We had a pella full-view storm door installed 2 years ago and for the
last several months it seems to be out of alignment. The rubber strip
on the bottom is rubbing the cement step and is starting to fall off,
and in order for the door to close all the way it needs to be pulled
shut. On the upper right corner (opposite of the hinges) there seems
to be a gap with light peeking through. In order to lock it you have to
pull up on the handle, essentially lifting the door and then pull it
shut (this has also caused the handle to become loose). The Pella
website says to call
a technician with such problems but I was wondering if anyone here had
any suggestions.

Sev wrote:
Jeffy3 wrote:
We had a pella full-view storm door installed 2 years ago and for the
last several months it seems to be out of alignment. The rubber strip
on the bottom is rubbing the cement step and is starting to fall off,
and in order for the door to close all the way it needs to be pulled
shut. On the upper right corner (opposite of the hinges) there seems
to be a gap with light peeking through. In order to lock it you have to
pull up on the handle, essentially lifting the door ...
....

Sounds like you need to be looking at the hinge side of things for the
cause of this. Either mounting screws may have come loose, or frame
that they are mounted to. Unless door or hinges have become
distorted, possibly through abuse.

Or, alternatively, you've had movement/settling of the house
itself--does the inner door show signs of not fitting slightly as well,
perchance?

If not and the door itself hasn't gone out of square (which you can
easily check by measuring diagonally from corner to corner--if it's off
by more than 1/16" that will definitely be more than a new door. If
that's the case whether there's a fix will depend on how the door was
actually constructed and why it's out of square. If, otoh, the door
itself is still square (actually pretty likely) and the opening itself
hasn't sagged to become out of square (same check works there, of
course) then the mounting or other things like lower hinge wearing out
and letting it droop/sag as noted above are likely culprits.

A good check is to also look at the door from the outside as somebody
else does the "pick it up" manuever to see what actually moves relative
to what...

dpb wrote:


If not and the door itself hasn't gone out of square (which you can
easily check by measuring diagonally from corner to corner--if it's off
by more than 1/16" that will definitely be more than a new door. If
that's the case whether there's a fix will depend on how the door was
actually constructed and why it's out of square. If, otoh, the door
itself is still square (actually pretty likely) and the opening itself
hasn't sagged to become out of square (same check works there, of
course) then the mounting or other things like lower hinge wearing out
and letting it droop/sag as noted above are likely culprits.


Thanks for the detailed response, but not sure what you meant by:

"If not and the door itself hasn't gone out of square (which you can
easily check by measuring diagonally from corner to corner--if it's off

by more than 1/16" that will definitely be more than a new door."

If I measure diagonally from corner to corner and the difference
between the two is 1/6" or more, than it's out of square? Is that what
you mean? And what do you mean by "that will definitely be more than a
new door" ?

Thanks in advance!