The New Door

Downstairs in our basement, we have a full size door that leads to the outside. The door had problems: It wasn't an exterior grade door at all. It was a bi-fold closet door that is perhaps an inch thick with a hollow core. So, it goes without saying the basement got very cold during winter times. Last winter, the temperature in the basement probably got down to 42 to 45 degrees.


This had to be fixed.


After a little homework at the home improvement stores, I quickly found that a 48 inch wide door is difficult to locate. Whenever I did find this odd sized door, it cost upwards of $800. I think it's ridiculous to pay that amount of money on a door we rarely see and use.


In the spirit of attempting to save lots of money, I decided to make a new door myself. I bought $32 worth of lumbar and insulation, and got to work. I made a door which is essentially just a 2 x 4 wall with insulation between the panels. It all mounted on the 4 hinges from the old bi-fold. It works very nicely.

As a bonus, I was able to use an old barn latch from Dad's old barn. This is the door latch that was on the man door from the west galley into the hog lot. In the old barn, you had to reach your hand through a hole in the door above the latch, and fiddle with the latch without seeing it. I'm happy I'm able to make good use of the old barn latch on our house.