Installing Patio French Doors

newk24

Hi Gang,

I'm getting ready to replace a vinyl patio glas sliding door (hurricane damage) with a prehung one-lite french doors that outswing to the patio. My R.O. is about two inches more than I need (a lot better than two inches too short...lol).

Anyway, I was planning on just building up the bottom with a pressure treated 2x4 and shimming the remaining...is that my best solution? the current patio door has about a 3 inch drop off from the inside carpet level to the outside deck, so I figure this will bring the door threshold to the level of the inside floor which will be fine with the short step to the outside. Any other possible suggestions, or is it better to put the 2x4 on the top and build down?

Also, I'm having a dilemma as to how to finish off the doors on outside...will just trim out the inside no problem, but the exterior is stucco and the current doors fit in the RO and just have stucco butting up to the frame with no sort of trim...are there any trim options for an exterior door like this butting up to knock down stucco or is it better to just lath the parts of the frame and try and match the stucco (which will open up a lot more questions for me since I've never worked with stucco before!!)?? Any suggestions??

Thank you all for your advice in advance, happy new year!
Jim