Rambler Front Door Replacement — Low Stoop, Door Into the Living Room

Ramblers from the 1950s through the 1970s share an entry. The door sits under the low eave of the main roof, often with a small overhang that keeps some weather off. It is one step up from a concrete stoop, sometimes with iron railings. A fixed sidelite stands beside it, or a narrow window. And it opens directly into the living room; there is no foyer, so every time the door opens in January the living room gets the cold. The original door is wood, often with three small stepped lites or a half-moon, and after sixty years the bottom rail is soft, the glass is single pane and the frame leaks.

The new door is chosen for that room behind it. An insulated fiberglass or steel prehung unit, from options such as Therma-Tru, ProVia, Masonite or JELD-WEN, with a half lite in obscure glass if you want light without putting the living room on view, or a small high lite or solid door if you want the warmest door and let the sidelite do the lighting. Styles that fit the house: a flat or shaker face, a three-lite stepped layout that nods to the original, or a modern narrow-lite door on a rambler that has been updated. The sidelite is replaced with the door as one unit so the mull and the trim line up, with the same glass. A storm door is a good second layer on an entry that opens into the living room, and we size it to the new frame.

The opening is usually straightforward: a standard door width in a frame wall, with a wood or aluminum threshold on a concrete stoop. The install is sill pan, flashing lapped to the housewrap or behind the brick, frame plumb, foam, sealant, and trim. Outside that means brickmould or flat trim fitted to the lap siding or the brick wainscot ramblers often have at the entry. Painting is quoted as a separate line — or leave it primed and caulked and paint it yourself.