How to Build Your Own Screen Door

Time needed: 5 hours.

Read on to learn how to make your own screen door!

1. Determine your dimensions.

   The dimensions of your screen door will depend on the size of your door frame. Our door measures 35 1/4 x 80 3/4, which is pretty standard. Below you can see a diagram of the door (NOT to scale), which shows where we used the various sizes of wood. In parentheses, I note the cut lengths. The pink lines mark where the wood pieces join together, so as you will see, all the cuts are straight and easy.
   
   

2. Cut your wood to size.

   Cut your wood pieces to length with a circular saw or miter saw. Note that in order to reduce cut waste, after cutting our 24 3/4 inch length of 2 x 8 for the bottom of the door, we ripped the remaining 2 x 8 to the same width as the 2 x 6 pieces.

3. Assemble the outer frame of your door.

   After all of your pieces are cut, use a Kreg jig to make pocket holes to join your pieces together. Assemble the outer frame of the door first. Once your outer frame is assembled, dry fit it in your door in your door frame to ensure it fits.

4. Mark your hinge placement.

   Since we were replacing an old storm door, we were able to place the new hinges in the same place on the door frame. We marked where the hinges needed to be attached to the screen door when we dry fit it in the door frame.
   

5. Finish assembling your screen door.

   After you are certain that the outer frame fits properly, use your Kreg jig to make pocket holes to attach the horizontal pieces of your screen door to the outer frame.
   

6. Fill all holes and gaps.

   Use wood putty or spackle to fill in any gaps between the joints. Then use your Kreg wood plugs to fill the holes left by your screws. After everything is dry, sand it down until it is smooth.
   

7. Create a groove for your screening material to sit in.

   Next, you will need to rabbet out a groove with your router on the back side of the door for the screening to attach to. Bear in mind that you will need to use a chisel to square the corners up after you route out the rabbeted area. We used a 3/8 inch routing bit for to make our rabbet 1/2 inch deep.
   
   However, if we had it to do over again, we would have routed it out to a depth of 1/4 inch so that we could use ready-made 1/4 x 3/4 inch screen molding that is sold at home improvement stores and could have skipped making our own. We would highly recommend that you rabbet out a 1/4 inch depth to save yourselves some time.
   

8. Paint the FRONT of your screen door.

   Paint the front side of the door. It's easier to do this now so you don't have to worry about the screening while you paint it. We waited to paint the back of the door until after we attached the screen molding, as described later.

9. Attach your screening to the back side of your screen door.

   Now you are ready to attach your screening to the back side of the door. Simply lay your screening out on the area to be screened and attach it with your staple gun in the rabbet grove. You want to pull the screen taut, but not too tight, or it may rip. It's best to have two people for this part of the project. After you staple it in place, trim off the excess with a utility knife.
   

10. Cut and add screen molding.

    After your screening is attached, you are ready to cut and attach the trim pieces to cover the ugly staples in the screening. We made our own trim pieces to fit the area, but see my comments in step 7. We aren't going to even tell you how to do this because it's not worth the extra work–trust us! You should purchase ready-made screen molding at your home improvement store. It is generally 1/4 x 3/4 inch and should work perfectly.
    

11. Paint the back side of your screen door.

    Once your trim is attached, you are ready to paint the back side of the door. Be sure to tape off your screening with painter's tape, so that you do not inadvertently get paint on it.

12. Hang your screen door.

    Attach the hinges to your screen door and hang it.

13. Attach door hardware.

    Next, attach your door handle and address numbers, if desired. We used a doorknob installation kit that we already had–it makes installation so simple!