Exterior entry door replacement in Los Angeles — swapped out an aging wood door for a white steel door with a frosted-glass sidelite that opens on a screen for airflow. New jamb, fresh weather sealing, matte-black hardware, and the surrounding trim repainted. A one-day door job with a small-but-useful upgrade — the operable sidelite — that the homeowner had been wanting for years.
The job
Single entry door, full slab-plus-jamb replacement. The old door was a solid-wood unit with a fixed glass sidelite, tired weatherstripping, and a worn-through threshold. The homeowner wanted better security, less heat gain in the entry, and a way to crack the front open for cross-ventilation without opening the main door itself. A pre-hung steel unit with a vented sidelite covers all three.
The vented sidelite
The new unit is a 36″ steel door with a factory-glazed sidelite that has a top-hinged, outward-opening vent — a frosted glass panel outside and an insect screen behind it. Open the vent and you get a filtered breeze through the entry without unlocking the main door. Closed, it reads as a normal frosted sidelite from the outside. The frame is pre-primed steel for paint, and both the door and sidelite panels were painted in a matching semi-gloss white.
Install
Old door, jamb and casing came out cleanly. We checked the rough opening for square, shimmed as needed, and set the new pre-hung unit plumb and level with low-expansion foam at the perimeter. New threshold set in a continuous bed of butyl sealant, nailing fins flashed into the existing weather barrier. Weatherstripping is factory kerf-in on all three jamb sides and sweep on the bottom. Final adjustments — gaps even top to bottom, latch catches without lift, deadbolt throws freely into a reinforced strike.
Hardware and trim
Matte-black handle-set and deadbolt on the door, matching matte-black pull on the operable vent. Interior and exterior trim was old and brittle in spots — we pulled the worst pieces, replaced with primed finger-joint casing, caulked all seams, and repainted the entry wall and trim to match. Thresholds are weeped and sealed so no water tracks into the entry even in a hard rain.
Timeline
One full working day for the swap. Early morning: remove old door, jamb and interior/exterior casing. Mid-day: set the new pre-hung unit, foam, flash, hang the door and vent, install hardware. Afternoon: trim replacement, caulk, touch-up paint, final adjustments. Weatherstripping sits a day to compress and we come back for a final latch check.
Project summary
- Scope: full exterior entry door replacement — slab, jamb, threshold, hardware, trim
- Door: 36″ white steel door, factory pre-primed and painted semi-gloss white
- Sidelite: frosted glass with a top-hinged outward-opening vent and insect screen for airflow
- Hardware: matte-black handle-set and deadbolt, matching vent pull, reinforced strike
- Weather sealing: factory kerf-in weatherstripping, butyl-bedded threshold, flashed nailing fins
- Timeline: one working day, latch rechecked the next day
Thinking about replacing an exterior door, or adding a vented sidelite to an existing entry? Get in touch — send a photo of the opening with a tape measure in frame, we come back the same day with a door-and-labor estimate.