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17. Adding Glass to a Front Door
from:Entry doors can be beautified with the addition of glass. Front entry doors can retain their insulating quality if you install stained glass additions on top of insulated glass. Removal of the raised wood panels should be done carefully. You don't want to cut into the flat surface areas of the door.
Not only will you add light and value to your home, but you will also get an avalanche of positive comments from friends, neighbours and anyone else who gets to see the finished product. You can also add stained glass panels to a door. If you have a traditional six-panel door, you can completely remove the top four panels, the vertical stiles and the horizontal rail. The entire process will generally take less than one day.
Keep in mind that the building code mandates that the glass in doors must be tempered. This is a safety feature that prevents serious injury in the event someone thrusts their head, hand or arm through the glass. Tempered glass does not break into shards that slice and spear; it’s the same sort of glass you have in the windshield of a car.
It is not as hard to accomplish this job as you might think. You will need a steady hand, a circular saw with a fine toothed blade, a sharp wood chisel, a hammer, a miter box, some small finish nails and a small quantity of decorative moulding. Many of these tools you might already own. If not, you can rent the circular saw and purchase the others. The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of glass you are going to use. To save as much as possible on your energy bills, it’s suggested that you install insulated glass in place of the solid wood panels. Once this is in place, you can then apply a custom made stained and/or bevelled glass panel on top of the insulated glass on the interior side of the door. This decorative glass can be held in place by a decorative stop moulding, or it can be simply caulked in place. The decorative moulding will be more dependable in holding the glass in place if the door slams shut on occasion.
The glass panels need to be made to the right size before you start the job. What's more, you need to make sure they are the right size before you start taking apart the door. If you remove the raised panels and then find out that the glass is the wrong size, you will have a huge mess on your hands. Be sure that there is a 1/8 inch gap between each of the four sides of each glass panel and the wood door core. Without this gap, seasonal expansion and contraction can shatter the glass.
The removal of the raised panels requires that you carefully cut along the interior edge of the stiles and rails of the door that surround each raised panel. You will notice that the wood has a profiled edge as it dives down towards the raised panel. Set the circular saw cutting depth to 5/8 inch. The entire blade of the saw should be cutting inside the profiled edge of the stiles and rails. Do not allow the saw blade to cut into the flat surface areas of the door. Stop the blade at each corner and complete the cut out with a chisel. When the small profiled area is cut away, you will be able to easily remove each raised panel.
Once the panels are out of the way, paint the bare wood that has now been exposed. This protective coating will prevent any rot that may begin from driving rain that tries to get between the new glass and the wood. Apply a bead of acrylic silicon caulk to the inside edge of the remaining profiled edge and set the glass in place. The insulated glass panel is held in place by the small wood moulding. If possible, try to get one that matches the profile of the one you cut away. Use the miter box to cut the pieces to fit and fasten the mouldings to the door with 3 or 4 penny finish nails. Do not drive the nails into the glass. The average door surgery lasts about three hours, if there are no complications.
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