Installation Guide

A door built to the opening installs faster than a stock door forced into it. Most pre-hung units set in under an hour with two people.

Pre-hung units

Dry fit the unit in the opening first. Shim behind each hinge and behind the strike, plumb the hinge jamb, then fasten through the shims. Set the reveal to a consistent one eighth inch around the slab before you drive the final screws.

Slab only

Your slab arrives with the hinge mortises and the lock bore already machined to the hardware you specified. Transfer the hinge positions from the existing jamb, hang the door on the top hinge first, then check the reveal before fastening the rest.

Out-of-square openings

If we scribed the jamb to your diagonals, the unit is marked with an orientation arrow. Install it in that orientation and the reveal comes out even even though the opening is not.

What you need

• Four foot level and a framing square
• Composite shims, not cedar, which compresses over time
• Impact driver and 3 inch structural screws
• Low-expansion foam for the perimeter on exterior units

The mistake almost everyone makes

Fastening the hinge jamb before checking that it is plumb in both planes. A jamb can be perfectly plumb side to side and still lean into the room, and a door hung on a leaning jamb will swing open or swing shut on its own no matter how the hinges are adjusted. Check plumb across the face of the jamb and along its depth before a single screw goes in.

Foam and expansion

Use low-expansion window and door foam only. Standard gap-filling foam generates enough pressure to bow a jamb inward as it cures, which pinches the slab and shows up as a door that latches in the morning and not in the afternoon. Foam after the unit is fastened and shimmed, never before.

Setting the reveal

The reveal is the gap between the slab and the jamb, and it should be an even one eighth inch all the way around. Set it with the door closed, shim behind each hinge until it holds, then check it again after the final screws are driven. A reveal that tapers top to bottom means the hinge jamb is out of plumb, not that the door is the wrong size.

Exterior units

Bed the sill in a continuous bead of sealant before setting the unit, and leave the bottom of the exterior casing unsealed so any water that gets behind it can drain out. Sealing all four sides of an exterior casing traps water in the wall, which is a much worse outcome than the leak it was meant to prevent.