I am refurbishing the main front door frame of our 1930's house in readiness for a new oak front door to be fitted. The door frame and cill are almost certainly original and in very sound condition. The frame is softwood but the cill is hardwood and, I would say, oak. I'd like to retain and re-use it.
The cill is dowelled into the frame and working loose (partly because one of the dowels has broken and dropped out!).
Obviously it is easy enough to fit a new dowel, but should I also be looking to glue it all together? Anything else I should do - for example, should the cill be attached to the blockwork under it or does it just sit on it? Sealant? DPM?
The frame is also slightly loose in the (single-skin) brickwork, at the bottom (the side where the dowel has half dropped out) - the two events are probably connected.
Dumb question, probably, but is a frame anchor the right thing to use to attach it more firmly?
Final question relating to draught proofing. The cill has an iron bar bolted to it which acts as the door stop since the cill has no machined stop. I can reuse the bar, but I wonder if there is something with built in draught excluder these days? In fact, I need to add draught excluder to the door frame too - any suggestions?
A lot of questions - sorry! Tim Hardisty. Please remove HAT before replying by email.