New garage side door in pre-existing opening?

greensalad

Need to rip out our old garage side door (timber stable door style) and replace. Both door and frame are rotted out. Brickwork is fine though.

How hard is this for somewhat novice DIYers if buying a door with frame? Been reading the fitting instructions and it doesn’t seem so bad. 

https://www.lathamssteeldoors.co.uk/doors-gs/budget-steel-door-1/?gclid=CjwKCAiA3KefBhByEiwAi2LDHPEnwj6c0PGmP5sYDXbqbQ0UKUDy4DjjLJedU6omwfNulyKmJx6VaxoCBewQAvD_BwE

Looking at this door which is about £500 inc VAT once upgraded on some parts. I was going to get a quote from my builder but he doesn’t tend to quote less than £150 for any job and I’m guessing this is a two man effort so maybe more. Wondering if myself and my partner can get it done.

FreeBear

greensalad said: How hard is this for somewhat novice DIYers if buying a door with frame? Been reading the fitting instructions and it doesn’t seem so bad. 

https://www.lathamssteeldoors.co.uk/doors-gs/budget-steel-door-1

Ooooo... I got one of them....

Not too difficult to fit, but the frame does have quite a bit of flex in it, so easy to twist out of shape. The door is a bit on the heavy side, so lifting on to the hinges can be a bit of a struggle.

Oh, and the steel facing on the door is not particularly thick - Very easy to put a ding in it if you are not too careful. Solid door though, and it locks with a satisfying thunk.

ThisIsWeird

How good a fit will it be? Will it require a timber frame/filler?

greensalad

FreeBear said:

greensalad said: How hard is this for somewhat novice DIYers if buying a door with frame? Been reading the fitting instructions and it doesn’t seem so bad. 

https://www.lathamssteeldoors.co.uk/doors-gs/budget-steel-door-1

Ooooo... I got one of them....

Not too difficult to fit, but the frame does have quite a bit of flex in it, so easy to twist out of shape. The door is a bit on the heavy side, so lifting on to the hinges can be a bit of a struggle.

Oh, and the steel facing on the door is not particularly thick - Very easy to put a ding in it if you are not too careful. Solid door though, and it locks with a satisfying thunk.

Yeah I was reading the fitting instructions and it mentions not warping the frame. But it looks like it suggests fitting the frame without the steel door on and making lots of adjustments to check it's plumb. And then when putting the door on checking its closing properly. So I'm hopeful it'll just be a case of tightening it up bit by bit and not using too much force on either side which would cause it to warp?

On the other hand I'm wondering if I can find anyone local to supply and fit. I presume a basic door like this is easy stock for most of them and they would obviously have a preferential rate on it, which might negate most of the fitting cost. Need to do some research locally. 

ThisIsWeird said:

How good a fit will it be? Will it require a timber frame/filler?

So the brickwork opening is 2050mm tall x 860mm wide. The door linked above I can purchase as 2020mm tall x 845mm wide. So that leaves me with gaps on each side of 7.5mm which seems fine. However it does leave me with a 30mm gap at the top. I think that should be fine? My current opening doesn't have any bottom brickwork or frame, so the door is going to sit directly on the concrete that forms the garage base and then have a 30mm gap at the top. I planned to purchase expanding foam to fill the additional gaps and then buy the upgraded security lippings for both inside and out which as I understand will cover these gaps. 

The fixing kit comes with some shims and some filler plates to sit around the screws. 

Perhaps there's an easy way for me to bulk up the bottom so that I don't have a full 30mm at the top and have something closer to 7mm like the sides?

greensalad

Scratch that, it looks like according to their calculator I should purchase a smaller door and then include expanding side and top panels to make it a better fit. So I should be able to expand the frame out to fit just right. 

FreeBear

greensalad said: So the brickwork opening is 2050mm tall x 860mm wide. The door linked above I can purchase as 2020mm tall x 845mm wide. So that leaves me with gaps on each side of 7.5mm which seems fine. However it does leave me with a 30mm gap at the top. I think that should be fine?

Had a gap at the top of my frame - Just filled it with a fillet of mortar. The sides were a tight fit, and I needed to cut some of the brickwork back a tad.

greensalad

FreeBear said:

greensalad said: So the brickwork opening is 2050mm tall x 860mm wide. The door linked above I can purchase as 2020mm tall x 845mm wide. So that leaves me with gaps on each side of 7.5mm which seems fine. However it does leave me with a 30mm gap at the top. I think that should be fine?

Had a gap at the top of my frame - Just filled it with a fillet of mortar. The sides were a tight fit, and I needed to cut some of the brickwork back a tad.

Hey, I just wrote another comment about filler pieces. Apparently I can purchase a frame with expanding filler pieces that I can push out with provided lugs to get it to fit snug, so I shouldn't need anything to fill (I might still buy expanding foam though just in case).