Wooden Screen Doors

Wooden Screen doors or "Granny Doors" combine a beautifully made traditional storm screen door with modern screening and door hardware. The wooden screen door makes a wonderful addition to a main entrance door.

It is also possible to refinish an old wood screen door and incorporate modern screen frames to make the storm screen door a little easier to maintain. An original wood screen door generally has steel or copper screening held in by nailed wooden cleats.

Invariably the cleats are ill fitting and worn since they have been pulled out and replaced many times over the years. You can remove the cleats again to repair the wood screen door but its better to modernize the repair a little.

Have a new aluminum screen frame made for the wood screen door by your local glass shop and save yourself the fuss and bother of changing the screen wire and nailing in the cleats. The last hammer blow always goes through the new screen of the storm screen door anyway!

Also remove your wood storm door in the winter and store it away from the cold and damp. No matter how good the carpentry, winter storms will take their toll on a wooden door. Keep it safe during winter in the garage. Let your steel entry doors be exposed to the cold weather. They are designed for it.

You may need to replace the storm door hinges with removeable hinge pins so its easy to get the door off.

A wooden storm door is also more flexible for installation in odd size door frames. You can trim a wooden door to your exact frame height and width within an inch or two. This can be an important benefit. Aluminum and Vinyl storms have to purchased in the exact size. If you dont have a typical 30" or 32" or 34" door frame, a wooden door may be your only option.

Wooden doors are also recyclable. You can reclaim doors from older homes and use them on your new home - so long as they are the right size. There are many businesses that specialize in reselling antique doors for reuse. Many demolition companies save the old wooden storm doors from buildings they have demolished. Charities such as Habitat for Humanity have used building material stores where you can often find a good used door.

Installation tips for wooden doors

Storm door hardware

Wooden and aluminum storms often share some of the same parts so the storm door hardware page will help you locate and install parts that your door may be missing. Screen door hinges also go hand in hand with wooden doors. Not to mention this separate page on storm door locks. and this page about screen door closers.
If you have to deal with dogs, cats and kids you will appreciate the help provided by the how the how to fix a storm door screen page especially since it gets into dealing with screens that are difficult to remove.

The page on security screen doors talks about how storm doors have become both high art and high security.

Vinyl storm doors

You might also want to consider using a vinyl storm door, these are certainly more weather resistant than wooden versions. A vinyl door can be left in place year round. Just be sure the vinyl is thick. The thicker and heavier the better. Thin vinyl has a tendency to get dried out in the hot sun. Over time the suns radiation will make it become brittle. It will eventually crack or shatter.

Vinyl doors generally have welded steel framing inside to help them keep their shape. This is certainly more durable than the cast magnesium components used in the old aluminum storm doors.

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