Screen and storm door installation in Lititz, PA
A new screen or storm door in Lititz is typically $200–$300 plus the $30 service charge.
New screen and storm doors hung and adjusted, and old ones put right: closers, latches, hinges, sagging frames and torn screen.
What it costs
| Job | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Screen or storm door | $200–$300 |
$30 service charge. Covers the trip and the first look. Applies once per visit, including the preset jobs.
Materials are extra, at cost, with the receipt. The full rate sheet has the rest of the fine print.
What's included
- The opening measured in three places, the old door off, and the new frame set plumb with the hinge side shimmed
- Z-bar cut to the opening, the drip cap fitted, and the top and sides caulked while the bottom is left to drain
- Closer and safety chain adjusted so the door shuts without slamming, latch and strike aligned
- Screen and glass panels fitted and sliding, and the old door set wherever you want it
What's not
- The door and its hardware
- Rotten frames and sills. Rot gets repaired first, as carpentry, because a door hung on soft wood won't stay plumb
- Entry doors and patio doors. I hang those too, but they're quoted as their own job rather than the storm-door price
What to have ready
- The door, and the handing: which side the hinges go on and which way it swings
- The opening clear inside and out, and the old door's screws reachable
- The width and height of the opening, if you want the range before you buy
Where I do this work
Lititz, PA and anywhere within about an hour of it — Lancaster County and the towns around it.
Lititz, Manheim, Ephrata, Lancaster, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Denver, Akron.
Questions people ask
- How do I measure for a storm door?
- Width and height of the opening at the blind stop, three places each, and the smallest number is the one that counts. Standard sizes cover most openings; more than an inch or two off standard means a custom door.
- My storm door slams. Does it need replacing?
- Almost never. A closer has an adjustment screw and the chain has a stop, and both drift as the door settles. That's a short visit, not a new door.
- Can you reuse my old screen frame and just replace the mesh?
- Yes, if the frame is still straight. New mesh and new spline and it looks new. A frame that's bent or corroded at the corners isn't worth the labor of re-splining.
- Which way should the door open?
- Hinge it on the same side as the entry door behind it so the two don't fight, unless a railing, a step or the wind says otherwise. Decide before you buy, because the handing is built into the door.
How the job goes
Most of a storm door install is the first twenty minutes. I measure the opening at the top, middle and bottom, because a fifty-year-old frame usually isn’t the same width all the way down, and I shim the hinge side plumb before a single screw goes into the latch side. If you hang it to the trim instead of plumb, the door drops onto the threshold by August.
After that it’s the details that tend to get skipped. The drip cap goes on so water coming down the siding doesn’t run behind the frame. The caulk goes along the top and the sides and stops before the bottom, so anything that does get in has a way out. The closer gets turned down until the door latches without banging, and the chain stop gets set so a gust doesn’t take the door past its hinges. Most old doors just need those two adjustments, not a replacement, and I’ll tell you which before you buy one.