Doors and Windows - Anderson Patio Door Installation Screw up, your opinion.

It is not until now that I realized my Anderson Frenchwood Hinged Patio Doors were installed incorrectly. They were installed in a 2x6 exterior wall without putting on the exterior jamb extension first. I did not notice this until now, when I am going around putting all my interior extension jambs on my windows and installing my interior doors. All the exterior siding is complete and I previously did all the permanent screwing in through the underlying exterior and interior concealed places.

Now that I see it, I wonder how I could have allowed this to happen. OK, so now I am thinking I have two options here. 1) I can take off the siding around the exterior, remove the door unit, install the exterior extension jamb, reinstall the unit plumb and square, and reinstall the siding or 2) Leave the unit as is and trim in the interior jamb. The active side opens against a wall, so I could never exceed a 90 degree open anyway. The inactive side (which opens as well) I could still open about 110-120 degrees. I am thinking of #2, leaving it and trimming in the interior. I can’t imagine that the need to open the inactive side to a full 180 degrees (wall switches are on that wall and furniture will probably be there as well) would merit the destruction of the exterior, removal of and re-install of everything.

Actually that's great news that the active door would only open 90° anyway because it's against the wall. There seems to be no need to undo all that you have done just to put those jamb extensions on the exterior. Just put on wood interior jamb extensions, and the passive door like you said won't open the full 180°. If you need to fit that hot tub or grand piano through the opening it should still work OK.

The Anderson Product guide that I have here in my office despicts the exterior extension jamb #167 (6 9/16" wall thickness) as being an "option". On the page "suggested product applications" they depict a standard 4 9/16" door being installed into a 2x6 wall without the optional extension jamb. The instructions say "remove flashing flange at head and jamb" and the illustration depicts the door being installed flush with the interior of the wall. The exterior is then capped with a break metal closure (by others).

So that's an option you could consider as well, although personally I think it'd be a bad idea to cut off the nailing fins and rely on caulking only to seal the door. I'm actually surprised to see that detail in their catalog.

Instead of tearing off all the siding, you could make a nice neat cut to expose the nailing fin. Then after you remove, replace, and seal the door back in place you would just have to fill in with some trim. Miritec 5/4 trim or something.

Leaving it as is works if you are happy with the way it currently opens, and shouldn't ever be a problem, because how often will you really open the passive side of the door?