Therma-Tru Three-Lite Glass Door on a Sarasota Lap-Siding Home

This Sarasota porch got a white three-lite glass door. The Therma-Tru labels are still on the glass, and a fan still sits on the porch floor. It is a single photo, but it shows most of what matters on a door in a frame home with lap siding.

Start with the hinges. Three hinge knuckles show on the right side, from the porch. That means the door swings out. In Florida that is a real advantage: under hurricane wind, an outswing door presses into its stops and weatherstripping instead of being pushed away from them, and wind-driven rain has a harder time getting past the bottom. The trade-off is that the door has to clear the porch, and the hinge pins need to be non-removable or secured, which is standard on good outswing units.

The hardware is a matte black lever with a separate deadbolt. The glass is clear, divided into three lites by solid rails, so the room behind gets light from the porch and the yard. Around the door, wide white flat trim sits over lap siding with a wood-grain texture, and the head trim runs straight into the porch ceiling boards. The threshold sits on a concrete step.

On a frame wall with lap siding, the door is only as good as the flashing behind the trim. On jobs like this we tie the door flange or frame into the house wrap shingle-style, put a sill pan under the threshold, and add head flashing so water running down the siding is kicked out over the trim, not behind it. Trim-to-siding joints get sealant, but sealant is the last line of defense, not the first. And because the door carries a product approval, the anchors go into solid framing at the spacing it lists.

Before you hire anyone for a glass door in Sarasota, ask: Is this unit rated for my design pressure, and is the glass impact-rated? Inswing or outswing, and why? How will you flash it on lap siding? Is a sill pan included?

Prestigious Home Improvements is a family-owned, licensed contractor (CRC1327831) in Port Charlotte, installing entry doors and impact doors across Sarasota and Southwest Florida. Call for a free in-home estimate.