On 1/22/2010 9:30 AM, HerHusband wrote:
I have installed several prehung exterior steel entry doors over the last
few years, and virtually all of them have minor leaks somewhere around the
bottom. The first was the entry door to our garage, which has now rotted
and will need replacing this summer. Obviously, I don't want any other
doors to rot like the first one, or worse yet cause structural damage to
the buildings.

I've tried to follow the best building practices I can, wrapping the wall
felt into the door opening, applying flashing tape around the opening
(bottom, sides, then top), caulking with high quality PL polyurethane
caulking, etc. The exterior door frame is completely sealed and there's no
possible way water is coming in around the exterior of the frame.

As far as I can tell, the water comes in somewhere around the door sill at
the bottom. I'm not positive, but I think the water runs down the sides of
the door against the weatherstripping then along the crack between the
metal sill and the the wood jambs. I've tried caulking these joints also,
which has helped, but the water is still getting in somewhere.

Unfortunately, there's no overhanging roof to protect most of the doors,
and adding an external storm door is not an option either.

I'm stumped. It shouldn't be this difficult to make a door water tight...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Anthony


Wind driven rain runs down the outside of a door to the threshold
where it is supposed to flow down and off without entering the house.
Unfortunately this is not always the case. Some finds it's way in
around the door edges and weatherstripping. If it can't run in
directly it may wick in through the smallest cracks.

I believe this is a common problem that many people are unaware of
because water soaks in under the flooring around the threshold and
goes unnoticed until the problem becomes a major one.

Two of my neighbors have the same problem. By the way we are all
building are own houses and are living ln them as they are being
completed. I found and corrected a few problems that would not have
been very visible once the finishing had been completed.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to stop the water leaking in, I
ended up installing storm doors on all my outside doors. Not a drop
of water on the floor after that.

The storm doors keep the inside door warmer during the winter. They
may eventually pay for themselves in reducing heat loos through the doors.

LdB