Daily Home Renovation Tips

It takes a few weeks before the replacement door sweep is received by the big box building supply retailer. We are now at February 13th when Dave returns to finish the job (install the correct door sweep, insert the missing part above the frame, apply the black exterior caulking, install the proper support underneath the extended exterior face plate, and insert the missing black exterior plugs.

The scheduled day arrives, as does very cold temperature in the morning. The materials have been sitting in Dave’s trailer over night and now there is a risk that if Dave attempts to cut the black cladding  which covers the wood that is to be inserted on top of the wood frame immediately beneath the fascia of the eves trough, the cladding will crack. And, forget about the caulking, it’s now very thick due to the freezing overnight temperatures.

So, I suggest that we put the material in our basement in the morning to slowly warm up and have Dave return in the afternoon. Makes sense to him, so we do this.

OK, do Dave returns and proceeds to install the door sweep. However, it is a different model than the one which came with the door. This one has 6 ’sweeps’ whereas the original one had only 3. Once the new sweep is installed, the fit is so gosh darn tight that to open the door one needs two hands and to close the door one needs to push with the full force of one’s body behind it! This will not do.

But, at least we don’t need that towel any longer at the bottom of the door.

Next, Dave installed the missing part between the top of the door frame and the fascia. It looks nice. However, shortly there after the fascia again buckles so there will need to be more remedial work done to ‘finish’ the installation so the fascia no longer buckles.

Dave then proceeds to remove the temporary support for the extended face plate and install the permanent support underneath the face plate. He even colours it with black caulking which is also uses on other parts of the exterior.

However, he has some bad news. The door manufacturer and the building supply retailer do not have plugs for the holes in the exterior cladding that match its black colour. The only plugs he can obtain are either white or green (green?). Who manufactures a door and does not provide the plugs in the same colour as the cladding?

Stay tuned……more to follow. Needless to say, the installation is not finished. To continue reading about our replacement front door experiences with the big box building supply retailer, simply select this link to Part 12.