- Hey guys, my name's Aaron Massey,
and welcome back to another episode of Home School'd.
Today's project, I'm gonna show you how you can add
some curb appeal to your home
by adding a custom glass insert into your front door.
Buying a new glass front door can be a little bit expensive,
so today I'm gonna show you how you can DIY
and save yourself some money,
by adding a glass insert to your existing front door.
This video is brought to you by Zabitat.com,
makers of custom glass inserts and resources
to bring new life to your old doors.
For a full list of their products
visit Zabitat.com.
I rate these projects by how many f-bombs you're likely
to drop while tackling the project.
This one is not too difficult, but you might need a friend
to give you an extra set of hands.
So we've got this nice piece of glass
that Zabitat sent over.
And before I do any work on the existing door,
I'm just gonna verify the measurements of the insert.
And I'm gonna do that by removing the inside frame
of the glass, by removing the few screws
they have holding it in place.
And now that I have the frame removed,
I can measure the insert.
I'm measuring from the outside edge
of the screw mounts on each side.
And in this case,
the cutout has to be 23 inches by 65 inches.
So we're gonna be installing this decorative
piece of glass into the front door,
which means I have to cut a big hole in the front door
which can be a little bit sketchy.
But I'm confident that I can do it.
If I can do it, you can do it.
I'm gonna start by removing the lock set
and the hardware from the door.
I like to just keep everything together,
and just set it aside so that I don't misplace anything.
And now that the hardware is off,
I can pop the hinge pins and carry the door outside,
and set it up on my sawhorses.
Next I'm gonna remove the existing glass
that's in the door, so that I can measure and mark
where the new glass is gonna go.
I do that by just removing the screws
that are holding the glass frame in place.
If the glass frame doesn't come out,
take a razor blade and just score along the base of it.
There may be some adhesive or sealant
that's holding it in place.
So the next thing I'm gonna do,
is just make sure that the measurements
that I have for the glass and everything are gonna work.
I don't wanna risk cutting this door
only to find out that it's not gonna fit.
So make sure you check the instruction manual.
Make sure you check your door before you order,
so that you know the glass you're getting
is gonna work with your door.
So it looks like in this case I'm gonna be perfectly able
to cut out these panels from side to side all the way from
basically where the existing indentations are,
all the way to where the existing door is cut.
That's gonna be my panel insert that just runs from here,
all the way up, over and across.
Now the way that I'm gonna cut this glass out
once I lay everything out,
is I'm just gonna use a jigsaw with a metal blade,
because this is a steel door.
Most people may not be familiar with the fact
that their steel door is actually
pretty much hollow in the middle.
In this case, this is a steel outer door
with foam on the inside.
So once you get through this steel, the foam is really easy.
You don't have to cut all the way through.
But before we do that, I need to lay out and mark
exactly where our lines are gonna be,
make sure that we're all square
so that we can just make our necessary cuts,
put the glass insert in, close it up, it'll be good.
So we're pretty much gonna connect the dots here.
Just gonna connect from here to here, from here to there.
Alright, moment of truth.
About to cut this door, wish me luck.
I'm gonna make two passes.
I'm gonna make one pass on the inside,
one pass on the outside.
I'm not gonna cut through all the way with one pass.
I'm tilting the blade back slightly
'cause this blade's a little too long for what I'm doing.
I'm kinda just putting the pressure on the backside.
(grinding)
Ta-da.
Toss that over there.
So now we've got our new opening in our door
to set our glass in.
So next, I'm gonna set the glass on the sawhorses
with the outside frame facing down,
and then set the door on top of it,
and get it lined up.
What's really nice about this,
is that there's actually a sealant strip
built right into the frame,
so you don't have to worry about
adding a silicone sealant around the frame.
You just install it, and then tighten the frame together
with the included screws, and you're good to go.
Okay, we're ready to go baby.
Now I'm gonna re-install the door
if I can carry the door.
Sweet mama-jama, that boy's heavy now.
Okay.
And then lastly, I'm gonna re-install the hardware.
You might have to do a little touch-up paint as well,
if your door has been painted.
And that is it, we are done with this project.
Well hopefully this video gave you a little bit of a taste
of not only what's possible when adding curb appeal
to your house, but also give you a little bit
of confidence that you can do this as well.
It's not a super difficult project,
and you can knock it out in a couple of hours.
Maybe you need an extra set of hands
to help you move the door.
But otherwise, it's relatively straightforward.
I wanna thank Zabitat.com for providing the glass
that I used in this video.
And as a special thank you to my audience,
if you guys wanna get your own decorative glass insert,
you can use the promo code MRFIXIT15 at checkout,
and get 15% off your order.
So make sure you go to Zabitat.com
and check out all the options.
If you guys liked this video, please hit that like button
and leave a comment down below and let me know.
Also, if you wanna check out more of my videos,
I'll leave links to those right here,
or you can visit my website at MrFixItDIY.com.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)