Todd's Dutch Door — Part 1

Todd was able to snap some in-process photos during the installation of his door (and a few more that are on the way for part-2).

As mentioned in the previous post, it was a dutch door — meaning the top and bottom swing independently. In the case of this atrium door, fortunately, it did not need to be weatherproof, so it was a simple (but not cheap) "cut and plug" at the door shop with no weatherstripping between the two halves.

The paint I used was Behr Ultra Exterior Matte. While I'm not a super-fan of Behr paints in general, Benjamin Moore would not mix the "Shocking Orange" color in an exterior finish (after 45mins of hunting a BM dealer down that carried exterior formulations) and I've used this particular Behr formulation over and over with great results. Worth noting: the matte formulation seems to have a very different characteristics than the semi-gloss and the results were quite different in application.

Given the temperatures, I had to pre-finish the door in my workshop which leaves one final coat that will be applied once the weather gets above 60deg. It's a dead-match to the mailbox which was the goal. Really bright colors like this take many, many coats for total coverage, so plan accordingly (and use a tinted primer) if you're looking at an equally "Shocking" color. Our yellow door took six coats total.

As usual, we took specific measurements before removing the old door (where it fit well and where it didn't) and took it to the shop for matching which — in the case of a cut/plug on a cold day — took most of the day to complete. Fortunately, we were able to use all three original hinge locations and only had to chisel out the fourth, but when it came to the lock strikeplates and bores, we were less fortunate.

It's not uncommon, but over the years, the deadbolt lock had been replaced a few times and each time, the receiving bore became more and more worn and this time, we had to cut out and replace with new wood altogether. With a skilled and steady hand (and a little bondo), the repair was stronger than the original and ready for a new, clean bore.

The buzzer mechanism is still functioning and we had to do some repair there, too, but by that time, the light was low and photos were tough — pictures to come for part-2.

The trim around the door was a mess and we removed it all, patched the remains and installed new door stops on the exterior for a clean finish.

It's not uncommon that a simple door replacement turns into a much more complex job of mending, sculpting and recreating... especially on these exterior atrium doors that have seen 50 years of weather and 7 coats of paint. In the end, I usually end up replacing most of the materials because it's cleaner and — in the end — quicker than trying to reuse 50 year old brittle redwood. All in all, it's worth it in the end.