Let the Breeze In, Keep the Weather Out — Storm & Entry Doors in Roanoke, VA
We measure your door's sun exposure before we sell you a storm door — because the wrong one traps heat against the door behind it. Twenty-two years fitting doors, screens and entries across the Valley.
Doors, screens and the hardware that makes them work
One trade, done properly. If it hangs in a door opening, it is our job.
A door shop, not a home-improvement company
Vaneworth has fitted doors in the Roanoke Valley since 2004. We do not do windows, siding, gutters or roofs, and we do not send a salesperson who has never hung a door. The person who measures your opening is the person who installs it.
That narrowness is the point. Valley houses run from 1920s foursquares with out-of-square openings to 2010s builds with a stock 36-inch entry, and the right storm door for one is the wrong door for the other. Knowing the difference is a full trade on its own.
- ✓Owner-measured, owner-installed
- ✓No windows, siding or roofing — doors only
- ✓Made-to-size units for out-of-square openings
- ✓VA Class B Contractor #2705-149832
The four things we check before quoting a storm door
Which way the door faces
South and west-facing doors take hours of direct sun. That drives whether a storm door is safe over your entry at all, and which glass we can use.
What the entry door is made of
Dark fibreglass and steel absorb the most heat. Wood tolerates more. The door already hanging there sets the ceiling on what we can put in front of it.
How square the opening is
We measure the diagonal in both directions. More than a quarter inch out and a stock door will never seal evenly along its length.
Whether the door is the actual problem
Sometimes the draught is a failed sweep and a compressed stop seal. We will tell you that, and it costs a fraction of a new door.
A storm door can cook the door behind it
Put a glass storm door in front of a dark, sun-facing entry door and you build a small greenhouse. The air trapped between the two panels gets far hotter than the outside air, and that heat can warp a fibreglass skin, blister a paint finish or delaminate a veneer. Most entry door warranties say so in the fine print — and most quotes never mention it.
So we ask about orientation first. If your door faces west and it is dark, we will steer you to a ventilating model with a low-e coated glass, a full-screen retractable unit, or no storm door at all. We would rather lose the sale than replace your entry door in three years.
- ✓Orientation and door colour asked at the measure, not after
- ✓Low-e and ventilating options where sun exposure is high
- ✓We put the recommendation in writing on the quote
What twenty-two years of doors buys you
Made-to-size, not forced to fit
Older Valley openings are rarely square. We order units built to your measurements rather than shimming a stock door and filling the gap with sealant.
The measurer installs the door
No handoff between a salesperson and a subcontractor, which is where most wrong-size deliveries come from.
We fit new frames on entry doors
A slab hung in a tired frame inherits every problem the old door had. Full frame and sill replacement is our default, and we say so on the quote.
Honest about repairs
A large share of the draught calls we take end in a sweep, a stop seal and an adjusted threshold. We will quote the repair before the replacement.
One visit, cleaned up
Most storm doors and entry doors are measured, delivered and fitted without leaving your house open overnight.
Doors we've fitted around the Valley
Measure, order, fit
Free measure
We come out, measure the opening in three places, check the diagonals and ask which way the door faces.
Written quote
One page. The door, the hardware, the labour, and a note on anything we recommended against.
Order and build
Made-to-size units usually take two to three weeks. Stock sizes are quicker; we will tell you which yours is.
Fit and adjust
Fitted, sealed, hardware adjusted, and we open and close it with you before we leave.
Not sure whether you need a new door or a new seal?
That is exactly the call we would rather take before you spend anything. Tell us which way the door faces and what it is doing, and we will tell you honestly which one it is.
The front door is the only part of the house a visitor touches
Everything else about a facade is looked at. The door gets handled — pushed, latched, leaned on while someone finds their keys. That is why we spend as much time on the handleset and the strike plate as on the slab itself.
We fit fibreglass, steel and wood entries with a new frame and adjustable sill, and we will happily talk you through where the money actually shows: the finish on a fibreglass skin, the gauge of a steel one, the difference a multi-point lock makes to how a door feels when it closes.
- ✓Fibreglass, steel and wood entries
- ✓New frame and adjustable sill as standard
- ✓Multi-point locks and smart deadbolts fitted and set
What homeowners say
They talked me OUT of the storm door I came in for. My front door faces west and gets full afternoon sun — the installer explained it would trap heat against a dark fibreglass door. They fitted a low-e ventilating model instead and it has been fine through two summers.
Our 1948 opening was out of square by nearly an inch. Three companies quoted a standard door and a lot of caulk. Vaneworth measured, ordered a made-to-size unit and it closes with one finger.
The retractable screen was the thing I did not know existed. Screen when we want it, invisible when we don't, and no storm-door glass to store in the garage every spring.
Storm doors and entry doors, answered
Will a storm door damage my front door?
It can, if the entry door is dark and takes direct afternoon sun. The air trapped between the two doors gets much hotter than the outside air and that heat can warp fibreglass or blister a finish — and many entry door warranties exclude it. That is why we ask about orientation and door colour before quoting. Where exposure is high we recommend a ventilating or low-e model, a retractable screen, or no storm door.
How much does a storm door cost installed in Roanoke?
Most storm doors land between roughly $450 and $1,400 fitted, depending on whether it is a stock width, a full-view or ventilating model, and whether the glass is low-e. Security storm doors with welded mesh and a three-point lock run higher. Made-to-size units for out-of-square openings add to the door cost but not usually to the labour.
What is a retractable screen door?
The screen rolls into a slim cassette beside the opening and pulls across when you want it. There is no glass panel to swap out seasonally and no screen sitting in front of the door all winter. They suit entries where the storm door would otherwise cover a door you actually want to see.
Can you fit a door to an opening that isn't square?
Yes, and it is a lot of what we do in the older parts of the city. We measure the width at three heights and both diagonals. If the opening is more than about a quarter inch out we order a made-to-size unit rather than shimming a stock door, because a shimmed door seals unevenly along its length and that is the draught you feel next winter.
Do I need a whole new entry door, or can the draught be fixed?
Often it can be fixed. A compressed sweep, a hardened stop seal or a threshold that has dropped will let daylight and air through a perfectly sound door. We quote the repair before the replacement, and a fair share of our calls end there.
How long does an installation take?
A storm door is usually two to three hours. An entry door with a new frame and sill is most of a day. Either way we do not leave your house open overnight — if we start it, we finish it.
Which areas do you cover?
Roanoke, Salem, Vinton, Cave Spring, Hollins, Blue Ridge and Botetourt County. If you are just outside that, call and ask — we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people.
Tell us about the opening
Which way it faces, what the door is doing, and whether you are after a storm door, a screen or a full entry replacement. We will call within one business day.
- Visit us2214 Brambleton Ave SW, Roanoke, VA 24015
- Call us(540) 555-0147
- Email ushello@vaneworthdoor.com