I
can think of at least four options you have regarding the rotted
door sill.
- 1. Replace the entire door
with a new pre-hung door.
- 2. Replace only the sill with
a new sill, perhaps aluminum or fiberglass.
- 3. Chip away the badly rotted
wood and use Liquid Wood from Abatron (http://www.abatron.com)
to solidify the remaining soft and slightly damaged wood.
Liquid Wood can be used to salvage rotted wood that is dry.
Then you can fill in the voids with Abatron’s WoodEpox,
which is an epoxy filler product similar to automotive Bondo.
- 4. Chip away ALL of the rotted
wood and apply a coating of good oil-based exterior primer
(Sears WeatherBeater Exterior Oil Primer has a very strong
fungicide which may deter future rot). Then use automotive
Bondo body filler to fill in the voids. But you cannot use
Bondo on bare wood, it just won’t stick for very long. Also,
before you paint you could apply a coating of wood
preservative (DAP makes a product, I think). Make sure the
product says it can be used before painting.
You might choose your approach
based on how much time and money you are willing to spend and how
long you plan to live in the house. Replacing just the sill is
probably the best overall approach because it allow you to inspect
and if necessary repair the sub-floor underneath. Below the
sub-floor you will find the rim joist and the ends of the floor
joists.
I trust you’ve seen this
article that shows how I replaced a slider door and repaired the
floor and joist framing which had rotted:
http://hammerzone.com/archives/doors/sldrrem/drslrm.html
Essentially it is a procedure of
replacing rotten wood (and supplementing slightly damaged wood)
with new material. For example, if the end of a floor joist were
rotted more than one-fourth of the way through, I would add a long
block of wood (4’ if possible) to "sister" the joist.
Replacing the joist would be out of the question in most cases.
It’s been almost ten years
since I’ve replaced a door sill. What I can recall is that the
wood sill came out easily because the screws or nails that
attached the sill to the jambs had rusted badly. The removal
procedure may be a case of divide and conquer. Simply cutting the
sill near the ends to remove the bulk, and then using a chisel to
bust up the remaining blocks of wood at the ends.
Getting the new sill in place is
not going to be as easy. You might need to do a little surgery on
the lower parts of the jambs to create enough room for the new
sill. And the carpeting or finish flooring nearby will not help
either. If you don’t already own a reciprocating saw, this
project will be a good reason to buy one.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
