Patio Door wooden sill replacement

[Jon Parker]

Hello again uk.diy,

The second of my "things to sort out this year" is the rotten sill undernea th the patio doors. I was planning removing any screws along the bottom edg e of the frame and then simply ripping the remains of it out and inserting a new one, having cut it to size and painted/treated it first of course.

My question is, although the doors and frame are supported by 4 screws up e ach side and presumably a few along the top, will they be sufficient to hol d the doors and frame in place whilst I remove the old sill and refit a new one? I don't really want the whole thing to drop.

Is it advisable to wedge another bit of wood into the gap to take the weigh t?

General advice requested please.

Photos:

1. Rotten sill: SC_0047.jpg

1. Entire doors: SC_0048.jpg

2. Side view showing 4 x screws: SC_0049.jpg

Thanks and regards. Jon

[Chris Hogg]

Looks remarkably like the patio doors we used to have, even down to the appearance of the rotten ends of the sill, the peeling paint and its colour, and the lock. IIRC the weight of the doors is taken by the track across the bottom that the moving door runs on. I can't see you easily getting the sill out from under that track and replacing it without removing the doors. Again IIRC, the doors should more or less lift out, a feature much appreciated by burglars.

I hated ours; they were for ever seizing up. As soon as one of the doors started to mist up, I got the whole shebang replaced, sill and all.

[Capitol]

Take the doors out first, they are heavy. The screws only tie the frame into the wood surround. Then look for a piece of PVC cill to replace the wood. You probably need a 90mm cill which can be tricky to source. You may find it easier to replace the whole of the rest of the wooden frame if the rot has spread. There may be screws upwards through the cill into the wooden frame.

[stuart noble]

The sill itself doesn't look rotten and would probably hold a coat of varnish better if treated with hood hardener. The lower part of the frame itself looks a bit iffy, but might be repairable with 2 part filler. I think the integrity of the frame would be affected by removing the sill

[Tricky Dicky]

The frame is more than likely mortice and tenoned into the cill. The only e ffective way to replace it is to remove the frame and re-attach a new cill the same way. I have to agree with another poster that it looks salvageable as it is and unless the wood feels spongy, I would give it a good sanding, treat it with wood hardner followed by a two part filler before re-applyin g the finish.

Richard

[Andrew]

This is what happens when people use water-based Ronseal 'it does what it says on the tin' crap to 'paint' their external hardwood frames. Especially if the hardwood is one step up from balsa wood.

After one hot summer it cracks and the water gets in behind it. Then it is a short downhill path to oblivion.

Removing the awful stuff is an exercise in itself.

Also, painting South facing timber a brown colour is asking for trouble. The solar gain and thermal movement are severe.

Take a look at Ron Curries website and ebay listings for the stuff they use on their own bespoke timber windows.

Andrew

[Jon Parker]

Thanks, that's given me some ideas :-)

Jon

[John Bailey]

replying to Jon Parker, John Bailey wrote: Did you get this repaired? I have exactly the same issue - trying to get a joiner to do the repair is proving impossible. Just wondered what your final solution was.

[tabbypurr]

You'll get a lot further here if you use a sane means to access this group (news:uk.d-i-y), eg google groups.

NT