Our garage door was hand built by a local joiner out of rainforest
mahogany Ca 18 years ago. It has been well maintained ever since but
now is starting to show signs of deterioration.

It looks like a traditional panelled door but the panels (which are
hardwood faced ply) were fitted into grooves in the framework as it
was being assembled, IE there is no beading holding them in. The door
has just been professionally re-treated with Sikkens.

The problem is the bottom edge of the bottom row of panels (which gets
nearly all the water that hits the door)- the plywood is giving up the
ghost. It looks like it's failing because the edge splintered a little
when they were being sawn to size and some of the splintering has been
exposed for 18 years.

To get panels out would involve a dismantling job of taking off the
sides and bottom. IGWS it would ruin the paint finish and open up all
the joints all round, all in all not condusive to increasing it's
longevity.

The panels are exposed on the inside of the door and from there it
looks like they are not too bad under the paint.

So I'd appreciate suggestions as to what to do to improve the worst
panels which are at the bottom.

Strip off the years of Sikkens finish over about 1" above and below
the join and treat with some sort of hardening plastic sealer perhaps,
and then re-apply the Sikkens ?

Give it a severe wire brushing, re-paint it well and fix a drip strip
to keep the water away from the offending joint perhaps ?

Any better ideas.

Derek

Derek Geldard wrote:
Our garage door was hand built by a local joiner out of rainforest
mahogany Ca 18 years ago. It has been well maintained ever since but
now is starting to show signs of deterioration.

It looks like a traditional panelled door but the panels (which are
hardwood faced ply) were fitted into grooves in the framework as it
was being assembled, IE there is no beading holding them in. The door
has just been professionally re-treated with Sikkens.

The problem is the bottom edge of the bottom row of panels (which gets
nearly all the water that hits the door)- the plywood is giving up the
ghost. It looks like it's failing because the edge splintered a little
when they were being sawn to size and some of the splintering has been
exposed for 18 years.

To get panels out would involve a dismantling job of taking off the
sides and bottom. IGWS it would ruin the paint finish and open up all
the joints all round, all in all not condusive to increasing it's
longevity.

The panels are exposed on the inside of the door and from there it
looks like they are not too bad under the paint.

So I'd appreciate suggestions as to what to do to improve the worst
panels which are at the bottom.

Strip off the years of Sikkens finish over about 1" above and below
the join and treat with some sort of hardening plastic sealer perhaps,
and then re-apply the Sikkens ?

Give it a severe wire brushing, re-paint it well and fix a drip strip
to keep the water away from the offending joint perhaps ?

Any better ideas.

Derek

Dodgy panels can be removed by routing round the frame on the inside a
bit at a time until the panel can be pushed through from the outside.
New panels can then be fitted and retained by new beading from the inside.

Bob

Derek Geldard wrote:
Our garage door was hand built by a local joiner out of rainforest
mahogany Ca 18 years ago. It has been well maintained ever since but
now is starting to show signs of deterioration.

It looks like a traditional panelled door but the panels (which are
hardwood faced ply) were fitted into grooves in the framework as it
was being assembled, IE there is no beading holding them in. The door
has just been professionally re-treated with Sikkens.

The problem is the bottom edge of the bottom row of panels (which gets
nearly all the water that hits the door)- the plywood is giving up the
ghost. It looks like it's failing because the edge splintered a little
when they were being sawn to size and some of the splintering has been
exposed for 18 years.

To get panels out would involve a dismantling job of taking off the
sides and bottom. IGWS it would ruin the paint finish and open up all
the joints all round, all in all not condusive to increasing it's
longevity.

The panels are exposed on the inside of the door and from there it
looks like they are not too bad under the paint.

So I'd appreciate suggestions as to what to do to improve the worst
panels which are at the bottom.

Strip off the years of Sikkens finish over about 1" above and below
the join and treat with some sort of hardening plastic sealer perhaps,
and then re-apply the Sikkens ?

A couple of coats of 2 part wood hardener would probably be your best
bet, but the ply should be dry when you apply it. Chicken and egg
situation.

Give it a severe wire brushing, re-paint it well and fix a drip strip
to keep the water away from the offending joint perhaps ?

Introduce a chamfer at the bottom of the panel if there isn't one
already. Car body filler works well.

Any better ideas.

Derek

On 20 Sep, 19:13, Stuart Noble wrote:
Derek Geldard wrote:
Our garage door was hand built by a local joiner out of rainforest
mahogany Ca 18 years ago. It has been well maintained ever since but
now is starting to show signs of deterioration.

It looks like a traditional panelled door but the panels (which are
hardwood faced ply) were fitted into grooves in the framework as it
was being assembled, IE there is no beading holding them in. The door
has just been professionally re-treated with Sikkens.

The problem is the bottom edge of the bottom row of panels (which gets
nearly all the water that hits the door)- the plywood is giving up the
ghost. It looks like it's failing because the edge splintered a little
when they were being sawn to size and some of the splintering has been
exposed for 18 years.

To get panels out would involve a dismantling job of taking off the
sides and bottom. IGWS *it would ruin the paint finish and open up all
the joints all round, all in all not condusive to increasing it's
longevity.

The panels are exposed on the inside of the door and from there it
looks like they are not too bad under the paint.

So I'd appreciate suggestions as to what to do to improve the worst
panels which are at the bottom.

Strip off the years of Sikkens finish over about 1" above and below
the join and treat with some sort of hardening plastic sealer perhaps,
and then re-apply the Sikkens ?

A couple of coats of 2 part wood hardener would probably be your best
bet, but the ply should be dry when you apply it. Chicken and egg
situation.



Give it a severe wire brushing, re-paint it well and fix a drip strip
to keep the water away from the offending joint perhaps ?

Introduce a chamfer at the bottom of the panel if there isn't one
already. Car body filler works well.



Any better ideas.

Derek

To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship

Rob

On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:50:06 -0700 (PDT), Rob G
wrote:



To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship


He's 67 and at least a thousand times better than the plastic windows
/sqirty foam cowboys we get nowadays.

True, after 18 years it is marginally disappointing. They did all the
hardwood windows and doors + conservatory from basic priciples. The
workmanship with the hardwood is very good, the only criticism I've
had so far is their insistence on using cheap bent steel hinges on
internal doors and using cheap "Builder's quality" locks instead of
the Chubb I asked for on the final exit door. Builders *will not* use
proper locks for the sake of saving Ca. 3 quid. As a result when a
lock failed the manufacturer was no longer in business, and the
replacement had a different outline, oh and all the hinges creak,
irrevocably.

Probably where the garage door went wrong was in their lack of
understanding of using a new material Viz hardwood faced ply. AAMOF a
material I really don't like. Panels with raw torn edges shouldn't
have been used , or at the very least cleaned up and not with the raw
edge at the bottom facing out, and some means of shedding water
provided for the lowest couple of rows so they don't cop for every
drop of water that hits the door.

Derek

To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship

Rob

I bet your garage doesn't face south or west though.
I've worked on houses where Victorian windows on the north side were
still in good nick, and everything on the south side was shot to pieces

Stuart Noble wrote:

To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship

Rob

I bet your garage doesn't face south or west though.
I've worked on houses where Victorian windows on the north side were
still in good nick, and everything on the south side was shot to pieces

Strange., Its the reverse in my house.

Its the shaded north side where the frost damage, and damp, are most
important.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:

To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship

Rob

I bet your garage doesn't face south or west though.
I've worked on houses where Victorian windows on the north side were
still in good nick, and everything on the south side was shot to pieces

Strange., Its the reverse in my house.

Its the shaded north side where the frost damage, and damp, are most
important.

I suppose it partly depends whether the shaded side has an open aspect,
but IME the UVrainUV cycle is the killer for wood and paint.

Stuart Noble wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:

To show up your local joiner, my garage doors are pine, they were old
when I bought the garage well over 30 years ago second hand, and I
reckon it was at least 30 years old then, and are still looking good.

It sounds as if your local joiner needs avoiding for shoddy design and
workmanship

Rob

I bet your garage doesn't face south or west though.
I've worked on houses where Victorian windows on the north side were
still in good nick, and everything on the south side was shot to pieces

Strange., Its the reverse in my house.

Its the shaded north side where the frost damage, and damp, are most
important.

I suppose it partly depends whether the shaded side has an open aspect,
but IME the UVrainUV cycle is the killer for wood and paint.

Ah. Use more/better paint.

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:38:28 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
I bet your garage doesn't face south or west though.
I've worked on houses where Victorian windows on the north side were
still in good nick, and everything on the south side was shot to pieces

Strange., Its the reverse in my house.

Its the shaded north side where the frost damage, and damp, are most
important.

Yep, same here - the north side of both garage and barn are/were
definitely worse off, presumably because that's where it takes things
longer to dry out.