Do-it-yourself metal entrance doors - reality or utopia

If the prospect of welding works scares you less than the price tags on the metal entrance doors - with your own hands you can make it for your home just as well. And when compared with Chinese consumer goods, it is also much more reliable.

The following detailed instructions will help you cope with this task. It would seem that the choice on the market is so huge that there is no need to do it yourself. But for many, this process itself can be very interesting, and the opportunity to save plays a significant role.

However, in order to cope with this difficult job, one desire is not enough. At a minimum, you need to have at least some skills in welding and have the necessary tools.

What you need to find out before starting work

To understand where to start work, what materials you will need for this and in what quantity, you need to carefully examine the opening. Often, in the houses of the old building, the entrance doors are held “on parole”: if you pull out the box, it turns out that there was a void between it and the main wall, sealed with plaster.

Therefore, it is necessary to clean the doorway to its real size in order to determine the size and design of the future door (see Dimensions of metal doors: what is important to know). If the opening is standard (in our realities it is about 900x2000 mm), it will not be so difficult to do it yourself.

If it is much wider, you will have to weld an additional metal frame and fix it to the side of the door. If the opening is higher, then the additional frame is welded above the box. If desired, you can insert shockproof or armored glass into it.

Having received all the dimensions you are interested in, make a detailed design drawing of the future metal door and count the required amount of materials.

Tools and materials

We assume that the dimensions of the opening are standard.

In this case, you will need:

• Steel sheet 1000x2000 mm in size and 2 mm thick.
• The profile pipe 50x25 mm - 9 items.m. Of these, 6 rm. for the manufacture of boxes and 2-3 pm for stiffeners.
• Steel corner 32x32 mm - 6 items.m. for the door frame.

For reference. Metal corners and profiled pipe are sold with whole whips of 3 or 6 meters. Consider this when buying, so as not to have to weld one part of two elements. Get with a stock.

• Hinges (see hinges for metal doors - the nuances of choice).
• Locks and door handles.
• Construction foam.
• Anchor or metal rods (fittings) for fastening the box in the opening.

In addition, you will need cladding materials, decorative bolts, paint for metal and foam for insulation.

Required tools:

1. Welding machine
2. Drill
3. Bulgarian disk on metal
4. Screwdriver
5. Tape measure, square, file and other hand tools

For work, prepare a comfortable table with a smooth surface and of sufficient size to work on. To fix parts on it, you will need clamps.

Metal door manufacturing

So:

1. Once again measure the width and height of the opening and cut from the pipework billet box, necessarily taking into account technological gaps about 15 mm wide, which should remain between the box and the wall.
2. So that you don’t have to turn off the ends of the pipe, connect the details of the box "on the mustache", that is, by cutting off the ends at an angle of 45 degrees.
3. First weld the cuts. and make sure that the box has the correct shape by measuring the diagonals - they should be equal, and the corners straight. Only then weld the box completely and sand the seams.
4. Weld to the box metal plates, through which it will be attached to the wall, drill or burn into them mounting holes. And you can paint.

1. Remove the internal dimensions from the finished box and using the same technology, weld the frame from the corners, while remembering that technological gaps must also be left between the box and the canvas. In order for it to open and close well, the gaps on the hinge side must be at least 5 mm.
2. Cut stiffeners from ribbed and weld them into the frame of the corners at an equal distance from each other.
3. Put a sheet of metal on the table, and on it - a finished frame from the corners. Draw the outline of the door, leaving the issues: on the hinge side, the release should be 5 mm, on all other sides - 10 mm.
4. Fix on the grinder disk on metal and cut out the door leaf for the future entrance door. The remaining burrs after cutting off file.
5. Put the frame back in place and weld the cut sheet to it.

Metal entrance door with his hands ready. Now you need to equip it with hinges, locks, handles (see. Handles for entrance doors, choose the most appropriate), well insulate and hang in place.

Installation of locks and handles

Put the door frame on the table and put the door leaf into it, placing under it the lining of that thickness, which will be the thickness of the seal. Place a 5 mm gap between the door frame and the hinged side of the box and weld the hinges.

Attention! To the box you need to weld a part of the loop with a pin, pointing it up. The frame of the hinges is welded to the frame.

Put the assembled door vertically and engage in sidebar locks. To do this, first cut in the corner of the hole, which will enter the locks. Insert them into these holes and mark the attachment points. Drill them and cut the thread.

Temporarily set the locks in their places and mark on the canvas the places of exit of the larvae and squares of the handles. Remove the locks, make the necessary holes, squandering them to the desired size, and return the locks to their place.

Rub the ends of the crossbars and the tongues of the locks with chalk and make marks on the counterpart of the door frame. Drill holes, install strips and lock pads.

We warm the metal door

In order for your metal entrance door with your own hands to be warm and not to let sounds and smells into the house from the outside, you need to warm it (see How to warm the metal door with your hands: we do it wisely). To do this, you need foam, mounting foam and tape sealer, which is glued around the perimeter of the door.

Cut the foam into size and place it between the stiffeners. It is better if it will be solid pieces of expanded foam.

Warming of a metal door with polyfoam

Council The door will be warmer if the foam is glued to the inside surface of the door on the mounting foam. She also needs to fill the gaps between the pieces of foam and foam and stiffeners.

But foam alone is not enough. If the door goes out, it will freeze in those places where the stiffeners are located. Therefore, drill holes in the pipe of the mounting gun and fill them with foam.

It remains to glue on the perimeter of the door seal of the desired thickness. It will not only save you from drafts, but also improve the thermal insulation and sound insulation of the entrance door.

Fill the inside of the door with plywood, MDF panels, wooden slats or other facing finishing materials (see Finishing metal doors - create your own style) by fastening them through pre-drilled holes with decorative bolts. Stick a decorative corner around the perimeter.

The outer side of the door can be revetted in the same way or painted, removing the handles and lining.

It remains to install the finished door together with the box in the opening, securing it with anchor bolts through the holes in the mounting plates. The final stage is zapenivanie gaps between the box and the walls of the opening and the installation of platbands.