Swollen and splitting front door

[Christyt999]

Hi there- I'm wondering if I can still save my front door.

I spent hours sanding, undercoating and painting numerous coats of top quality paint only to discover that the rain was leeking in under the weather bar (which I hadn't taken off to paint under and the carpenter hadn't undercoated or protected in anyway).

The door swelled up around the bottom and has dried out now but now the weather bar had fallen off (when we were struggling to open it because it was jammed) - and there are cracks around the panels.

I've taken some paint off where some cracks appeared but can see smaller cracks elsewhere.

Can anyone advise if this door is saveable. If so - what I should fill cracks with before repainting and installing a new weather bar?

In pictures below one shows a fine crack in the paint where the panels join and have split apart a bit as we've struggled to open the door when it was swollen.
Since then we were advised a bit of olive oil on the edge of the door would help with opening and shutting.

I'm wondering if I should try and put a very long galvanised wood screw (if such a thing exists) through the side of the door to try and bring it together and then seal with something and repaint the bits that are not painted?

Grateful for any advice.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267686@N03/13309631283/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267686@N03/13309467185/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267686@N03/13309628993/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267686@N03/13309626273/

 

[StevenUK]

Christy, I purchased some Ronseal wood hardener today, and cupronol wet rot treatment from b&q, as we have a similar area around our front door.

Might be worth a try

 

[geraldthehamster]

Doesn't look too bad to me.

Remove door.
Make sure timber is dry.
Use wood hardener if it's in a bad way.
Make good surface with a two-part wood filler (e.g. Ronseal), and sand.
Fit a new weather bar.

I wouldn't, personally, worry about the tiny cracks visible in the paint, unless they seem to you to affect the stability of the door.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Scarum]

To be honest it doesn't look that bad, compared to my door step which had rotted where the door frame meets the sill.

I cut out as much of the rotted wood (straight through!), treated with wood hardener, filled with two part filler (in three or four steps... little by little) and sanded.

Followed this with primer, undercoats then topcoats. Don't skimp on primer and undercoat and you may get more years out of it!

 

[Christyt999]

Thanks all - I love this forum and have taken all your advice - applied wood hardener, exterior filler, primed, undercoated and painted.

I have one follow up question - I've got a weather bar which i've undercoated. I was planning to screw it onto base of door but there will doubtlessly be a small gap running across top of weather bar.

My questions are:

a) should I top coat the whole weather bar before screwing on?
b) What sort of filler would work to seal the top? The door has top coat on and the weather bar currently only undercoat (but will be top coated now or at the end).
I don't know what sort of filler would bind effectively to fill an oilbase painted door, be water/weather proof and ideally not crack.

Or perhaps I should just gloss all over the weather bar, screw it on and forget about any (small hopefully) gap.

Again, v grateful for your sound advice!

 

[Scarum]

What gap between the weatherbar and door? All along its length?

If along its length then use a flexible sealant, there is a waterproof adhesive by Evostick (Serious Stuff Ultra) - I've used it and is very strong. I think you can paint over that. You can obviously use it to bond bar to door but note, once set hard you may never be able to remove the bar again!

I'd top coat when the (wooden) weatherbar has been fitted. You could overlap a few top coats onto door and fine sand the overlap between coats to blend in... or finish off with one final top coat for good measure.

Final photo of completed word is required!

 

[Christyt999]

Sorry this has taken so long!

In the end I repaired the damaged wood behind old weatherbar - took out some rotten wood - soaked in wood hardener and filled with Ronseal external supertough filler. Sanded - reundercoated and 2 coats of top coat. Did same for a new weather bar, all over. Then I've glued it on with super strong exterior no nails and sealed gaps with the same.

It's mainly been extremely dry lately so the paint around the panels seems to have moved, I imagine with shrinkage so I'm a bit worried it's going to provide another place for water ingress when the weather gets wetter again and over autumn winter. I'll probably have to look at how I can seal it again.

However for now I have a totally waterproof weather bar fixed just with glue.

And here is the pic of the rough but hopefully functional final product!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31267686@N03/14556990234/in/photostream/

Thanks again to all those who replied - happy summer to you all.

 

[Scarum]

I think that looks good!