Replacing The Door On My Shop Workshop Projects

Over the six years I’ve been here, I’ve been making constant improvements to my shop to make it more comfortable to use. Starting with finishing the inside in the beginning from an unfinished garage, to installing an insulated drop ceiling that not only keeps the shop warmer in the winter, but also improves the acoustics. And many more.

The latest and long overdue is replacing the door with one that’s more energy efficient. The door I’m using is not new, but it’s a good quality steel entry door that’s filled with foam insulation. The old door is wood – cedar, and perfectly fine for the unheated garage it was put on to begin with:

It’s still in good shape, but would frost over on the inside on the coldest winter days.

It was originally single pane glass, and I added another pane on the inside three years ago:

The original hole for the lock was pretty ragged, so I had to add plywood around it to cover that:

The lock is good quality and new, or it was 6 years ago when I bought it.

The replacement door needed some work. It had some dents and small holes, along with the deadlock hole that needed to be patched. I also had to cut the bottom of the door to better fit in the existing opening:

I cut in halfway, then flipped the door over and finished the cut:

I also sanded the door fully, removed the window and brought it out back to spray paint it:

I also painted the plastic frames for the window. They were dingy looking and yellowed, especially the one on the outside:

After the paint dried, I hung the door. Notice the gap at the bottom – I need to build up the sill a bit higher, since the deck in front of the door heaves a small amount when the ground is frozen, and will stop the door from opening:

I just cut a piece of pressure treated deck board to size and used that to raise the sill:

A weatherstripping door bottom will take care of the rest of the gap.

While I had it out, I looked over the sealed unit for the window and found a gap forming in the seal:

I squeezed some silicone in there and maybe that will stop it from leaking for a few more years.

I just posted a video on how to mortise hinges on my YouTube channel, but this door is not quite wide enough it fill the opening. So I just surface mounted the hinges instead of neatly mortising them in:

On the outside, I made and installed a drip cap above the door:

Even though I have fairly wide overhangs on the roof, this will help to keep driving rain off of the top of the door. I also installed new weatherstripping on the inside that does a much better job of sealing the gaps. Should be a noticeable difference when winter comes again.

And finished:

This door swings out and that frees up space inside my small shop, but also presents some security issues. I talk about those briefly in this short video:

I made a video showing the highlights of the installation: