Door sill question

[DaveT]

The outside door going into my garage had a standard aluminum and wood sill that leaked small amounts of water into the garage during heavy rains. The water was getting in under the sill and I never could seal things up. It didn't do any damage, but I got tired of it, so I ripped out the sill and cleaned things up.

I'm thinking about using a qwikrete buildup to replace the old sill. The problem is that it would have to span the garage slab, and the slab on the outside of the door, and any differential movement between the two is likely to cause a break. We have swelling clays here and movement is probably what caused the old sill let water through.

Any ideas on the best way to proceed? A couple pics in the link below show the situation.

Thanks

[clare]

How about a layer of rubber matting on the outer concrete, and then pour the concrete sill over that? Perhaps engineer a re-enforcement grid and anchor it into the internal concrete to make sure it stays with the slab. Or instead of the permanent rubber matting, just use a spacer when pouring the concrete, and put a good layer of caulk under the edge when finished - or caulk the joint well, then pour the overhanging sill over the afore-mentioned spacer, and leave the sill sitting above the outer slab to allow movement. Mix the concrete extra strong and make sure you cure it well (keep it damp for a week or two)

[Tony Hwang]

Water can't climb up, I have 2 entrance doors and of course double wide sectional door. Water never seeps thru or leak into garage when it pours outside. Is there a overhang above the door?

[micky]

So you yourself know the problems.

Caulk it better than the last time. Did it have caulk before?

Silicone caulk is good and there is that new brand, whose name I can get for you, that says it sticks and stretches even better than silicone.

[DaveT]

I think I'm going to limit the qwikrete sill to the garage slab, use concrete sealer to infill the gap between the garage slab and the outside slab, and call it good enough.

[DaveT]

It had lots of caulk, everywhere, numerous times. It had a very tight seal between the bottom of the door and top of sill rubber seals. It even had a 2" rubber seal barrier that I attached to the sill to seal against the door when closed - nothing worked to stop the water leakage into the garage.

I was dealing with this leakage for over 10 yrs. Yesterday, when I ripped out the old sill, the interior wood was rotted out. This side of the house gets the prevailing wind direction, and apparently rain water was being driven into this area and getting onto the garage slab via the space between the outside slab and the garage slab, which was overlain by the old wood/aluminum sill, the outside slab being a few MM's higher than the garage slab.

The water leakage into the garage didn't harm anything, but I just got tired of having it happen.