Steel Entry Door Installation — What to Expect from Factory to Finish
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Installing a custom steel entry door isn’t like hanging a pre-hung door from the home improvement store. A steel door can weigh 300 pounds or more — especially with sidelights and a transom. The opening has to be perfectly plumb and level. The anchoring has to support the weight for decades. The weather sealing has to handle Texas rain, heat, and humidity.
At Love That Door, we’ve installed thousands of custom steel entry doors across DFW. Owner Chad Crenshaw designed our installation process the same way he designed our patented double door system — methodically, with no shortcuts. Here’s what you should expect, what you should demand from any installer, and what sets a professional installation apart from one you’ll regret.
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A professional custom steel entry door installation in DFW takes 4-8 hours for a standard single door, or 1-2 days for a double door with sidelights and transom. The door must be anchored into the structural framing — not just the trim — using heavy-gauge screws every 12 inches. Love That Door uses in-house installation crews, not subcontractors, and every installation is backed by a lifetime warranty on the frame and slab.
PATIO DOORS
Before Installation: What Happens Before the Door Arrives
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Professional installation starts long before the installers pull up to your house. Here’s what happens behind the scenes:
Your existing opening is measured — not once, but multiple times. Our team measures at the top, middle, and bottom of the opening. They check for plumb, level, and square. They measure the rough opening width and height, the wall thickness, and the condition of the existing framing.
If your current door has been leaking — and many DFW homes have doors that have been quietly leaking for years — our team identifies any water damage to the subfloor, the jack studs, or the header. We don’t install a $10,000 door on rotted framing. If repairs are needed, we tell you before the installation date, not after we’ve torn out your old door.
The new door is fabricated to your exact measurements at our factory-owned facility. This isn’t a stock door trimmed to fit. It’s built to your opening — every dimension, every hinge location, every glass panel positioned precisely where you specified. See Chad’s article on how we build doors from factory to showroom for the full manufacturing process.
Day of Installation: What to Expect
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The crew arrives on time. This matters more than it sounds — if your installer can’t show up on time for the installation, what happens when you need warranty service?
They protect your home. Drop cloths cover the work path from the entry to the truck. The area around the door is taped off if needed. Your floors, your walls, your belongings — all protected before the first tool comes out of the truck.
Removing the Old Door
The existing door, frame, and trim are removed. This is done carefully — our crews cut fasteners and remove the door in sections if needed, rather than prying against the surrounding wall. A careless removal damages the drywall, the siding, and sometimes the framing itself. That damage gets hidden behind the new trim, but it weakens the installation.
Once the old door is out, the rough opening is inspected. Any water-damaged wood is cut out and replaced. Any loose framing is secured. The sill area is checked for level — an out-of-level sill is the most common cause of door binding and air leaks.
Anchoring the Door
Once the door is perfectly positioned, it’s anchored. Not with finish nails. Not with trim screws. With heavy-gauge structural screws driven through the frame and shims into the jack studs and header — every 12 inches around the perimeter.
The hinge screws are particularly important. Each hinge should have at least one screw that penetrates through the frame, through the shim, and at least 2 inches into the jack stud. These are the screws that carry the weight of the door — 300 pounds or more, opening and closing thousands of times over decades. A 1-inch screw into the jamb isn’t enough.
Our door engineering approach means the frame, transom, and sidelights are built as an integrated structural system. The anchoring pattern accounts for how loads distribute through that system — not just through the door slab itself.
Weather
Sealing
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A beautiful door that leaks air is a failure — no matter how good it looks.
The gap between the frame and the rough opening is filled with low-expansion foam insulation. Low-expansion is critical — high-expansion foam can bow the frame inward and cause the door to bind. The foam is applied in layers, not all at once, to control expansion.
The exterior perimeter is sealed with a high-quality elastomeric sealant — not silicone, which breaks down under UV exposure in Texas sun. The sealant bridges the gap between the door frame and the siding or brick, creating a flexible, waterproof barrier that moves with the building as it expands and contracts through temperature cycles.
Weatherstripping is installed at the bottom of the door — an adjustable threshold with a compression seal that makes full contact across the entire width. The sweep is tested with a flashlight from inside: if you can see light, air and water can get through. No light means a proper seal.
Hardware and Final Adjustments
The handle set, deadbolt, and any smart lock components are installed and tested. The door is opened and closed multiple times — slowly, quickly, from the inside, from the outside. The latch should engage smoothly without slamming. The deadbolt should throw without resistance. The door should stay in any position you leave it — it shouldn’t swing open or closed on its own.
If the door doesn’t operate perfectly, the crew adjusts the hinges, the strike plate, or both — right then, before they leave.
Clean-Up and Walkthrough
All debris is removed. The work area is vacuumed. Your new door is cleaned inside and out. The crew walks you through operation, maintenance, and warranty registration. They answer every question. They don’t leave until you’re satisfied.
Why In-House Installation Matters
Love That Door uses in-house installation crews — not subcontractors. This is rare in the door industry. Here’s why it matters:
Our installers work for us. They install Love That Door products every day. They’re trained on our specific anchoring requirements, our sealant specifications, and our quality standards. When they encounter an unusual situation — and every installation has at least one — they know how to handle it because they’ve seen it before, on our doors, trained by our team.
A subcontractor installs whatever door shows up on the truck that day. One day it’s a Love That Door. The next day it’s a competitor’s door with different anchoring requirements and different weather sealing specs. They install it however they’ve always installed doors. The result is inconsistent — and inconsistency is how installations fail.
Our commitment to quality extends from the factory floor to your front door. We control both. Most companies control neither.
How to Evaluate Any Door Installer
If you’re talking to other door companies — and you should, because comparing is how you make good decisions — here are the questions to ask:
Do you use in-house installers or subcontractors? If the answer is subcontractors, ask how those subcontractors are trained on the specific door you’re buying. If the answer is vague, that’s your answer.
How do you anchor the door to the framing? The correct answer involves structural screws into jack studs and headers. The wrong answer is “finish nails” or “construction adhesive.”
How do you seal against air and water? The correct answer includes low-expansion foam, elastomeric sealant, and an adjustable threshold with compression weatherstripping. The wrong answer is “caulk” with no further detail.
Will you inspect my rough opening for water damage before installing the new door? If the answer is no, ask what happens when they discover rotted framing after the old door is removed and the new door is already on the truck. If they don’t have a clear answer, they haven’t dealt with this — and in DFW, every installer deals with water-damaged framing eventually.
Cost of Professional Installation
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Professional installation of a custom steel entry door in DFW typically ranges from $800 to $2,500 depending on complexity. A simple single door is on the lower end. A double door with sidelights, transom, and structural modifications is on the higher end.
This is not an area to save money. The difference between a $500 installation and a $1,500 installation is the difference between a door that operates perfectly for 30 years and a door that starts binding, leaking, and rusting within three. When you’re investing $5,000 to $15,000 or more in a custom steel door, the installation cost is a fraction of the total — and it determines whether the investment pays off or becomes a recurring headache.
The Lifetime Warranty on Installation
Love That Door warranties our installation for the life of the frame and slab. If an installation-related issue develops — the door binds, the weather seal fails, the frame shifts — we fix it. No charge. No pushback. No “that’s not covered.”
This is only possible because we control the installation. We know exactly how every door was installed because our crews did the work. A company using subcontractors can’t make that promise — they don’t know what the subcontractor did, and the subcontractor is on to the next job.
FAQ
Q: How long does installation take?
A: A standard single steel entry door without sidelights typically takes 4-6 hours from arrival to final walkthrough. A double door with sidelights and transom can take 1-2 days. We’ll give you a firm estimate before your installation date.
Q: Do I need to be home during installation?
A: Yes, a homeowner or authorized adult should be present. We need access to the interior, and we’ll do a final walkthrough with you before we leave.
Q: Will my existing trim and drywall be damaged during removal?
A: Some drywall damage around the perimeter of the old door is normal — the old trim covers it. Our crews are careful during removal, but the new trim is designed to cover the transition between the new frame and the existing wall. We replace all trim as part of the installation. Any damage beyond the normal trim coverage area is repaired before we leave.
Q: Can you install in brick or stone veneer?
A: Yes. Brick and stone exteriors require specific anchoring techniques and flashing details to prevent water intrusion. Our crews are experienced with all common DFW exterior finishes.
Q: What if my rough opening needs structural repair?
A: We identify structural issues before the installation date whenever possible, based on the pre-installation inspection. If rot or damage is discovered during removal that couldn’t be seen before, we stop, show you what we found, and discuss the repair before proceeding. We can handle most framing repairs in-house. Major structural issues may require a general contractor — we’ll coordinate that for you.