No letterbox

[notb665]

I am renovating an old door (pictures below), and I no longer want the letterbox, so have taken it off. Obviously I am left with a rectangular hole which goes straight through. I would like to fill this so when I sand and paint it later it will be invisible, as if there had never been a letterbox there. How do I do this? Any help greatly appreciated.

http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/door1.JPG

http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/door2.JPG

 

[Jasonb]

If possible get some old timber to match, likely to be douglas fir. Clean up the hole with chisels or a router to give a nice square sided hole, trim you filling piece to a good fit then glue with plenty of waterproof adhesive (PVA, Alphatic resin or PU will all be OK.)

Plane and sand the wood smooth, use epoxy filler as required.

If you plan to strip the door before painting do it with a heat gun or Nitromores, sending it away to be dipped will do more harm than good. Watch the heat around the glass.

Jason

 

[masona]

You could make a panel up or use a thin plywood similar to the 3 upright panels size you have there and put it across the whole width of the door with a external moulding beading on edge. I have seen a door trim panel kits in diy stores, might not be the right size though. I think if you do fill the hole with wood, it will always be noticed long term because of difference expansion rate. If you do decide to go the panel route I would still fill the hole with wood/glue for strengthen the door

 

[big-all]

as jason says about routering out for the clean edges
also make sure your bit of wood and door aclimatise together otherwise when you glue sand and paint after a little while you will have an oblong crack showing where the letterbox used to be as the wood settles down

 

[chappers]

just make your timber infill block a couple of mm below being flush with your door surface and fill and sand.Use a decent epoxy filler such as car body filler otherwise it will crack and fallout when the door keeps getting slammed shut

 

[debmac]

why don't you just fill it with expandable foam and trim it off.
If you fill and sand over it no one will know

 

[notb665]

Thanks for the tips.

Hey - certain people go all funny if you reply to even a slightly old post: pathetic, if you ask me.

Anyway, I stripped off all the layers of piant and varnish (about 6), acclimatised it with a piece of douglas fir which I cut to the rightish size, glued it in and filled it with the best quality wood filler I could get. Sanded it down. Painted etc. You can't even see it now!

Thanks! Would you like to see a picture?

http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/1109371179_door1.JPG

http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/1109371246_door2.JPG

I think it looks really good - thanks again for your help.

 

[masona]

What a lovely door! So it was a old exterior door converted to a interior door or no more bills

 

[kevplumb]

nice job notb665

 

[breezer]

Hey - certain people go all funny if you reply to even a slightly old post: pathetic, if you ask me.

No it isn't you have to understand how forums work.

some people will ask a question (may be 1 or 2 posts to ask the question)and never return, so what is the point of replying to it? when it is old and they made only 2 posts, say 2 months ago.

Others will join the forum, search out and reply to an old post that again the origonal poster only made a few posts, and then only make a few posts themselves

Also people will reply to a very old post, where the origonal post was a very long time ago, so what is the point, since as the origonal post is very old, 9 times out of 10 they want a "instant reply" don't get one so never post again
a typical such post is here

Also most "new posters" do not try a search to see if their question has been asked before

without rules this forum would be anarchey

 

[petewood]

Anarchy in the DIY, you could write a song about that.

 

[big-all]

hey notb665 you are not answering an old post
you are doing the very much appreciated thing of giving feed back
whick we all love and appreciate your door looks brilliant that is why we help [as you know ]because we love helping and the feedback makes it so so worth it thank you for your feed back

 

[breezer]

perhaps i should add, although the post in this case is "old" it is actually continued by the origonal poster (notb665) that doesnt bother me, since it may not be possible to ask another question for some time, or its a big continuing project, but as i said what i find "silly" is when some one replies to an old post that was nothing to do with them in the first place, such as the example that i gave, i mean 2 years later, what is the point?

There are also other examples of in some cases months when some one who had nothing to do with the origonal post replies. What is the point? it shows that some one wasted time searching out a post they can reply to, that the origonal poster has probably finished or done the job and never bothers to post again.

It could be argued that it is "feed back" if it is fom the origonal poster then yes i would agree, but lets face it, most new posters post a question, or two then go, and as i also said, most new posters just post a question without searching to see if their question has been asked before , so the "feed back" is some times of no use.