Here’s a helpful tip: When installing a storm door, window, or anything else that needs some cutting and drilling it’s often hard to remember which is up, down, in and out on the item. Take a piece of masking tape and write right on it up, down, in or out. That makes it a lot easier to figure out once you’ve taken your door or window from the wall back to the shop to do the work.

 

So what’s that have to do with being an idiot? I’ll tell you. This weekend I installed a storm door. I took the door out held it up in place, said okay here’s how it goes, now to mark it. Ah, good there’s a manufacturers’ label on the glass that is in the up & out position. So I take the door back to the garage, mark it with masking tape and proceed to drill holes for the hinges. Install the hinges, take it out and… crap! It’s wrong. How’d that happen? Taking a closer look, after I’ve calmed down from being mad, I notice that the label that was my marker was an identical, two-sided label on the glass of the door. AAAARRRGGGHHH! I set the door on my sawhorses to work on exactly backwards and never noticed because the label still looked right. Just my luck.

 

Oh well, the door’s up and fully installed, even though there are a few more hinge holes than the directions said there needed to be. So use that piece of advice, just watch for double-sided labels!

 

-Clark