How to Install a Mail Slot & Basket in a Garage Door

Measure a distance of 4 to 5 feet from the ground for the placement of the mail slot in the garage door. This keeps the mail carrier and you from bending over to deliver or retrieve the mail.

Place the mail slot against the garage door. Mark the screw holes onto the garage door. Mark the slot opening on the garage door by tracing around the slot opening onto the door.

Drill though the garage door using a 1/2-inch wood or metal drill bit depending on the material of your garage door. Drill a hole at the inside of each corner of your traced slot. This allows you to fit a reciprocating saw blade into the garage door.

Insert either a metal or wood saw blade attached to a reciprocating saw into one of the holes you drilled through the garage door. Slowly cut along the trace lines you made on the garage door to remove the section of the door and create an opening for the mail slot.

Attach an 1/8-inch wood or metal drill bit to the drill and create 1/2-inch deep pilot holes at the screw hole marks. Attach the mail slot to the inside and outside of the garage door using the screws supplied with the slot. Thread the screws into the pilot holes and tighten with a screwdriver.

Pick a wire basket that is approximately 9 inches wide, 11 to 12 inches high and as long as your mail slot or longer. Place four loom clamps across the top wire of a wire basket, one at each end and the other two evenly placed across the top of the basket.

Position the basket beneath the mail slot on the inside of the garage door. Mark the location of the screw holes in the loom clamps on the garage door.

Create 1/8-inch pilot holes at each loom clamp screw hole mark with the drill, and make them 1/2-inch deep. Thread the screws that came with the clamps through the screw holes in the clamps.

Attach the clamps to the garage door at the pilot holes. The clamps secure the basket to the garage door to catch the mail and let the basket swivel as the garage door opens, so the mail doesn't dump out of the basket.