Take a moment to check these few items on your storm door each fall and spring. With the price of new doors running from $150 to $1150 these days, it pays to keep your door well maintained.
The safety spring and chain. That spring hanging overhead to keep wind or an over-exuberant teen from pulling the door beyond the limit of the automatic closer. Make certain that it’s still connected. If it’s getting in your hair, then the small nail that’s supposed to hold up middle of it is missing or not connected. Also make sure that the bracket on the door jamb and the door are screwed into their respective places. If the screws on the door side are stripped out, then replace them with a slightly larger screw, or buy some machine bolts and nuts of the same diameter and run them through the door, placing the heads on the outside for a neater looking repair job. If your safety spring and chain is missing, most home improvement stores carry them for around ten dollars.
The automatic door closer. Four things ruin these closers ninety percent of the time. One, do not allow the moveable stop to rest on the pneumatic tube side of the crimp in the rod. When you are not using the stop to hold the door open, it must be moved back to the other side, the side where the rod is connected to the triangular bracket. As a handyman, I’ve seen many closers ruined by leaving this movablestop on the wrong side of the crimp. If it won’t stay there on it’s own, use a bit of masking or packing tape to keep it in place until you need it to prop the door open.
Two, tighten the screws in the brackets on the door jamb side as well as the door. Replace any screws that have pulled out of the door jamb bracket with longer ones that actually reach into the rough framing for the door. As with the safety spring, put machine screws all the way through the door if necessary to compensate for stripped out threads.
Three, if you have to remove the safety chain for any reason, be sure to put it back in place. Without it, wind may catch the door and bend the door closer rod. It must be kept in place and installed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Four, make sure that the speed is adjusted to ensure the latch will catch properly. If it’s too slow, some well meaning soul may try to force it shut, hastening wear and tear on the pneumatic chamber and ending it’s life much sooner. These closers don’t last forever. If yours will no longer adjust properly by turning the adjustment screw in the end of the tube, replace it with a new one. They cost about ten dollars at any home improvement store.
The latch and catch. Make sure that these are working properly. If they don’t, check to see if the catch on the door frame needs to be shimmed or adjusted left or right. If the spring in the door latch handle is bad, usually the only recourse is to buy a new one to fit your door. Take the old one with you, as there are usually a few styles and mechanisms to choose from. Generally, they are very easy to replace.
The door and corner screws. The door itself can have problems with loose screws and sagging. Close the door and look at it from the outside. If it droops or sags, running down hill from the hinge side to the latch side, then do the following. Open the door a few inches and have a helper lift up on the door until it is square (or about an eighth of an inch above square), then tighten the screws on the edge of the door, top and bottom. (Don’t forget the hinge side.) If any of the threads are stripped out, replace them with a slightly larger diameter screw, but not longer. If the door still sags, you can often add four flat corner braces to the inside surface near each corner.
The hinges. You can’t always adjust the hinges on storms doors because they are crimped by special machines in the production factory. If it’s obvious that the crimp around the hinge pin has been widened due to a high wind or wild children, you may be able to use a pair of vice grips to squeeze it back to it’s original diameter. It’s rare that there is enough room to do this without totally dismantling the door from the frame, but it’s worth looking at.
The door frame. The frame is mounted with two set sets of screws, one running down the exterior face, and one set on the inside edge of the frame. The outside set of screws often has a plastic covering running the length of the frame from top to bottom. It can be easily removed with a sharp knife or screwdriver. Check that all screws are snug (not over tightened), then replace the screw head covers by snapping them back in their tracks.
The door sweep. This is the piece that is screwed to the base of the door with a small rubber strip attached. These wear out every few years and need to be adjusted to close the gap under the door when it’s latched. They are very easy to replace and most home improvement stores carry a large variety of them. Take the old one with you when buying a replacement piece.
