Sagging storm door

[Stephen Tashiro]

A friend's house has the typical aluminum storm door with heavy glass panes in it. I estimate the door is about 20 years old. The bottom of the door scrapes the threshold as if the door "sags", but I think it is not sagging at the hinges. I think the door itself is flexing at the corners enough so that gets out of square. What's the best way to fix this? Are there special braces made to fix this common problem? Or must the door be replaced?

[Sam Murdoch]

I think you can only fix this by applying angles to the outside faces at the corners. Take the door off - lay it flat, square it up, then screw on some galvanized angles. Use tapping screws - not the self drilling kind as they overdrill in aluminum. Start a pilot hole then let the screw thread in. Stainless screws are good for this even though you shouldn't mix aluminum with steel - I would not worry about it in this case. A little paint and you are good for another 3 to 5 years.

[Troy Turner]

Over by the replacement screen stuff in the box stores, they make things for that. I use them on wooden screen doors and they work great. It's basically two metal rods connected with a turnbuckle. The ends are screwed diagonally from each other. Adjusting the turnbuckle picks up the sag.