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dpb dpb is offline
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Default Help- rotted out wood at base of door jam problem

On 07/16/2014 3:40 PM, DaveT wrote:
On 7/16/2014 2:11 PM, dpb wrote:
On 07/16/2014 1:44 PM, DaveT wrote:
...


OK - I cleaned out all the rot wood, replaced it with treated deck wood
that presumably won't rot. I raised the base of the treated wood about
an inch higher than the wood went before.

I used exterior primer on all exposed wood, then I used regular
qwikcrete to fill in the existing hole and vertically fill in all open
wood space (the base of the treated wood now lies on about a 1 inch
buildup of qwikcrete - that should stop much wicking).

The photo shows how things look now.

My question is: what to do next? I'm not going to put in any plain trim
and have it rot out again.

Should I encase the whole area using deckwood? Lay on more qwikcrete
vertically up to where the base of the wood trim is now and try to make
it look ok? Or use some flashing to somehow cover the thing up?

I welcome any sensible ideas.

Thanks to everybody for all the help so far.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126231...n/photostream/


Hmmmm....I can't tell for sure what I'm looking at and the shape of the
fill in that is the dark area. What I had in mind with the concrete
buildup was to form it out a half-inch or so at least in each direction
beyond the dimensions of the brick mould so it became the new base but
having the recess such that the fill in to that or a replacement piece
would fit in as the existing. Looks to me like you've kinda' rounded
over that where you're not going to be able to put in a piece of
moulding now?

I still think you have a basically insurmountable problem with that
being a well at the sill level -- what does the rest of the area around
it look like and where's the overall drainage? I'd still think the real
longterm fix would include raising that sill at least a little above the
rest of the grade.

I'd like some more explanation and a little more of an overview from now
before further more detailed explanations if possible.


It's not a well. During heavy rains with wind there was area below the
rot wood that was allowing water to get in accumulate before it could
drain, and wick up into the wood. It wasn't apparent until I pulled
things apart a few days ago.

No water has ever been able to go over the sill.

Adjacent to the door is a 3x3 ft concrete slab with a low drainage slant
which runs into a pit I dug out a long time ago, with a grating over it.

I think this is going to solve it and I don't want to go the route of
building up a sill and cutting the door to size and finding out that
I'll need a new custom cut door..... etc. The door is standard metal
with some kind of foam interior and I doubt there's any easy way of
modifying it.

If this doesn't work, I would agree with you that the next step is a
raised sill, but I don't want to go there, yet.

....

It'll certainly help but the door looks in pretty bad shape as well as
near as I can tell. It's not so much that the water runs over the sill
as that it collects and tends to retain water along the sill in all the
crevices and crannies and it undoubtedly runs w/ capillary action under
it and to the ends to get into the ends of the jambs and wall sections
to greater or lesser degree.

That there was the hole where the brick mould ran below the grade before
is obviously going to have been a major problem and I agree you'll have
helped that part out significantly.

I agree w/ the geometry DadiOH suggests; it's the same as did I. I
won't argue any further with him over it but Bondo is simply not the
right product for this job.

The only other lesser disagreement I have with his advice is that it is
counter-productive to caulk that seam at the bottom of the brick mould
meeting the base; it's the same idea as the purpose of weep holes in
masonry or not caulking the bottom of siding laps--any moisture that
_does_ get in there needs a way to get out; if it has no way out then it
becomes a dam on the wrong side.

I'm guessing part of the problem in this area is also that it is shaded
a fair amount of the time?

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