OT Sliding Basement Door

super99

Well-known Member
OK, time has a way of flying by. We put our house up in 2002. I had the basement door installed by a contractor my son was working for at the time, he didn't use treated wood. I put silicon caulk around the edges and filled the gaps with it. I primed it and never got back to paint over it. I painted 2 door frames upstairs today and decided to paint the sliding door frame also. After looking at it, I need to do more than paint. On the bottom left, the wood is starting to go bad and some of the silicon is loose in other places, I scraped that off. Is there a outdoor wood filler that I can use on the bad spots and then paint, or should I just get a roll of brown aluminum trim coil and cover it as it is? This week was shutdown at work, I have the combine ready to cut rye, but it's probably a week away, so I can work on it after work and get this taken care of. Chris
a195220.jpg

a195221.jpg

a195222.jpg
 
I would cover it with coil stock myself. I do not know of any filler that will stick/seal to "bad" wood. Cover the wood with formed coil stock and then use a good chalk to seal it to the concrete. This should stop the wood from getting any worse if you can keep the moisture away from it.


Who is the old feller in the reflection???? LOL
 
About the best temporary fix would be to caulk it with Alex 230, try to stop the water from getting in the crack between the wall and the slab (going to be tough to do that). Then cover it with aluminum, sealed with silicone, for cosmetics. But, the aluminum is going to be a "out of site, out of mind" situation. It will buy you several years, but eventually it will have to be taken out and replaced. Some cedar or redwood would be better than treated.
 
Do yourself a favor and just replace the entire door frame now. Install a new door frame with proper weather proof flashing and you won't have to worry about it again. You may need to add more slope to the patio to drain water away from the base of the door.
 

I assume you don't want to remove the door and start over. How much water do you get on top of the slab in front of the door? Does the slab move or stay put?

You're not going to be able to properly flash the bottom plate/sill now that the slab is up against the basement wall so one way to repair the damaged wood is with a penetrating marine epoxy. I'll post a couple of links below to get you started. I no longer know which brand of penetrating epoxy is best. You'll have to do some looking online. I've used an epoxy sold by West Marine and it did a great job filling rotted wood. Perhaps they still give good advice. When you get the bottom plate/sill and trimmers cleaned and sealed, cover the wood with metal and caulk heavily between the jamb and wall and sill and slab. Probably last another 40 years if you keep the water out.

Penetrating marine epoxies:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/boatlife--git-rot-penetrating-epoxy--P004_120_001_009

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=97636
 
I think it is Minwax that makes a wood hardener for stuff that is starting to rot, then there is wood filler that is just wood colored bondo, mixes the same.
 
I've covered a lot of things like that with aluminum. Cheap fast fix.
I was the happiest person when I removed my 8 ft aluminum slider that would freeze shut in the winter. Both my sisters say the same thing. One sister just removed 3 from her place in Florida and said her electric bill went down. Both sisters replaced sliders with french doors. I walled in mine when I remoded.
 
At this point, anything you do short of removing the door and reframing the opening is just covering up the problem. The rot will continue unabated until either you fix the problem or the door falls out. Carpenter ants are likely to take advantage of the rot and accelerate the problem.

As someone else mentioned, there are epoxy products intended for marine applications that can be used to encapsulate rot. "Git-Rot" is one such product. These really don't make sense in a house, due to their cost and the difficulty of getting them where they need to go.

BTW, silicone caulk is a bad choice for sealing around doors. You can't paint it and it's not intended for exterior use. There are better sealants for exterior use which are also paintable.
 
>Some cedar or redwood would be better than treated.

Why, Steve? Cedar and redwood are both weaker and less rot-resistant than pressure-treated southern yellow pine.
 
The door is setting on cement, probably would have been better if it had been setting on something.. Water doesn't stand by the door unless we get a heavy downpour and then is gone after a few minutes. I doubt I will last more than 10 years, so then it will be someone else problem.
The old guy in the reflection? He's just a shadow of who I used to be.
 
like said, punky wood can't be 'fixed'
If you use a filler, chip out punky and scrape til you get to good wood.
risk.......there ain't no good...sigh, gotta replace it.
after the fill repair (or just oil soak it) then cover and water seal it good.

at least one of those boards, I'd chip, cut, drill, pry, whatever, to get the bottom foot or so out and puzzle pound in a good piece.
 
(quoted from post at 05:53:34 07/05/15) The door is setting on cement. Water doesn't stand by the door unless we get a heavy downpour and then is gone after a few minutes.

The trimmers provide some support for the header, but for the most part are just filler for your door opening. The header is supported on both sides by the basement wall so you can work on the trimmers one side at a time without having to support the header.

The trimmers may look worse than they are. That gray patina may be caused by weather but they look like repurposed forming material to me. Drill a small hole in the bottom of the trimmers one inch above the concrete base. They may be sound. If you don't like the idea of using penetrating epoxy to turn them into a block of resin, cut them out and replace them with new. A sawzall will remove them quickly. It's the going back that's a little harder and depends upon how the first trimmer is attached to your basement wall. If attached with foundation bolts, I'd leave the bolts and reuse them. If attached with a ram set then cut the nails and reattach with concrete drive screws.

I assume there's nothing on the inside covering the trimmers. If there is, then the job gets a little harder.

The more I look at your pictures, the more I see. That trimmer on the right against the basement wall looks pretty good. It's the 1x in the middle and the 2x holding your door frame that look damaged. If that damage is only an inch or so deep, just chisel it out and fill with epoxy before you cover it up.
 
The gray is the color of the primer that I used. Some places it is still firmly attached.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top