A favorite country song of mine goes "If one door closes, I hope another one opens for you". In this case, I just wanted a good closing door. We researched 8 ft high - 7 ft wide double doors for our basement walk-in. $3500...Ugh. I can beat that, I said. So here's how I did it for $1400, learning skills, gaining personal satisfaction, working outdoors, and alongside Jenny who remembers everything I don't, with Camille chipping in.
******
The backbone of the door is a frame made of maple hardwood, dado cut to form rigid lap joints, specifically designed to accept the outer cedar boards. (the first door we built (prototype) is in the background)
We glued Tyvec waterproofing onto the frame. The exterior-facing cedar boards will mount on top of this.
******
The cedar stiles in place, and adding in the cedar rails over the Tyvec-covered frame.
*****
All the cedar boards in place. The rails were tongue & groove but still required routing to fit under the stiles. I hated the dado cuts but really enjoyed the router-table work.
******
******
Camille helping out, cutting rigid insulation to go into the frame spaces. The unfinished basement will be air-conditioned so more pressure on me to get the doors sized-right and air-tight. Yes...it's about 35 degrees out on the porch...thanks Camille!
******
Door insulated, and ready for the plywood backing which will help with the door rigidity.
*****
For the inside, we took a a sheet of plywood and routered it to match the grooves on the front, then fastened it to the frame.
******
The inside view of the door with the plywood attached.
******
The front cedar face of the door after staining. We applied "Redwood" stain originally but we found it to be too red, so we added a top coat of "Sable" to darken it. The hinges and nail heads (clavos) were ordered online.
The finished door.
******
For the engineers....plywood sheet at left, maple frame at center, cedar boards at right.
*******
Double doors on site, Jenny will install the clavos on the other door.
*****
Jenny has nailed in the clavos on the other door, and the door frame in assembled to the left.
******
Dave reinforcing the inner wood frame into the concrete walls.
*******
*******
Jenny holding the first door in place.
******
Dave holding the doors shut, even though they didn't want too (needed chiseling).
*******
First day after install, kinda shut, but not quite....need some chiseling.
******
Day 2, chiseling hinges to facilitate closing.
******
Yeah!....doors close, upper locks installed with doors in closed position. Remaining: drill concrete for lower locks and install inside handles. (Cool thing: doors were blowing closed with the winds, which means the hinges are positioned right on!)
******
Full rear house view: showing doors closed...next project, 6ft basement doors at left. Can't wait to see the stucco siding installed (stacked in the photo at left).
The doors look fantastic! It looks like it was a real team effort! I did not realize that the openings in the basement were different sizes until you mounted the new doors. Everything is really coming together. I don't think that I could have done a better job myself! I am looking forward to seeing the house cladded in its siding and the foundation backfilled. Is there and drainage around the outside of the foundation? Will you put any outside sealer on the foundation? Easy now, hard later. I hate a damp basement! I really like the nice big overhangs on the roofline. You will be glad that you did that. Will you install gutters? Sorry if I ask too many questions.
ReplyDelete