Screen doors can come in very handy during the summertime – not only do they let in natural light, but they can also help increase the airflow in your home. If you’re up for a little carpentry, you can create a screen door with just a few materials and some patience. Here, our door installation experts explain how to do so:
- First, use your measuring tape to measure your front door and determine how big you want your screen door to be.
- Next, purchase the right amount of wood to build your door. You’ll want two long boards for the outer frame as well as three thicker boards for the bottom, top, and middle of the door.
- Use your table saw to cut the boards down to the correct sizes.
- Lay the pieces of wood down on the floor and piece them together to make sure they fit well.
- After that, use your clamps to clamp the door together and re-measure it to make sure it will fit in your opening. (You can easily make sure the door is square by measuring each diagonal. If they’re the same measurement, your door is square.)
- With a pencil, mark where you’re going to put your biscuits to join the pieces of wood together.
- Next, line your lines up with your plate joiner and make the biscuit holes.
- Squeeze some wood glue inside the biscuit holes on one side of each of your boards and insert the biscuits.
- Line up your inserted biscuits with the biscuit holes on the other piece of wood and make sure they fit. If they do, go ahead and squeeze some wood glue onto the exposed biscuits and slide them into the other holes to join the two boards together.
- After that, re-clamp the door together and re-measure it to make sure it’s square.
- Once the glue dries, you can remove the clamps.
- Place the door into the opening where it will live and assess how it fits. Make any adjustments if needed.
- Next, attach your hinges and any moulding you want to include.
- After that, you can paint your door.
- Once the door is dry, unroll your screen over the “window” portions of your door and cut it to overlap the back side of each window by about 1/2 inch.
- Use your staple gun to attach the screen cut-outs to the wood frame.
- Lastly, install your door!
*Photo courtesy of thediydreamer.com
