Storm Door Closer Ripped Out?
It’s hurricane season, and having a storm door closer ripped out is common in every household. The solution is either reinforcing the closer or fitting a new one.
Reinforcing the closer ensures that no matter how strong a gust of wind hits, it can withstand it without damaging itself. To do this the most efficiently, a few easy techniques can be followed. For example, an easy fix is getting a sleeve/sex bolt and simply strengthening the closer.
And the easiest fix is just to fit a new one. We’ll walk through that process too, but as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. What we recommend is using a wood stain and toughening both your door and the storm door closer.
Let’s break down and walk through the processes further.
What To Do If Storm Door Closer Is Ripped Out
You can do a few things when your storm door closer is ripped out. Let’s walk you through each of the methods we recommend. We’d like to share the quickest fix first — simple reinforcement with sleeve bolts.
Reinforcing With Sleeve Bolts
The most common scenario when a storm door closer gets ripped out is creating existing holes in the doorframe. The openings stop future attachments from being connected securely to the doorframe.
To solve the issue, get some sleeve/sex bolts and run them through the holes created on your doorframe. On the bracket, use the threaded side.
Take a drill and create holes through the door frame, ideally around 3/8″. Push the male bolt through the interior of the frame, which means through the bracket. Next, the female bolt should go through the exterior.
One thing to pay attention to is that the female bolt isn’t thicker than the door. There should be some breathing room for maximum connection and stability.
Once this is done, the door frame will be reinforced. Now you can simply drill in the screws required to reinstall the ripped-out closer bracket; if it’s in good condition, that is. If it’s too beat up from the storm, get yourself a new storm door closer bracket.
Installing A Jamb Reinforcer
The jamp on your door frame is probably damaged if your closer bracket got beat up recently. Installing a jamp reinforcer not only fixes the already cracked jamp but also strengthens it. If you ever wondered how do you fix a door closer that won’t close, a popular fix is a jamp reinforcer.
This prevents future accidents from happening in the first place. These reinforcers are made from industrial grade, heavy-duty steel and work by strengthening the door frame.
To get started, unscrew and dismount the previous piston closer alongside the bracket on the door frame. Take out all the screws and slowly take them out. The pop can be easily popped to bring out the piston arms and the old busted-up bracket.
Next, we go on with mounting the jamp reinforcer. Drill holes based on how many openings the jamp reinforcer you get has. Usually, it’ll be anywhere from 6 to 8. The plate should be mounted parallel to the door frame’s edge. This enables you to drill future mounting holes and strengthens the wood on the already damaged door frame.
Now, simply mount the steel reinforcer plate. If wood markings or trims are visible, even it out with some paint. Play around with the bolt tightness to know how to adjust door closer speed.
Toughen Your Door With A Wood Stain
If you find yourself asking, do storm door closers wear out? You wouldn’t be alone. Having insecure wooden doors results in less structural integrity. This issue sometimes causes your storm door closer bracket to rip off easily. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you have to increase the structural integrity of both your door and your doorframe.
For doing so, wood stains are the way to go. But you might ask, where to buy restore-a-deck wood stain? Quality matters, so we recommend Premium Fast Dry Wood Stain by Varathane.
How you apply a wood stain also matters. Wood stains sometimes peel for too much wear-and-tear, which in our case is due to the storm door closer being ripped out. But other times, it’s because of uneven coating or weak adhesive from the stain.
To apply the most efficient way, don’t ever go overboard. Only apply the amount the door frame can comfortably absorb. Also, when applying, be sure to cover both ends of the door. Apply it to the top and two sides of the door frame too. This little change can take help to reinforce the storm closer bracket on your door to a good extent.
Replacing The Door Closer
The last thing we’d recommend is changing the storm door closer altogether if nothing else works. But to do so, you must know how to fix storm door closer. This step should be the last one you implement if you see the previous reinforcement steps haven’t worked out for you.
You probably know how to install a storm door closer, so we’d only like to give you a few tips for re-installing.
- Place the jamb bracket in a different place on the door frame than it was before. Chances are, the previous place has too much wood debris and won’t be able to provide a secure footing.
- Try to pick a compatible door closer if you hadn’t before. Your door’s manufacturer probably has a list of compatible ones which work best, so be sure to check them out.
- Compare the weight and thickness with the material of your door. If you have too much glass on the door, pick a sturdier, more resistant door closer bracket for max protection against winds.
For how to fix andersen storm door closer, you can try re-attaching the contraption using the steps we mentioned.
Final Words
We hope you’ve learned something new about DIY home reinforcement by reading our post. Every household in America has seen a storm door closer ripped out. But with some educated precautions, you can minimize damages by a lot.
As a final tip, we’d recommend adding two jamb brackets if your household faces super strong winds often. You might have a slower and stiffer door bracket, but it’d provide the extra protection that you desperately need. Good luck, and we wish you no more ripped-out brackets in the future!
