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Home Repair The Old House DIY

How do I fix this door problem? Large crooked gap under door and more!

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

We bought a house with an absolutely horribly done addition mudroom. The currently critical issue is the incredibly leaky doorway (air not water). Massive gaps all round, though it looks like they put weather stripping on to no/little effect. There is something missing at the bottom of the doorway leaving a crack an army of mice could march through, in formation.
Id like to stop hemorrhaging heat and inviting miniature guests in, for now. Leveling out the floor would also nice, but i suspect that will be more involved and costly.
It looks like the frame wasnt finished? (Lots of the frames in the house look like that, actually.) And the windows DEFINITELY were not.
For the floor Im pretty sure they tiled right over concrete, definitely didnt level it at all. The old basement stair top is just protruding in the room and for some reason they put baseboards around the old weatherworn concrete. Its... absurd.
Photos of the doorway and windows attached (i hope)

EDIT: thanks everyone! With the info here (and a lot of YouTub) I’ve got a clear idea on how to progress.

Featured Answer

ksc36

3 years ago

Those windows are are storm windows, usually installed over existing windows.

The door appears to have no frame, just a slab mounted to the rough framing. Replace the door with a pre hung exterior unit, you don't need to spend a lot of $$ as it's not exposed to the weather.

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Comments (7)

Mariah M
Original Author
3 years ago
Photos of doorway
Mariah M
Original Author
3 years ago
Because i mentioned the windows

....but they added decorative edging!
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millworkman
3 years ago
Holy close ups. You need to back up and take a full picture but for starters there appears to be no door sill. The repair is to pull the unit and install a sill and reinstall or since that looks like a run of the mill steel door buy a new prehung unit and swap them out. Since your picture is so close up it makes it almost impossible to get the full picture of what is going on this is only an educated guess at this point. And from the looks of it the jambs were not procured with the proper jamb depth and they jury rigged extension jambs from plywood instead of pine trim.
Mariah M thanked millworkman
Bruce in Northern Virginia
3 years ago
If you buy and properly install an exterior pre-hung door it will have the seals around the sides and top, and an adjustable threshold at the bottom to allow for the gap.

You can also remove and rebuild the frame yourself, buy a new threshold and seals, and hang the existing door in the frame you build. However, based on your question it does appear you have done this type of work before.

Bruce
Mariah M
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you all!

Sorry about the photos, thought they'd be more useful then from farther away, my bad.

As for just replacing the door - that seems like a pretty extreme angle on the floor where it connects to outside - will a prehung door be able to handle that?

And no, have not done this kind of work before, I'm pretty good at picking up things with my hands, but simpler is definitely better!
Mariah M
Original Author
3 years ago
Here's the wider shots.

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