I thought I would ask the CF hive mind for some help and/or recommendations. Our house is from the 1960's and we have an exterior wooden door with some glass. It's only like 28" or 30" wide though, so pretty small compared to new doors today. Unfortunately, this door is really showing it's age and we would like to replace it with something very similar. Has anyone done something like this? Any good companies or individuals in Ames or the surrounding area that could do this type of work?
Custom Exterior Door
- Thread starter mapnerd
- Start date
Moehl Millwork in Ankeny might be worth a call. Also Beisser Lumber in Grimes has a great millwork depth. A 28 or 30 inch exterior door would be a special order type product.
If you have a very specific look you are going for, that's going to be spendy. If you have a general idea of a kind of look (want something wood with glass and panels, etc.) and are willing to do a bit of repair, you might want to check out West End Salvage in Des Moines. Their stuff they build and their furniture is crazy expensive, but they have probably over 100 door slabs that if you can find one that works you can probably get for a good deal. A few years ago we replaced a junk door in our 1915 house with a cherry door slab I got at West End for $125. I had to do a little repair and shave off a little bit to get it to fit, but it was just my own labor. Here's a pic below:
Just be sure that whoever you go with is going to replace the entire frame not just hang a new door. Also you can get some doors that look just like wood but actually aren’t that can make them much more energy efficient and open up your options.
When you say ‘really showing it’s age’ are we talking aesthetic surface damage, structural like cracks or water damage, or the styling just looks dated. If it’s the first I would check into getting it refinished vs buying a new door.
Yeah more like structural damage. I would like to save it but that’s a lost cause.
My wife and I live in a split foyer and we decided that the entryway to our house needed a major upgrade to bring in a lot more natural lighting, so I replaced the old front door with a new door that included sidelights and a transom. It was a major project that required me to remove all the drywall and create a temporary wall to hold up the ceiling while I removed the old door header and installed a much wider and higher door header. I took my time with this project and I was really happy with the end result. It made a huge difference to our entryway.
Below are the before and after pictures.
Below are the before and after pictures.
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