Doors and Windows - Installing French doors in poured basement

My contractor informed me that I would be responsible to install our french door into our 8foot poured concrete basement. Rough opening for the door is 60X80 inches. My contractor stated he would leave a complete opening (top to bottom) of 66 inches. This would provide enough space for 2 2X8's on either side of the door, for a nicer look. The basement is 8 feet high. Where can I find the information on how to properly install this door, as I have hung doors before, but am leary of this as this basement will soon have a modular home placed onto it, and I want to make sure the door install is done correctly. Or would this be recommended to contact a pro? Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.:confused: :confused:

The "rough opening" has to be bigger than 60" X80" -- that's the size of the doors themselves. You need at least an additional 2" of width, plus another 6" for the dbl 2X8' on each side, and at least another 2" of height. Hopefully your contractor realizes this!

Take a tape measure to a big box store and measure to overall size of the frame of a pre-hung french door.

Sorry if I didn't make things clear from the start, was up too late...:wall: The opening will be 66inches from top to bottom, extending to the top of the basement (8 feet). Was wondering why it was stated to add an additional 2inches of width? Other concern is that I will have to completely frame in this area up to be level with the top of the basement, and I am uncertain as how to accomplish this. Wasn't sure on what header size would be sufficient, than I would need to block up to the "sill plate". Any recommendations on this, or should I make the contractor put in concrete above the header? Contractor stated that the concrete would be too thin and would only crack, which makes sense to me... :coffee:

If i'm understanding you correctly, these doors will be 60" TALL??

If that's true, then forget that I mentioned pre-hung doors. You won't find them. You'll be making the doors yourself.

It sounds like the first thing you'd do is anchor 2 pieces of treated 2x8 to the floor. Then you'd anchor 2 pieces of treated 2x8x92 5/8 to the walls. You'd install a top plate. You'd install a 2x12x63 header and support it with 2 2x8x92 5/8 trimmers on each end. Since you stated that your R.O. needed to be 80", you must have a 6'8" door that measures 79 1/2". If this is the case, you'd install 2 2x8's horizontally below your header to make your R.O. 80" tall. But as lefty mentioned, most exterior doors are 81 5/8, so if that's the case you'd need a R.O. that is at least 82" tall.

Patio doors are often shorter than standard exterior doors, so you'll need to know the exact size of your door and its required R.O. before going any farther.

XSleeper,

You read it like I did the first time too. But, read GWIZ2260's second post -- this door is only going to be 60" TALL.

Sorry, :wall: :wall: :wall: The RO of the door is 60 wide by 80 tall, this is an anderson french door. I can see where how I had worded it, it wasn't clear.... So, if the door states a RO of 60 wide by 80 tall, it should only be this dimension, correct? Thanks for everyone's help!
Just to clear up, the contractor is going to be leaving a gaping hole in the basement, 66inches wide (top to bottom)... this is for me to install the door. Will this be sufficient, or should I ask for a 68inch opening, since the door is RO of 60 wide by 80 tall? Thanks again.

Do you have the door in your possession, so that you can actually measure it?

Is it pre-hung?

If so (to both questions), measure the overall width and height of the ENTIRE unit -- the outside of the jamb side to side, and the height from the bottom of the threshold to the top of the frame header.

You need a Roough Opening (The hole in the wall that this unit is going to be installed in) that is AT LEAST 1/2" taller than the overall height of the prehung unit. and AT LEAST 1-1/2" wider than the entire unit. So the contractor has to had ANOTHER 6" of width to the opening that he is going to create so that you can get the dbl 2X8's on each side.

Yeah, I could tell you obviously didn't mean what you wrote.

You are correct in stating that Anderson patio doors need a R.O. of 60x80. You evidentally have the 68 model not the 611. Your unit will measure exactly 59 1/4 x 79 1/2. A 66" cement opening would be sufficient, provided the opening he leaves is perfectly plumb. If you wanted to be on the safe side, I'd have him make it 66 3/8 wide, but definately not 68, that's far too wide.

Thanks for everyone's assistance, think I can handle installing this door now. :D Yes it is pre-hung, but Anderson takes a while to get the doors delivered out here (4 weeks)... door should be in late this week or beginning of next week. Unless someone informs me differently, will be asking the contractor to make the opening 67 inches... realize now that this would give me 1 3/4 inches to plumb the door. Hopefully that would be sufficient, wouldn't think the opening would need to be more than that. Again, thanks to all.

If your R.O. is too wide, the predrilled holes in the nailing flange will not hit anything. That's why Anderson recommends the R.O. be closer to 60". If it's 67", your R.O. will be closer to 61". But you're the boss. ;)

Guess my thought was that I would have a little more "wiggle" room if the opening the contractor put into the basement wasn't square, which is why I recommended 67, with the belief that would allow me to plumb the door (doubt the opening would be perfectly square). Do you believe 66 3/8 is leaving enough room to plumb the door? This would leave about 1 1/8 inches to plumb the door. I guess when I think about it, that is just over 1/2 inch on either side, and my contractor said he could make it whatever size I needed. If you really believe 66 3/8 is more than enough to ensure I could plumb the door, than that is what I will do. Again, thanks for your help.

Most masonry contractors are "right on" when it comes to making walls plumb. The only reason I would add the 3/8" to 66" is because when you anchor to cement, the board rarely lays perfectly flat on the block- it sits on the high points of every mortar joint, and by the time you put construction adhesive behind there, anchor it to the wall, it seems like the R.O. always shrinks just a little bit. (this is experience talking) So my opinion was that if you had him make the R.O. 66 3/8, your finished R.O. for the door would be almost exactly 60" (maybe 60 1/8") by the time everything is put together. This allows you 3/4" or so of "wiggle room" to plumb the door (3/8 on each side) which should be plenty.

if you have 7/8" of room on each side as you intend, you will have almost nothing to nail the door to (especially if you jack it one way on top and the other way on the bottom).

Thanks for your assistance on this, just got done speaking with the contractor, 66 3/8 it will be!:thumbup:

Well, contractor is pouring this Monday 4/17/06, and he stated that he will be pouring in the complete RO for this door. Now that I know the width of the opening (66 3/8), What should the height be (original RO for the door is 60 width by 80 height)? Would a single 2X8 layed horizontally beneath the concrete be sufficient, or do I need to actually build a header out of wood, where I must stand them vertically, putting a piece of plywood between them? Sorry, the contractor stated he had to do it this way now, uncertain as to why. Thanks for any help!:alarm:

66 3/8 x 83 1/4. This will allow you the same distance on top as you have on the sides, which will keep everything symetrical. So on top of the opening, you will have to anchor two 2x8's right to his block. No header is needed since the cement rough opening he will make is structural.