Outside door cills

[Peter Taylor]

On my 1920's house the outside door in the kitchen and the French window in the dining room have oak thresholds about 125 wide x 75mm high, sat on bullnosed blue brick steps. The oak is weathered and so badly worn near the centre that the rain comes in under the water bar. Can any of you clever folks come up with some suggestions how to improve them?

My best idea at present is to cover the oak on the outside with polished stainless steel sheet erm, covers. They would need to be made-to-measure. My mum had some on her house years ago, but nobody can remember where she got them. Anyone know?

Ta Peter

[dom]

Replace the oak.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Could it be taken out and turned over to wear the other side? Of course, you might find someone already did that;-)

[dom]

It's only oak, the cost of a couple of door sills is small compared to the labour/effort for any good repair - why bodge the job?

[Peter Taylor]

I'd do it if I could - I'm no bodger. The trouble is the sill/threshold has tenons dowel-jointed into the jambs, and the only way to get a new one in without cutting the jambs is upwards, which means breaking out the blue bricks. The idea behind the s/s covers was to give some weather protection, because rainwater drips off the weatherboard straight onto the threshold.

I thought about cutting away the surface of the oak and refacing it with 1" thick board - I did that 4 or 5 years ago to a rotted window cill and it's still fine, but even that feels like a bodge. :)

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll have a ponder (or two) :)

Peter

[Stuart Noble]

Most merchants stock keruing doorstep. Not expensive IIRC