An Insulated Door for Warm-Blooded Dummies

4 inches of foam is about R-16

The nice people at Leaf Group, the content farmers formerly known as Demand Media Studios, have spent that past few years attempting to repair their reputation (such as it is) from the bad old days of eHow.com. Actually, it's pretty clear they don't care about their reputation, just their SERP. Whatever the case, they've niched much of the one-time eHow content and even sent some of it to "rewrite specialists." One such is Lindsay Kramer, whose concentration appears to have been in business and semi-legal questions. This "relatively new homeowner" did, however, make a single foray into DIY with "How to Build an Insulated Shed Door"; and ended up stinking up the joint.

Kramer was attempting to improve a piece written by four-time winner John Walker that was only mildly insulting to the carpentry skills of the average middle-schooler. This is yet another case of Leaf Group rewrite attempt in which the cure is worse than the disease, and may well be the reason Kramer's byline appears but once in Leaf's three different DIY niches.

For starters, Kramer decided do give directions for a 72-by-48 door, which is a rather odd size. The overall dimensions notwithstanding, Lindsay's instructions appear to be for making a plywood "sandwich" with some foam insulation in the middle. The sandwich is stiffened with a framework of "1-inch-by-4-inch wood planks" and has a skin of ¼-inch plywood. Here are Lindsay's cutting directions for the 1-by-4s:

"...cut your 1-inch-by-4-inch planks into two 48-inch planks, two 68-inch planks and one 40-inch plank with your miter saw."

Well, at least she didn't specify a circular saw... The 48-inch 1-by-4s go across the ends (rails) and the 68-inch boards form the stiles. Right away, it's pretty clear Lindsay is confused: that arrangement makes a frame 73 inches tall. Oops. 

The "40-inch plank" is supposed to form a stiffener in the middle. Apparently Kramer thinks a 1-by-4 is four inches wide. It's not, it's 3½" wide; so the "plank" should actually be 41" long. Oops again.

After assembling the frame and one side, Lindsay says to add rigid foam insulation (although she's cagey about its thickness, which is a good idea). Sadly, she says to,

"Cut the rigid insulation foam into two sections to fit into the frames you created. They will measure 40-inches-by-32-inches [sic].¹"

Depending on whether you want the insulation to reach all the way to the frame, that may not work. If correctly cut and assembled, the spaces should measure 41 by 30¾, not 40 by 32. Oopsie again.

Finally, Lindsay would have you slap on a doorknob and hinges and hang the door, which her introduction suggests says will combine with your insulated walls to,

"...keep everything stored within them safe from extreme temperatures and high winds."

We hate to disabuse Lindsay of that notion, but 1) insulation helps prevent heat transfer through a wall or door, but cannot by itself prevent "extreme temperatures" in the long run. 2) Even if 48 by 72 is the right size, that door needs weather-stripping around the edges at the very least. 3) Half an inch of plywood and ¾ inch of rigid foam has an R-value of about  5: about the same insulation value as an uninsulated stud-framed wall with vinyl on the outside and OSB on the inside. 

It's clear that Kramer had no earthly idea what she was talking about, merely rearranging Walker's version, supplying (bogus) dimensions, and adding an off-topic reference to the off-topic reference Walker had used. Does Lindsay deserve a Dumbass of the Day award for that kind of schlock? Oh, yes, indeed.

¹ Despite the AP Style Guide's requirement to, "Use a hyphen for the adjectival forms before nouns," eHow's content editors routinely added hyphens to any and all measurements. Duh.

DDIY - INSULATION