I haven’t posted to this thread in a while and have been having a good time in my retirement getting my vegetable garden in this year. My rhubarb is producing amazing quantities this year and the pies and crisps have been delicious with a lot going in the freezer for winter.
I got both decks cleaned and stained and had sticker shock at the price of 5 gallons of deck stain being about $250. While I was being taken to the cleaner buying redwood stain and applicators I remembered we have been nursing the back storm door that came with the house for a few years and it was on its last legs. I checked out the doors. I have installed maybe 5-6 of these over the years and I normally bought Larsen or one of the off brand doors and they went up fine and held up good. This time she took a liking to an Andersen door that was full glass but the top had a roll down screen. No more triple tracking for us. I told the guy I needed a left hand swing and he said they are made to go both ways. I thought cool. The Andersen was on sale making it the same price as the off brand door. $300 for the door seemed good for a top line door.
I decided to do something I rarely do and follow the directions so I started at step 1A and proceeded using the English version of the multilingual versions I had. Everything went great until step 9A (instillation of handle/lock) the picture shows putting the handle thru all the pre drilled holes and bolting it all up. What pre drilled holes the aluminum door was solid with no holes. That can’t be correct the directions show holes and slots. Then I get to thinking how could this be both right & left swing and have predrilled holes.
So I call the 1-800 number and get music and a guy telling me please wait an operator will help me soon. So 35 minutes later a woman comes on with such a thick accent I have to keep asking her to repeat. She won’t get to my question until I answer a million questions first that had nothing to do with my question. Finally I explain my pre drilled holes are not predrilled and what should I do. She tells me oh you must make own holes. She tells me to dig to the bottom of the box the handle came in and find other directions and template for drilling and they even included a 13/16 drill to make the slot. I was really surprised they wanted me to take this flat wood bit and drill thru my brand new painted aluminum door. I guess all the cheap doors I had put in the past had figured out how to do a R/L swing with pre drilled holes because I never remember having to do this. I told her thanks and I was not happy but will figure it out.
I started measuring parts and the recommended holes they wanted one size being 7/16 and although I have larger drills my drill I was using chuck only went to 3/8, they didn’t provide the 7/16 and 3/8 was way larger than needed. I did a pilot hole of 1/16 at each location and then the 3/8 went thru easy enough. I thought long and hard about the spade drill they sent and thought should I just use it to mark the outline and then cut it with a Dremal tool. The fact that the two holes overlapped really had me worried. But damn the torpedoes go for it.
Let me tell you this procedure is sketchy at best. The first hole produced some hot chips that went in my shoe and when the slug was cut as expected the drill grabbed and the slug falls down inside the door for eternity. The second hole being an interrupted cut was worse and I kind of leaned the drill to help keeping it from grabbing until it broke thru and of course left some ugly mangled burs inside the hole. I spent 43 years in tool making so it is not that I’m a stranger to drilling holes and this process is nothing I would recommend if I was Andersen door and window. It works but IMO for the average DIYer I would think twice.
Start to finish the job took about 4 hours given an hour on the phone and my new door looks great.
It came with a door closer that because the top of the door holds the screen rolled up they want you to mount the closer on the bottom. I like to use the latch thing on the closer to hold the door open when I’m bringing in groceries and I don’t want to be bending down to do it so for now I left it off.
Here are a few photos and beware of the R/L swing option it might be a little trickier than you think.
