Will putting a storm door over a metal door wreck it?

[Hom Sack]

The front entrance door to our new house is apparently made of metal
(steel?). I'm told by a friend and a neighbor that I shouldn't install
a storm door in front of it because the air trapped between will heat up
sufficiently that the metal door will warp. According to the friend,
the metal door has enough insulation that a storm door isn't necessary.

Is this true? If not, are there other reasons why a storm door is not
needed?

Thanks,
Hom
--
h...@sackr.cambridge.ma.us Hom Sack
h...@merk.com 64 Griswold Street
hs...@k12.ucs.umass.edu Cambridge, MA 02138-1012
+1.617.868.4412 U.S.A.

[Unidexter]

On Wed, 28 Dec 1994, Hom Sack wrote:

> ..........I'm told by a friend and a neighbor that I shouldn't install

> a storm door in front of it because the air trapped between will heat up
> sufficiently that the metal door will warp. According to the friend,
> the metal door has enough insulation that a storm door isn't necessary.
>
> Is this true? If not, are there other reasons why a storm door is not
> needed?

I doubt very much that it is true. We had a steel front door in our last
house and when we moved in (we were the first owners of the newly
constructed house) the first thing I did was put storm doors on both the
front (steel door with no lights) and the rear door (steel colonial door
with 9 pane double insulated half light). We lived in the house for more
than 17 years and the doors were in the same condition (as far as
warping) as when we moved in.

I suppose they were needed because shortly after they moved in our new
neighbors (all 76 of them) had storm doors installed over their insulated
steel front doors. This was also true in all of the other subdivisions
in the area where the homes were usually built with the same type of
door. (Ours was a Pease brand door, and the only maintenance it required
while we lived in the house was the replacement of the rubber weather
stripping on the bottom of the door.) The house was located in Central
NJ north of Princeton in the Sourland Mountains so we had extremes of
weather both hot and cold.

[-Kendell,D.W.]

>(steel?). I'm told by a friend and a neighbor that I shouldn't install

>a storm door in front of it because the air trapped between will heat up
>sufficiently that the metal door will warp. According to the friend,

Only worry about this if the door is on the S. side & even then possibly
only the color is a concern. On our last home we did have a S. facing
BLACK steel door covered by a glass storm door. The steel door did get
slight "waves" in the metal but the overall shape and seal of door was
acceptable. Anything we hung on the door(decorations, wreaths) got baked.

dan.k...@att.com

[Reg Giekes]

In a previous posting, Hom Sack (h...@merk.com) writes:
> The front entrance door to our new house is apparently made of metal
> (steel?). I'm told by a friend and a neighbor that I shouldn't install
> a storm door in front of it because the air trapped between will heat up
> sufficiently that the metal door will warp. According to the friend,
> the metal door has enough insulation that a storm door isn't necessary.
>
> Is this true? If not, are there other reasons why a storm door is not
> needed?
>

I do not know what the experts say but I had a steel door in my previous
house and I had an aluminium storm door installed. We lived in that house
for ten years and never had any problems with either the steel or the
storm doors. The one thing to note though was the steel door would get
very hot (almost impossible to touch) during the summer. We solved that
problem by always leaving the window on the storm door open a bit.

The house that we are now in also had steel doors and I have installed
aluminium storm doors on both the front and the side doors. This was five
years ago and there have not been any problems. We have not had the heat
problem with these doors as one door faces north and the other east
whereas in the other house, the door faced west and got a lot of afternoon
sun.

We like the aluminium storm doors as it opens up the hallways and lets
light in so it is not so dark all the time.

Hope this helps.

--
aw181
Reginald (Reg) A. Giekes
Stittsville, Ontario, Canada

[Kirk Biglione]

Has anyone out there ever built a greenhouse? If so, what kind of
permits are needed? How much does a project like this cost? Is it
advisable to work with a contractor, or can I do most of the work
myself?

Any suggestions, advice, anecdotes, etc., will be greatly appreciated.

[Larry T. Suddarth]

When I got steel doors (all with lights) installed, I was told
not to put aluminum storm doors over them as the heated, trapped
air would trash the seals around the lights. So far, I'm still
debating whether to install the storm doors or not but the main
determining factor right now is the problem involved with
painting the storm doors to match.

Larry
--

Larry T. Suddarth...University of Virginia...Physics Department
205 McCormick Road...Charlottesville, VA 22904

[Pete Gregory]

ki...@ix.netcom.com (Kirk Biglione) writes:

This will sound overly-simplistic, but I advise:

1. buy several Sunset/Ortho/what-have-you books on Greenhouses, and start
reading and looking at pictures.

2. get greenhouse catalogs from the ads in the back of Sunset, Home, etc.

3. begin to decide what you want to build.
a. if it looks like too big a job, hire a contractor for all
or part of the job.
b. if it looks like you can do it, go for it!

Pete

Pete Gregory, at home

Internet: pe...@morhila.wa.com

It may be rice wine to you, but it's sake to me.