I currently have a single door french door leading onto my deck, which has rotted a bit and I need to replace it. I wanted to go with a sliding door to replace but, but there's a slight difference in size. The rough opening of my current door is 63×82 and most sliders are 60×80. I figured I could just use some 2x4s and 1x4s make the opening the correct size and just get slightly wider trim. Is that ok to do with an exterior door? Is there anything I'm not thinking of or any gotchas I might've missed?
Thanks for any advice, this is my first time dealing with an exterior door, so I want to make sure I'm not an idiot.
Best Answer
Yes you can put a smaller door in, going smaller is easier because the header is already there, make sure when you frame your smaller door to leave a little room and make sure it is square x measure from corner to corner. I have helped a bunch of friends that made their opening exact and could not get the new window / door in because it was not exact or there opening was not square. Extra wide trim on the outside can look like an expensive upgrade some don’t have a clue why we would do that.