the door unit takes the correct position. First, the post with hinges is fixed, starting from the bottom corner. Then – the upper corner and the middle.
• The geometry is checked with a level. Check the correctness of the frame fastening by hanging the sash on the hinges, using the marks made of masking tape as a guide.
• Fix the lock post using a level. Check its position in the closed position of the sash.
• Test the operation of the lock. Evaluate the position of the door leaf in the open position at 90 and 45 degrees.
• Treat the hinges with thick grease.