Rotten Entry Door

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I went to shut the door to the apartment over our garage today and the bottom weather strip got caught between the sill and bottom of the door. This is a steel clad wooden door and the bottom rail had rotted out letting the weather strip fall free. This surprises me because the door is only 4 years old.

It doesn't look like the door was leaking into the room because the carpet and underlayment are dry and the ceiling in the garage shows no sign of water damage. I'll take the door out tomorrow and replace it, but I don't want it to happen again. The weather strip was a piece of hard plastic stapled to the bottom of the door. Five thin strips of rubber were attached to the plastic and they are what actually provided the seal. It appears that water infiltrated between the plastic and the bottom of the door. How do you seal this area? Is there anything else I should look at while I have the door jam out?

[Allen Bookout]

I am having the same problem with my garage door. However the door is many years old (27 I think). I am just going to replace the wood at the bottom after pouring West System epoxy resin inside the door and then coating the new wood piece with epoxy. Should last for a great deal of time.

The reason that I am going this route is that about ten years ago I built a dingy out of exterior plywood and West System epoxy and just left it laying around outside when I was not using it (of course I used a good automotive paint over the epoxy). After all of those years, even in the Florida sun, it was still just perfect and very strong. Then along came hurricane "Charlie" last August 13th with a direct hit on us and it racked the dingy down between two houses and banged it against several block walls and ended up in one of my neighbors front yard. It had some damage and could have been repaired but I was not using it anymore anyway so I just did away with after using it for a haul off sled for some of the debris (yes it was that tough) since there were more pressing issues at hand. We are still not completely back to normal but getting close.

I guess that the whole point is that just about any wood will last for who knows how long with a good coating of West System epoxy and then painted over to keep the UV rays from damanging the epoxy itself. I have some plywood inside that has been coated for fifteen years and not painted that still has a perfect surface. Other brands are probably good also but I cannot testify to that fact.

I know that this sounds like a commerical but I am not affiliated with West System in any way - just a user. I still use it for a lot of things (makes a great waterproof glue).

Good luck with your door! Allen

[Mike Parzych]

It may be too late, but around here you can't buy just a slab steel door (not pre-hung.) But I found that at Menards, a local variety of Home Depot, they have a "Bargain" section in their door dept. I've gotten nearly perfect condition steel doors there for $5. Probably ones where the jambs got damaged. Sometimes they just may have a minor scratch.