A storm door lets a Gwinnett household open the front door on a spring morning without letting in the pollen, the mosquitoes, or the dog, and it shields an expensive entry door from the afternoon sun and the summer downpours. A screen door does the same job for a back porch or a kitchen door. Both are only as good as the installation: a storm door hung out of square drags on the threshold, rattles in the wind, and never quite latches on its own.
Choosing the door
Full-view storm doors have one large glass panel that swaps for a screen panel when the weather turns. Ventilating doors have glass that slides down to open a screen at the top. Retractable-screen doors hide a roll-up screen inside the frame, so glass and screen are both always there. Aluminum frames are the standard, and a heavier frame holds up better on a back door that a busy family uses all day, from Grayson to Duluth. Colors are usually chosen to match the entry door or the trim.
Measuring and hanging
Storm doors are sold to fit standard entry openings, so the opening is measured between the brick molding at the top, middle, and bottom, because few Gwinnett door openings are perfectly square after twenty or thirty years. The door hangs on a hinge rail screwed to the hinge side of the opening, a drip cap goes across the top, and the sweep at the bottom is adjusted to seal against the threshold. The closer is set so the door shuts firmly without slamming, and a wind chain or the closer's hold-open stop keeps a gust from bending the door back past its frame.
Screen doors, closers, and repairs
Wood screen doors for porches and back doors hang on spring hinges or a closer, with a latch and a kick plate where the dog pushes through. Existing storm doors get new closers, new sweeps, replacement screens, and adjusted latches, and a damaged storm door can be swapped for a new one in the same opening. Weatherstripping on the entry door itself is its own small job, covered on the caulking and weatherstripping page.
When Gwinnett books it
Spring books up first, when the pine pollen arrives and everyone wants the doors open, and fall is the second rush once the heat breaks. In the older neighborhoods of Norcross and Lilburn, entry frames that have shifted over the years can need a shim or a filler strip before a storm door fits, which the walk-through spots before anything is ordered. The quote comes from a visit at a flat $35 dispatch fee.