The final job on the house window/door refinish is the softwood patio door with two sidelights.
I have replaced the rotted hardwood sill, trimmed and treated some rot where the uprights were mortised. The sidelights needed 45mm trimming to clear the rot in the lower edge!
I may have made a mistake in deciding to fit a 45mm hardwood *make-up* strip, directly glued and screwed to the new sill:-(
On starting to re-fit the sidelights I realised there is no bottom rebate to prevent water penetrating the edges arriving in our lounge! The original fit was simply screwed and nailed into the opening (rebated sides and top with a hardwood strip glued and nailed inside to the sill).
Is this normal? Clearly it led to moisture penetrating and being trapped between the sidelight and the sill.
I can adapt what I have done to seal the inside but wonder if a suitable mastic should have been used at the outset? If so which one? The gap is only a sliding fit so 1-2mm at the most.
In poking round the Jeldwen website I note that some of the work may be notifiable!
Thoughts?