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?
--
Tim Lamb