Entry Door Replacement in North St. Paul, MN
The front door on your North St. Paul house is shorter than the ones at the store, and the last person who looked at it said it would have to be custom.
Reply within one business day. Or call / text 763-250-3621.
Entry door replacement in North St. Paul MN often runs into an odd size: a 1940s–60s rambler or story-and-a-half with a front door 78 inches tall or 32 inches wide under a low overhang. JMB Builders measures the opening, orders a prehung unit in the odd height or reframes the header for a standard door, and sets it in a sill pan. Priced per door. Send photos and we reply within one business day, or book a free in-home estimate.
- Priced per door, prehung unit included
- Odd heights and widths ordered to fit
- Reframe to a standard door where the header allows
Most of North St. Paul went up between the 1940s and the 1960s, and the front doors on those ramblers, story-and-a-halfs and small two-stories were often 6 feet 6 inches tall instead of today's 6 feet 8, and 30 or 32 inches wide instead of 36. Add a low roof overhang over the stoop and a header that sits right under it, and a standard prehung door from a store does not fit. The original slab has shrunk, the threshold is worn hollow, and light shows at the corners.
There are two ways to go. The first is to order the prehung unit in the odd height and width. Door makers build to size, so a 78-inch door is a custom order in the same styles as a standard one, with a longer lead time. The second is to reframe: if there is room above the header, the opening is raised to take a standard 80-inch door, which costs framing time but opens up every stock door and shortens the wait. We measure the header and the overhang and tell you which is possible before you pick a door.
Either way the install is the same: old unit out, sill and subfloor checked and soft wood replaced, a sill pan with flashing tape, the new unit shimmed plumb and screwed through the hinge jamb, foamed and sealed, strike and weatherstrip adjusted. Narrow lots mean the ladder work at the head is planned at the measure. North St. Paul is a scheduled full-day trip from Zimmerman. Painting is quoted as a separate line — or leave it primed and caulked and paint it yourself.
Get a written quote for this job
Three photos and a sentence is enough: a reply within one business day, or ask for a free in-home estimate. Or text the photos to 763-250-3621.
What you supply
- Door style, material, glass and color
- Hardware finish, or your own lockset and deadbolt
- Photos of the door from outside showing the overhang, from inside, and the threshold up close
- The width and height of the door slab, measured edge to edge
What JMB supplies
- Measurement of the opening, header and overhang, and the prehung order, with options such as Masonite, Therma-Tru or ProVia
- A custom-height unit, or the opening reframed for a standard door, whichever the header allows
- Old door, frame and threshold removed and hauled away
- Sill, subfloor and jamb-foot rot repaired as found
- Sill pan, flashing tape, low-expansion foam and exterior sealant
- Unit set plumb, screwed into framing, strike and weatherstrip adjusted
- Brickmould outside, casing inside, and photos in your job folder
How it is priced: per door
Quoted in writing from your photos, with a reply within one business day. What moves the number:
- Custom height and width vs. reframing the opening for a standard door
- Steel vs. fiberglass, glass and finish
- Header and siding work when the opening is raised
- Rot at the sill and jamb feet once the old unit is out
- Exterior trim against stucco, brick or lap siding
- Handleset, deadbolt or smart lock
- Painting, quoted as a separate line
Send the slab width and height and a photo of the door from outside that shows how much wall is between the top of the door and the overhang. That tells us which route is open.
How long it takes
A custom-height door in a sound opening: about a day on site, with a longer lead time on the order. Reframing for a standard door adds half a day of framing and siding work.
How your project works
- 1
Send photos, get a written quote
Send three photos of the space and a sentence about what you want. You get a clear, itemized reply within one business day. Prefer a look in person? A free in-home estimate is always an option.
- 2
Pick materials, or bring your own
We help you choose profiles and materials that fit the house and the budget, or match your existing millwork exactly — or you buy the door or trim yourself and we install it. Everything is confirmed before the crew is scheduled.
- 3
Clean, precise installation
The crew shows up on time, protects floors and furniture, and installs with tight joints and consistent reveals. Photos of the finished work go in your job folder.
- 4
Walkthrough and invoice
We walk the finished work with you. If anything is not right, we fix it before we call the job done. Then one invoice, paid by check or direct deposit — no card fees, no payment links.
Entry Door Replacement in North St. Paul, MN: questions, answered
My North St. Paul front door is shorter than standard. Can it be replaced?
Yes, two ways. A prehung unit can be built to the odd height and width in the same styles as a standard door, with a longer lead time. Or, if there is room above the header, the opening is raised to take a standard 80-inch door. We measure the header and the overhang and tell you which is possible before you pick.
What does a custom-height front door cost compared to a standard one?
More, and it waits longer, because it is built to order rather than pulled from stock. How much more depends on the material and glass. Reframing costs framing and siding time instead. The quote shows both when both are possible, so you compare them on your own door.
Can a 32-inch front door be made wider?
Usually. Going from 32 to 36 inches means cutting the opening wider, moving a stud and extending the header, then patching the siding and interior wall. It is a framing job on top of the door and is quoted as its own line. On a narrow entry wall there may not be room, which the measure will show.
Is a permit needed to replace a front door in North St. Paul?
The City of North St. Paul building department sets that rule. Changing the size of the opening, which raising or widening it does, is the usual trigger in most cities; a same-size swap is often handled differently. We check for your address and pull the permit when one is needed.
Why does light show at the top corners of my old door?
The slab has shrunk and warped over decades, the hinges have sagged, and the weatherstrip, if any, has packed flat. On an out-of-square postwar frame no amount of adjusting closes it. A new prehung unit set plumb with compression weatherstrip closes the gaps at all four sides.
Can the front door go on the same trip as my windows?
Yes. North St. Paul is a scheduled full-day trip from Zimmerman, so the door goes on the same order as the windows in a matching color and is installed during the same visit.
Recent JMB work, from our job log
59 installs recorded across 30 Twin Cities communities since Dec 2025. Window and door installs for homeowners and the builders we work with. Counts come straight from our job log; no customer names.
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Read morePage reviewed October 27, 2026 · JMB Builders LLC, MN license BC809005 · All by city pages
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