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Garage entry door help

goalieump | Posted in Construction Techniques on March 29, 2009 07:50am

I’m replacing an old, wooden garage entry door to our backyard.  The current door is 30″ wide and has no sill.  The garage foundation is just notched out flush with the slab floor that acts as the sill.

I bought a 32″ steel pre hung entry door with a sill attached.  Here’s my dilemma.  If I install the door as built from the factory, the sill rises up from the garage floor over an inch.  It also protrudes from the building a bit, which I need to compensate for outside.

Can I remove the sill, lowering the door so that the concrete floor acts as the sill?  Or should I keep the sill installed and rest the door’s sill on the floor?  I was entertaining cutting out a notch in the concrete floor to accept the sill, lowering the whole door by a bit, but that’s a lot of work.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Jesse

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  1. calvin | Mar 29, 2009 08:08pm | #1

    I would leave the threshold on the frame, hack whack cut and form up what's necessary to continuously support that threshold in the opening.  Seal from water intrusion.

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  2. Piffin | Mar 29, 2009 08:55pm | #2

    You can remove that thres and shorten your jamb legs if you like that look, but it is not weather proof.

    I see a larger problem though. You have a 32" door for a 30" rough openning. That means a lot of work reframing, esp if this is a load bearing wall.

     

     

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  3. DanH | Mar 30, 2009 12:36am | #3

    It isn't pretty, but you can generally let a metal sill overhang the edge of a slab by an inch or so with no serious ill effects. Or you can Tapcon a piece of PT 2x to the side of the slab to support the edge of the sill.

    I can't see any point in lowering the sill into the slab unless you need a flat surface for accessibility reasons. And cutting off the bottom of a steel prehung would present its own problems.

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  4. User avater
    Ted W. | Mar 30, 2009 01:26am | #4

    Hi GoalieUmp, and welcome to BreakTime! =)

    I've done a few jobs like what you describe, and I've gone both ways. Removing the sill and cutting the bottom from the jambs is okay, but in your case you have to modify the rough framing anyway, so may as well make it taller as well. As for the sill protruding, I like to form a little concrete bump-out to support the sill. Clean the area of the slab, where the new concret will be added, with muriatic acid, and drive a half dozen tapcons half way (sticking out an inch or so), then pour your concrete around that.

    ~ Ted W ~

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    1. goalieump | Mar 30, 2009 08:07pm | #5

      Thanks for all your good suggestions.

      Update - I installed the door with the sill attached yesterday, gluing it down to the slab and all.  I had to cut out a chunk of the foundation wall to build out the rough opening to 34".  Unfortunately, the jamb side studs were out of plumb enough that a thick stack of shims had to be use progressively towards the bottom.

      The brick mold just covers the opening, so I'm going to have to add some flashing underneath the brick mold to help seal off the area to unwanted critters.

      I think I'm also going to add a piece of PT 2X to the edge of the slab outside to support the sill overhang.  Right now, I have a stack of concrete blocks buried in the ground, but ice could heave them and I don't like that idea one bit.

      Thanks again everyone...

      1. Piffin | Mar 31, 2009 01:26am | #6

        now throw two arms straight up in the airGoal! 

         

        Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

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