Same old midcentury home, different front door

May 8, 2021 4:26 PM

Just bought a late-1950s National Homes ranch--essentially post-WWII track housing--to which I'm trying to add curb appeal. Need help figuring out specifics about front door installation with this particular prefab house.

Sometime in the 90s the previous owner installed (poorly) a hideous front door slab that doesn't actually fit the door frame particularly well--it's slightly smaller than the 80" by 36" opening. In reading about installing new front doors, a lot of online guidance advises homeowners to go with prehung for watertightness. However, National Homes are not quite "standard" in their sizing--the studs and walls are thinner--so it's unclear to me whether it would be a better idea to get a slab and fit it to the existing door frame or purchase a pre-hung door and have it installed. Of course I'd prefer the watertightness and range of choice that pre-hung affords, but am not sure what kind of work this would entail on the installer's part. I won't be doing this job myself.

To anyone who owns a National Home or has worked on one: have you installed a new front door, and how difficult was that process? Which option should I go with?

posted by Miss T.Horn to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

You are going to be interacting with that front door a lot, and your guests will have their first experience of your home with that door. I think it's probably worth going to your local architectural salvage reseller and looking for whatever they have.

If you know the thickness of your house, there's a tiny chance you'll find something that fits, but that's not a major consideration.

Finding a really lovely, solid, unique front door for your wonderful house will be rewarding for you every day you live in that house.

There also seem to be a number of businesses making custom front doors, so you should be able to get one that fits your current frame precisely. It should be pretty easy to improve on what's already there, based on your description.

This is what's so great about owning your own house! You don't have to reinforce the whole economy of cheap, wasteful solutions that landlords and flippers feel compelled to use. You can take the time to find something that works well and will actually last.
posted by amtho at 7:12 PM on May 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oh my gosh, lucky you! I'm not especially knowledgeable about doors--I had my own problems with a uniquely sized front door in my war-box--but I've found a lot of mid-mod resources through advertisers in Atomic Ranch magazine. It's been really helpful trying to find weird little niche businesses who deal with specific concerns.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:36 PM on May 8, 2021

Ok, so I'm getting an exterior door installed and will go over what I know. I've also installed quite a few interior pre-hung doors, but can't do my front door myself because it's a double door and won't fit in my car to get it home and it's too heavy for me to move it around to install it.

First: prehung (IMO) has nothing to do with water tightness, not really. All a prehung door takes to install are some really basic tools and watching a youtube video. Cutting the notches for hinges for a non-prehung door is a serious carpenter skill. It takes practice. If you cut them incorrectly, you just basically ruined a $500+ door. Yes, a pre-hung door is possibly a bit tighter when factory-made, but probably not that much, because the door frame is made of relatively weak materials with a lot of flex. Installation matters way more.

So the installation effort, which leads to higher costs, is the primary driver of peoples' preference for prehung doors. Can a carpenter install a non-prehung door? Yes.

So moving on to your specific install. I checked at quite a few places because our current doors could best be described as 'sad jack o'lantern face' and the windows are cheap leaded glass that is going to fall out at the next big wind storm, so we wanted something different. We went with a big-box store, because we didn't want anything crazy and my wife doesn't like a lot of glass, which is really the biggest driver of doors design and cost.

So the first step is they send a person to measure your door. They seem knowledgeable enough, and they identify how thick your door is and take at least 20 specific measurements to size the door and the framing around the door. Each door is also semi-custom, so they more-or-less make it to your home's specification, with major limitations.

First limitation is that each door is offered in different sizes from each manufacturer. So we had exactly two choices in the door we wanted, due to the specific measurements of our house, even though 3 different manufacturers made the door and each had multiple materials to choose from (wood, steel, fiberglass). Most weren't available to us.

They actually came out a second time to measure once we chose our door, the measurements of each door are so specific.

So depending on your house it is somewhat likely that they won't be able to do a basic install. And then it's better to get a custom carpenter to custom fit a door for you. But it's also likely that they will be able to fit your door.

The measuring is also free, so you don't have anything to lose if they can't install your door. They haven't actually installed mine yet - lead time is over 2 months, but they've said they can and are coming soon to do it.


BTW in case you are curious: ours includes over $200 in lumber to install the door, $700 in installation labor, and the rest is the door (again a double door) so the total cost was $2500 for 2 fiberglass, non-painted doors.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:55 PM on May 9, 2021