My home was built in 1965. I am replacing an exterior door in the laundry/mud room. The interior trim is off and the usual directions are to cut the nails/screws on the sides and top with a sawsall. I can not find any nail or screw on the sides or top. I ran a hacksaw blade in the openings and found nothing. The door frame is very solid so it is secured somehow. Any ideas? Thanks.

sounds like the builders did to you what they did to my house. they nailed big freaking finishing nails through the brickmold of the door frame into the studs, from the outside.

double-check the new door will fit, etc etc... and then get a stout piece of wood against the doorframe inside and start whacking hard at one corner (lower would be good) with a big freaking hammer. I will bet ya that starts pulling out, and if you whack the outside brickmold back, you will see nailheads.

this one's a brute force job.

Post a picture of the door inside and out.
If it is just finish nails much easyer and less damage to find the nails and use a small nail set and drive the nails in as far as you can. The brick mould can then be pryed off easy with a flat bar.
The inside and outside trim has to come off anyways.
Also check to make sure there's not the 3" screws in the hindges holding you up.

Swschard you were correct. The door was attached with long finishing nails thru the brickmoulding. Yes, it was a lot of work using a prybar.
Next I need to replace rotten floor boards that were under the old threshold. Thanks for the insight.

If there's rot under the door then no one at least flashed it or better yet added a sill pan which would have prevented it.
I use a Toe Kick saw when cutting out floors along the walls.
If you replace the wood brick moulding with PVC brick moulding it will never rot or need painting.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joecaption,