STANDARD STORM DOOR SIZES
Storm doors come in all different sizes. If your home was built in the last 30 years, your front door opening is likely about 36 inches wide by 80-81 inches tall. Back doors are traditionally 32 inches wide by 80-81 inches tall; however, newer homes (built after 1990) have been also using 36 inch widths also.
Here’s a list of the standard door sizes:
For 81″ Tall Doors:
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30 x 81 (fits an opening 29 7/8″-30 1/4″ wide and 80″-81″ tall)
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32 x 81 (fits openings 31 7/8″-32 1/4″ wide and 80″-81″ tall)
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34 x 81 (fits openings 33 7/8″-34 1/4″ wide and 80″-81″ tall
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36 x 81 (fits opening 35 7/8″-36 1/4″ wide and 80″-81″ tall)
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42 x 81 (fits opening 41 7/8″-42 1/4″ wide and 80″-81″ tall)
For 96" Tall Doors:
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30 x 96 (fits an opening 29 7/8″-30 1/4″ wide and 95″-96″ tall)
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32 x 96 (fits openings 31 7/8″-32 1/4″ wide and 95″-96″tall)
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36 x 96 (fits opening 35 7/8″-36 1/4″ wide and 95″-96″tall)
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42 x 96 (fits opening 41 7/8″-42 1/4″ wide and 95″-96″ tall)
For more information and directions on how to measure your door opening, visit my How to Measure an Opening section.
Custom Door Sizes
If your entry opening doesn’t fit into the measurements above, then you are stuck with a custom door. Custom doors can be made, but expect to pay more. A word of advice, even if your measurements are close, if you haven’t installed quite a few doors before don’t “try to make it work.”
I had a guy that thought he could (after all he was an engineer) once. He tried making the door opening “wider” to fit a standard sized door. Turns out with his setup he actually had to build his entry door frame out, not remove wood. He took a hammer and chisel (not a saw which would make a much cleaner cut, really?!) and went to town.
Anyway, after I called and told him not only could I not “make it work”, but before we proceeded he would have to replace his $3,000 custom mahogany front doors because the jamb he destroyed was the load bearing side of his door frame and the doors were going to literally fall off in a few months anyway, what happened next made me glad I’m married to MY wife.
Apparently, his wife was sitting next to him in the car and she overheard the conversation. She started SCREAMING at him, and I heard every word. Actually, I had to hold the phone an arms length away and it STILL sounded like she was next to me. I felt bad, hung up the phone and started laughing uncontrollably. Needless to say, she probably sold all of his tools, banned him from THINKING about doing any more work on the house, and probably worse. The moral of the story is DON’T DO IT!
Other Considerations
When measuring your entry door opening, pay attention to the entire opening. Look for other problem areas like is the roof or soffit in the way? If it is, there’s not much you can do. But what if the porch light fixture is in the way? Well, you can replace the light fixture with another one. I’ve had situations where I can’t install a door because it will open into the roof, where siding is covering the exterior trim that you are mounting the door too, and much more. Just think three dimensional and imagine the door opening up and what it could hit.