Utility Door

I finally decided to do a lot of the maintenance on the house that I have literally been putting off for years. The first item on this list was replacing the utility door that leads to the basement from the back of the house. The original door must have been put in back in 1905 when the house was originally built. It was panel door hung in a wood door frame. The door was simply put in on top of a pile of rocks! So over the last hundred years dirt had seeped in under the door and filled the gaps in the rocks. This led to the frame rotting out – it did last for 95 years or so – leaving a gap between the door and the ground about an inch and a half across the bottom of the door. It has probably run the heating bills up quite a bit over the last few years.

After ripping the door frame out of the wall I needed to poor a foundation to set the door on. I had already purchased the concrete but when I mixed it and poured it into the simple 2x4 form I had built I found I only had half of what I needed. So I had to run back down to the Home Depot and buy more. I had planned to have the door out and foundation finished by two in the afternoon. Unfortunately due to having to work that morning (Saturday) and it taking longer to prepare the foundation, in addition to the extra run to home depot I didn’t finish until 4:30 so I was unable to hang the door the same day. Just for some more fun it decided to rain as I was finishing the foundation. But it came out pretty good anyway.

The next day I went to hang the door and Minnesota was experiencing 60+ MPH winds. So after an hour or so of battling I had the door hung. I used a level and shims and got the door basically perfect level. This was only the second door I have hung so was doing most of the work on limited experiences. When the door was hung I was surprised to find that one side of the door was flush with the wall and the other was flush on the bottom and sticking out several inches at the top. I checked with the level and sure enough the door was hung well so I checked the wall and it wasn’t level!!!

Well this was past my abilities (I hate to admit it but I can’t do everything) so I called up a friend of mine who is professional. CQ is as good a carpenter as there is. I did have to wait for the Vikings game to finish for him to come over, but he worked so fast it was absolutely amazing. He first loosened the screws and pulled out the nails I had used and then pushed that corner back in for a bit. After that he re-shimmed the door and tightened all of the screws it took at most 10 minutes and he did it all by eyeball. He then went to the depot with me and cut the cedar to finish the job. It took him less time to cut and install the trim as it took to go to home depot and back. When he was finished the door even swung and latched better.

The finished product is really doing its job. The basement is now noticeably warmer and dryer. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Maybe the third door I put in someday will be an easier job.