A storm door that can handle actual storms?
April 15, 2021 12:36 PM   Subscribe

Needed: recommendations for heavy-duty storm doors. I have two doorways opening onto deck. The deck is exposed to some intense weather, e.g., 30mph gusts that blast rain horizontally at the side of the house.

The current storm doors are Larson Southports, installed last year. They are not up to the task. During windy storms, a large amount of water gets in through the gaps between the door and its frame. The water gets between the storm door and the normal door, flows down to the threshold, and has caused a lot of damage, including leaking through to the ceiling below. I can't put weatherstripping or foam in the gaps because it will impede the closing of the storm doors. I talked to Larson support about this, and they were like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So I need recommendations for storm doors that are really designed for storms, and not just for energy efficiency. This summer I want to have every part of these doorways rebuilt, in an attempt to stop the water once and for all.

Also: bonus points if you have recommendations for a Seattle-area contractor who might be interested in this job
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl to Home & Garden (2 answers total)
 
Best answer: It sounds like your regular door is installed incorrectly. Regular doors are supposed to block driving rain and have a threshold to stop about 1 inch of flooding water. I have a storm door, a dumpy thing I hate, and I spay it directly with water from the waterhose to clean it. I've never seen water inside from it.

Per this site, the Larson storm doors are highly rated.
The Spruce

Storm doors do have gaps, but they are installed outside the building frame to deal with minor water incursion. Yours doesn't sound minor and your main door is not stopping it either.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:25 PM on April 15, 2021


Best answer: Yeah, you are asking the storm door to do something it is not designed to do. It sounds like it might not even be the storm door's fault. Depending on how things are flashed (or not) the water may actually be coming from above the door and flowing in to the house through the walls. If this has been happening for years, there could be some serious rot throughout the vicinity of the door. Yay old houses!
posted by rockindata at 3:18 PM on April 15, 2021


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