Here we have a frame where the sidelight which I had made repairs to is fixed. Adjacent are matching french doors and then further sidelights on the other side.
The rot had been caused by a leak which had gone unnoticed over a number of years in the conservatory roof where it meets the wall.
Because I had the room I used a mitre saw fixed to the frame and made a 45degree cut . Using this gives me a really neat cut and when I cut the replacement part on a chop saw at 45 degrees I get a truly clean joint.
The customer assumed that the front door to their property needed to be replaced. I was keen to renovate the door as all joints were sound and there were no signs of rot.
Being a 36 inch wide door a replacement of similar design would be in the region of £1000. After removing the various bits attached to the door, a thorough sanding and finishing with 3 coats of light Oak Satin varnish the end result looks very presentable.
I am all for this type of renovation. If we are going to be serious about future natural resources and carbon emissions we are ALL going to have to reduce reuse and recycle. A win win for the customer -they saved at least £1000 .
A win win for the environment – one less door to get rid of and one less door having to be manufactured .
I had to replicate this set of garage doors as it is in a conservation area of Southampton so aesthetically the same although the construction method employed differs from the original.
One of the issues that arise from traditional board faced doors often using TGV is that the boards will move substantially during periods of dry sunny weather and equally move during periods of wet weather. This process of expansion and contraction can be seen on virtually every board faced gate and door . The tell tell sign often being the exposure of the tongue (the T ) which leaves an unpainted or unstained vertical line which is the case with contraction or pinched boards with expansion and the forces involved in the pinching means that boards come away from the frame behind.
Even if this movement is not so visually apparent the process eventually results in the fastenings working loose. This being the case with these doors along with rot to the bottom third. So to overcome this I went down the route of laying the frame onto 18mm Marine Grade plywood which is pretty well bullet proof when it comes to movement and future rot issues. This method is often employed on board ships and larger vessels where a TGV boarding effect is desired often on dog houses and the forward facing section of wheel houses without having to deal with movement issues which would be exaggerated in a marine environment.
It’s my opinion that as we move into a time of climate change and chaos with extreme heat and colossal amounts of rain over a very short period ( As I write this post stair rod rain is happening outside) all new exterior joinery needs to be future proofed against such extremes and often the methods adopted in the marine industry need to be employed on land. A bog standard gate or set of garage doors from one of the large retail chains no longer will be adequate for the job in hand and will literally fall apart over a period of several years not decades.
The process of laying the frame onto the plywood starts with cutting the sheet of ply to the size of the gate. Then the frame with halving joints is manufactured and glued onto the back of the board. The glue used is an exterior grade adhesive with a lifetime guarantee against chemical breakdown due to moisture. The ‘sandwich’ is then cleaned up and housings cut for the locks etc. The face of the garage doors is now marine ply and the back of the garage door the frame from Joinery Grade Redwood. You could go even further with this and use Acoya instead of Redwood which I have written about here and then you would have a set of doors that would last almost forever. The effect of a V joint to mimic traditional TGV can be machined out on the face of the Marine Ply but in this case battens were fixed onto the face. Finally the doors are hung using 600mm strap hinges . The only deviation from the original was that I used 3 hinges for each door as the weight of the new doors are that much more. The battens are machined to a D profile and are fixed to the face using Stainless Steel screws.
This door was almost beyond saving indeed at one point I thought is it really worth it.
The glazing had not been installed with adequate sealants so the rain had penetrated behind the beading at the base of the glass and the result as you can see was extensive rot to the middle rail.
This was an event that took years of water ingress to end up in such a state of disrepair.
A new piece was introduced and fitted by keys rather than a mortise and tenon joint. The reason being that I did not want to open up the door further than I had to. All beading was replaced as well. A lot of this was also rotten. It had been pinned to the door with very little adhesive so the result here was rotting along the bead line. 53 hours later, one very happy customer and a door good to go.
It was primed with a yacht primer and will be painted by a third party. This is a mass produced door sold by a national chain the core is made up of Rubber wood and from what I could deduce Meranti which is a low grade Hardwood. It is then overlaid with a veneer giving the impression of a solid Hardwood door.
All well and good the core being made of timber staves glued prevents warping. But if more attention was made to the glazing and beads then this would not have happened.
These doors in essence are in good condition. Indeed the french doors are handmade from Burmease Teak -probably the most robust of all timbers but alas no longer available and actually illegal to import into the uk. These are about 30 years old.So the beading has come away from the rebate and the rain is doing its job filling the rebate with moisture, left as is wet rot and a new door would be the only option. I had to wait for the weather to be dry for at least 5 days in a row.I needed two days to do the job and at least 3 days of dry weather prior to that so that the rebates were at least dry enough for the sealant to adhere to. It’s laborious.180 mitre joints had to be cut and fitted but worth it and economically viable as replacement doors would have cost considerably more. There is the environmental argument as well a lot less resources are used. The customer then followed on from me staining them to match the doors.
On this occasion the answer was a definite no. A replacement was fitted, I used an exterior ply flush fire door not only are they cheaper than most exterior doors they are also pretty well bullet proof when it comes to wear and tear. Most suitable for garage side doors and the like
A project undertaken by Suzanne Carr. This will one day be the norm , upcycling materials; in this case pallets into sliding wardrobe doors. Unique and stylish I think this is a brilliant use of reclaimed wood I helped Suzanne with some of the technical issues that arose but apart from doing some machining of the pallet wood the doors were manufactured and installed by Suzanne.
“I am really pleased that I became involved in this project and would be very happy to advise you if you are considering something similar.
‘Having had quite difficult experiences with rented accommodation over the years, I have always felt very appreciative to now be living in ‘my’ house, owned by a housing association. It’s been important for me to make it a real home for my daughter too and I’ve always been keen to do as much as I can myself, DIY wise. Some time ago I knew I needed to make more storage space in my bedroom. I decided to build my own sliding wardrobe doors as I wanted something a bit different and was on a limited budget.
I approached different skilled trades; carpenters and blacksmiths, to see if my idea was possible – I had found an image of a door online I really liked and used it as inspiration, made from horizontal wooden planks sat in a rectangular steel frame.
Wardrobe doors from Pallet wood. By Suzanne Carr, Made with upcycling materials
Phil Candy, a blacksmith near Otterbourne, really helped me put my plan into action and was an incredible support right from the start. He made four steel frames for me from 25mm steel.
I then ordered some reclaimed pallet wood online from a really helpful guy in Wellingborough, who sent approx 6 sqm of pallet wood. I also sought a lot of advice from Chandler’s Ford Timber in Eastleigh, who were fantastic.
I encountered quite a few problems on the way as when I originally constructed the doors and put the wood in the frame, the pallet wood bowed the steel completely out of shape! I had really underestimated the strength of the wood. I was devastated as I’d already built the structural frame for the doors to sit in and at that point was unsure if I would be able to use the 80 bits of pallet wood I’d purchased, sanded and varnished or the four steel frames! I phoned round some carpenters to see if there was anything that could be done and was lucky enough to come across Ian Stone.
He had such confidence in my project and such a passion for sustainability and using reclaimed materials, it gave me renewed determination! He also really brought it home how important using recycled alternatives is for the planet, not to mention that you end up with something different and individual.
He advised to use a thicknesser to take the pallet wood down to 8mm, to then insert a large piece of Eastern plywood into the steel frame first, then once that’s secure (from the back with screws) finally attach the pallet wood onto the plywood with a polyurethane glue. It was also really important to weight everything down so the wood didn’t bow out before it was set to the ply, therefore keeping the shape of the steel and door itself.
I am so pleased to say, I finally finished the doors and now have unique, self made wardrobes that I absolutely love. Not only did the experience teach me so much, but it was a pleasure to work with so many inspiring and skilled people. I could not have done it without them, Daryl, who helped me immensely and my daughter who put up with our house being turned into a workshop for some time, and as always, gives me purpose!”
A single driveway gate with an entrance door fitted in the middle. These gates are heavy so a jockey wheel has been fitted to take the stress off the hinges thus ensuring that the gate will not drop over time. The door opens independently or the whole gate can be opened as a single leaf. Manufactured from tannalised softwood for the frame and tannalised tongue and grove for the panels this should last. Overall its 2.6 Meters wide and 2.2 Meters high. The images accompanying this show the manufacturing then the final piece in situ.
Doors Southampton 