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ericmacwright

Exterior door installed without support

ericmacwright
3 years ago

I have an 30" exterior door installed in my basement wall that I was thinking about replacing with something more energy efficient. I hadn't paid much attention to it up until yesterday when I realized that when it was originally installed (at least 10 years ago, before I owned the home) they didn't do it correctly. I read that you're supposed to take the door measurements, cut a little extra on the sides, a small amount extra on the top, and install a lintel to support the weight from above (should span 300 mm beyond the rough opening). The person who installed this door cut all of the block out from the foundation to the bottom of the sill plate, and didn't support the floor joists above it. Those joists run perpendicular to the wall, so there's a floor joist sitting directly in the middle of the opening, which is bowing the sill plate. What's the correct/best way to fix this?

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