On Jan 16, 1:19*pm, "dadiOH" wrote:
We have a lanai off our master bedroom that opens onto a walled garden.
There are two arches, each about 66" x 82", for passage from lanai to
garden.

Originally, we intended to have those arches remain open but the mud daubers
*LOVE* to build on the lanai so I decided to enclose the arches with French
screen doors. *The lanai faces east and the summer morning sun is fierce
here in Florida so the secondary reason was to diminish the sunlight.

My total costs for both pairs was a bit over $550. Of that, $275 was for
lumber (rough); the next biggest cost - about $90 -was for screening
materials (7/16 x 1" aluminum channel material (set into dados in rails &
stiles), the rest was for hinges, locks, surface bolts, some ply for a
bending jig, door closers, weather strip material, paint, etc.

That seemed kinda much to me so I just Googled a few places to see what I
could have bought them for. *I'm glad I made them myself...prices ranged
from about $400-$979. *And that was just the doors. *At one place - the $979
place - having them pre-hung doubled the price.

Admittedly, everything seems high to me now but I am semi-stuck in the past.
What do you think, was $550 about right?

Here are a couple of pix...

One set of doorshttp://www.floridaloghouse.net/dadioh/south-lanai-doors.jpg

Close-up of screen channel...http://www.floridaloghouse.net/dadio...en-channel.jpg

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As long as I'm posting, I might as well expound on some of the difficulties
encountered. *The primary one was that the masonry arches were not
symmetrical; nor were they plumb. *Hell, they weren't even symmetrical side
to side; i.e., the short side on each of a door pair was different. *That
means I couldn't just measure the space to fill and build a door X4 to fit,
had to make each one individually. *A pain.

The lanai was tiled, did it years ago. *I wanted the doors to abut something
on all edges to help deter insects. *That meant I had to cut down a strip of
tile about 6" wide - concrete under it too - then retile so I had about a
3/4" drop for the door to close against. *I could have avoided that by using
door sweeps; if I had it to do over I might do that. *Nah, better this way


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dadiOH
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Winters getting colder? *Tired of the rat race?
Taxes out of hand? Maybe just ready for a change?
Check it out...http://www.floridaloghouse.net

That looks great, you should hire out as a handyperson.