Doors and Windows - new floor = short door

Several years back we had a new floor put in our kitchen. There is a door from the kitchen into the garage. This doorway has never had a threshold so the new flooring (like the old) just went under the door into the garage (only about 4 inches as there are 2 steps down on the other side of the door). Obviously the door was shortened to accomodate the new floor so it is no longer a standard height. I am guessing that this is not the first new floor so it may be as much as 1"+ shorten than usual.

The door opens into the kitchen instead of to the outside. There is no landing or deck on the garage side - only 2 steps down to the garage.


The door is in pretty poor shape. It appears to be a hollow core and have been dented on the inside more than once (day the doorstop broke and it opened into the corner of the kitchen counter). It has sheet metal on the garage side as fire protection. The door leaks air terribly especially at the bottom.

I had been using a vinyl sweep on the inside to limit the air coming in but it is ruining the vinyl floor and is no great insulator. The is about a 1/4" gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

As I see things, I have a couple of choices.

1. shorten the door, add a threshold, patch the dent in the door.

2. buy a custom size door with a new threshold

3. buy a standard size door with threshold and cut out the floor to accomodate the inward sweep of the door. I figure lowering the floor back to its original height and then tiling it will give me a durable entryway. I am concerned about the height differential between the current vinyl floor and anything I would remove and replace.

Does any of this sound right to you?

I apologize in advance but I plan to post this also as a flooring question.

First thing in my mind would be to change the door out for a steel insulated one. Frame and all. Do you have room in the garage for the door to swing into the garage instead of the kitchen. Might want to give your local building department a call to discuss the code factors for the door. Even if the door fit properly, just putting sheet metal on the garage side doesn't seem to be much fire protection. They may require another type of door.

The door between your living space and the garage needs to be a fire door, and self closing. Check with your local bldg. dept. to see exactly what the require, but usually any prehung metal door will suit their requirments. Since you have no landing in the garage, you can't swing the door out into the garage. It is a hazard (and a code violation) to do that. You could knock somebody off of the steps when you open the door!!