How to Widen a Frame for an Exterior Door

Make the door frame of your exterior door wider

If you have a backyard patio, a wider door creates a seamless passage between the outdoors and your house.

1. Remove your exterior door from the door frame. Use a Phillips screwdriver to detach the screws on the hinges of the door. Ask a friend to help you hold the door as you unscrew the hinges.

2. Cut into your current exterior doorway with a utility knife. You should cut where the inside of the doorway meets the door frame.

3. Pry the door frame off the wall. Slowly pry along the sides of the door frame with a putty knife. Using a wide putty knife or a similar tool to loosen the frame will protect the drywall on the interior side of the door.

4. Mark the dimensions of the new door frame onto the wall. Measure how wide you want your door frame to be with a measuring tape. Mark the new width onto the wall with chalk.

5. Cut a small hole on the wall you are going to widen using a drywall saw. Through the hole you will see the interior of the drywall. Check to see if there are pipes, wires or other impediments that you may disturb when you widen the wall.

6. Cut the wall you are going to widen. Follow the guide that you made in Step 4 and cut through the wall. The saw that you will use to cut the wall will depend on what material the wall is made of. Wooden walls can be cut with a standard circular saw blade. Brick, concrete and other stone-like materials require a masonry blade on a circular saw.

7. Check if the dimensions that you cut are straight and level using a carpenter’s level.