How to Buy Replacement Wood Shed Doors for Your Backyard Storage Shed
Generally speaking, shed doors are the first problem you’ll have with your shed (other than Mother Nature). It makes sense since your shed doors are the only moving part of your shed and they open and close many times during use.
If you bought your shed from one of the big box stores, you will have problems with the shed doors sooner rather than later because of the way they are built.
Sheds sold by big box home improvement stores are shipped by the manufacturer on tractor trailers and all the bits and pieces of the shed need to fit in a nice box so they are lighter and take up less space to reduce shipping costs and make them easy to load and unload.
In terms of quality, the element that suffers the most are the doors. They need them to be as light as possible and to fit flat in the box; therefore, many shortcuts are taken that give the shed buyer a weak set of doors that will fail sooner rather than later.
Shortcuts include; using weak trim pieces like the actual door frame framing, only using staples to attach the door liner to the trim and not using a full 2×2″ or 2×4″ frame on the inside of the doors for added strength.
As your shed ages and sits in your backyard space, the shed floor becomes uneven, resulting in doors that are difficult to open. The shed owner must use more force to open and close the doors, which loosens the staples and nails that hold the doors together. Note: The shed builder is trained to add screws to the factory built door for added strength, but they rarely do this and if they do, they use too much force and turn the screws, resulting in no holding force. subjection.
As staples and nails loosen, door seams and trim begin to pull apart further, making it even more difficult to open and close doors. It takes even more force and before you know it, the doors are falling apart.
Most large sheds come with a warranty and you can replace the doors. Most warranty claims are not scheduled properly and it will take a lot of calls to get your new doors. The squeaky wheel will get the grease in this case, so be diligent about your complaints.
The bad news; the replacement doors will be the exact replica of the existing doors and the same problems you have will reoccur. There is no warranty on replacement doors, so be prepared to spend around $500.00 on OEM doors.
The good news; You can buy replacement doors online that are better than the doors that came with the shed and are easy to get and install yourself.
The first step is to measure the vertical and horizontal door opening (also called rough opening) of your shed. Use your tape measure and measure from the bottom of the header to the floor. This is your vertical measurement. The header is the piece of lumber (usually 2×4) that sits above the door opening. Could be a 2×6 if you have a larger shed. Then measure your horizontal width from the stud (usually a 2×4, also called a cat stud) on one side of the opening to the stud on the other side. This is your horizontal measurement.
On cheaper sheds, the jack stud may be 2×3 (which is fine) or the door opening may not have 2×4 studs on both sides. If this is the case, you can easily add a beam(s). Measure the length of the cut to fit and nail the new stud.
Once you have your measurements, you can shop online and find the best deal. At the time of this writing, there are only 2 companies that manufacture and ship wood replacement shed doors. Both companies are reputable, make a superior shed door to the one it will replace, and both ship UPS. All you have to do is find the best deal.
