I have a 70 yr old house. The basement door is in a cement well with a wooden structure above ground on which the door sits. The whole wooden structure is rotting away. What is the best way to replace the surround above the cement, and the door. No one manufactures a single basement door. I priced a custom steel surround and door. It was over $3000. We are just using a piece of plywood for a door right now but that looks awful and has to be replaced all the time. Many years ago it used to have what I called as a child a "buck door". Don't know why. It was 3 - 5 boards wide, probably tongue-in-groove, with a diagonal board and top and bottom trim boards. May have my terms all wrong. Would like that look again but not practical or available. What should we do?:confused:

I was in a situation similar to yours, and here's what I did:

First, my basement "door" was like you said, a piece of plywood with hinges. Rotted, and definitely not enough to keep the riff-raff out. Because the dimensions were "odd" (much wider than any standard exterior door, and also shorter), I decided I'd just make my own.

I tore out everything of the old door. I built a surrounding frame out of pine. The bottom door jamb is aluminum, which I fastened to the concrete using these blue concrete-specific screws (they require a pilot hole, and don't need to be very long).

I caulked the door jamb and up the first few inches of the frame with silicone.

To build the door, I made a frame of 2x4s (laid flat so the 1 1/2" dimension is the thickness). They are held together with some metal L-brackets. I made a rectangle, plus a diagonal cross member for support.

I cut rigid pink foam, 1 1/2" thick, so it would fill all the cavities.

Then I covered both sides with 1/4" lauan plywood. I glued this with construction adhesive, plus added brads every 6".

NOTE: Be sure you build this thing on a FLAT surface and check often to make sure it isn't warped.

I used heavy-duty gate hinges, plus a regular handle/lock set.

I painted the door and frame to help protect it.

I know this door will not last forever, definitely not as long as a custom steel door. But if that cost $3000, I feel OK because mine cost about $100. My door is 48" wide and about 65" tall, and works just fine.

If your door isn't as WIDE as mine, maybe you could cut a standard solid wood exterior door to fit. You can cut the door jamb as well, and use an aluminum bottom piece like I did.

Best of luck, hope that helped.