REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR YOUR LARSON STORM DOOR We are committed to helping you find parts quickly and easily for your LARSON storm door. Locate your registration number on the hinge rail and enter below. SEARCH Parts by ImageEvery day I run into people that have a simple problem with their storm door that is causing a lot of frustration. If you are one of those people struggling with how to fix your storm door, or don’t know why it is doing what it is doing, then this page is for you. Here I address some of the common problems people experience with their doors and simple solutions to fix them. And if it’s not really a problem, I’ll tell you that too. My storm door won’t close and latch on it’s own with the entry door closed. This is one of a storm door’s most common problems. I can’t tell you have many people have argued with me about doors closing and latching on their own when the primary (or entry) door is closed before the storm door closes.
From an attorney threatening to sue, builders and general contractors asking me if I’ve ever installed a storm door, to a scientist who actually installed 6 (yes, 6!) door closer pistons on his door in an effort to get the storm door to close and latch on it’s own, this problem drives type A personalities insane. But it’s really not a problem at all … in fact it’s simple physics. Here’s how the problem starts. You leave through the front door and pull it shut behind you. You hold the storm door open; maybe with your foot or back while you lock the entry door. When done, you get out of the way and let the storm door close on it’s own. But it when it closes, it doesn’t latch. It’s stays open slightly. Now the Type A personality spends the next 4 days adjusting the speed of the door closer(s), trying to find the scientifically accurate balance to make the door close and latch on it’s own. If this is you … stop. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack or a stroke.
There are bigger things to worry about in life. Here’s whats going on. Assuming you have an all glass door (or the screen is not down), as the storm door closes it begins to build pressure between the glass and the entry door. Normally, a storm door will close about halfway, the closers (or pistons) then kick in and slow the door down a bit, and then it closes the rest of the way. But it won’t latch at the end. As the storm door is closing, it forces the air that’s trapped between the two doors out. But there comes a point when the air can’t escape fast enough, so it builds up pressure and pushes back on the storm door and the glass, and that pressure build up forces the storm door to stay open. In the end, the air pressure wins and the storm door remains unlocked. That’s why a storm door won’t latch if the entry door is closed first, and the reason you have to push it shut in order to get it to latch. Want to fix that? Well, you have 3 options (ranked in order from hardest to easiest):
Sounds absurd, but in my experience people have demanded it. Put a screen in the storm door or open the window. This will break the pressure seal and allow the door to close and latch on its own. How much you have to leave the window open depends on the storm door, layout of your house, wind direction, how plumb and level your entry door is, what day of the week it is, what season, and a myriad of other factors you don’t control. Just remember to push the storm door shut when you leave. If that’s the biggest problem you have to deal with every day, you’re doing great! About Best Sellers in Storm Doors These lists, updated hourly, contain bestselling items. Here you can discover the best Storm Doors in Amazon Best Sellers, and find the top 100 most popular Amazon Storm Doors.An attractively painted storm door gives a good first impression. The storm door is the first thing people see when they look at your house, so it needs to look good. The easiest way to do that is to simply paint the door.
It's always important to prime before painting, but even more so when you're painting a metal door, because paint will readily flake off unprimed metal. Both primer and paint level more easily on a horizontal surface, so you should take down the door before painting. Spraying gives the best results, but you can get very good results with a paintbrush and the right technique. Remove the door by first unscrewing the door closer -- if it has one -- with a screwdriver; you can leave the door closer attached to the jamb. Unscrew the door hinges, remove the door from the frame, and lay it flat on a pair of sawhorses. Brush off dust, cobwebs and loose dirt with a clean paintbrush; then scrape off any loose paint with a paint scraper or wire brush. Wipe the metal with a rag moistened with denatured alcohol to remove the greasy film that metal surfaces acquire over time. Turn the door over when you've finished one side and clean the other side in the same way. Cover both sides of any window or screen in the door with masking paper and painter's tape.
Make a clean line with the outside edge of the tape and press down firmly to prevent paint from seeping underneath it. Fill dents with auto body filler. Scrape the filler flat with a plastic putty knife; then sand it with 100- to 150-grit sandpaper. When all the dents are filled, scuff-sand the rest of the door with 220-grit sandpaper. Be sure to work on both sides of the door. Prime the door with metal primer. The easiest way to do this is to spray the primer from an aerosol can. Let the primer dry before turning the door over and spraying the other side, which usually only takes about 10 minutes. Spread a coat of paint on one side of the door. Spread latex paint with a synthetic-bristle brush; use a natural-bristle brush for oil-based paint. Stroke along the length of the door, as if the door were made of wood, and you are brushing with the grain. Wait two hours for the paint to dry; then turn the door over and paint the other side. Let the first coat of paint dry overnight, then scuff-sand it with 220-grit sandpaper.