Bottom of door woodrot on new doors. Repair ideas?

[alabamatacomaguy]

These doors and frames were replaced 3 years back, painted with a quality paint last summer and now are showing wood rot.
Does anyone know a good way to fix these or something to slow down the rot. I was even thinking of spraying fluid film or oil on to at least stop it from growing, until I can drimel out and replace with something like stone based filer I’ve been recently told about.

I’m alittle less than a mile from the gulf in Florida, for some reason they don’t put gutters on most homes in the area which makes no sense to me. That may help some but for the most part they stayed dried and clean with fresh paint which pisses me off his happened so quick.

Any advice or just part of living in Florida?

 

[PAToyota]

The wood they use for those pre-hung exterior doors is crap. Having it right against the masonry like that only wicks up more moisture and destroys it faster. As you note, lack of gutters only adds to the issues as it puts more moisture into the masonry as water splashes back up and soaks it.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the brick sill looks flat - as opposed to sloped to shed water away from the door. I'll guarantee that water is getting down between the brick and the metal sill. You say the wood "stayed dry," but the brick is like a sponge. It holds water - and then the wood trim just soaks it up over time. Although the exterior of the wood trim is painted, I'm going to guess that the backside and the bottom end are not - and that is where the water is getting in.

Particularly so close to the coast, I'd take the whole door out and flash the opening with EPDM, paint all sides of the wood to seal it, and redo the sill with a greater slope to shed water.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

The wood they use for those pre-hung exterior doors is crap. Having it right against the masonry like that only wicks up more moisture and destroys it faster. As you note, lack of gutters only adds to the issues as it puts more moisture into the masonry as water splashes back up and soaks it.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the brick sill looks flat - as opposed to sloped to shed water away from the door. I'll guarantee that water is getting down between the brick and the metal sill. You say the wood "stayed dry," but the brick is like a sponge. It holds water - and then the wood trim just soaks it up over time. Although the exterior of the wood trim is painted, I'm going to guess that the backside and the bottom end are not - and that is where the water is getting in.

Particularly so close to the coast, I'd take the whole door out and flash the opening with EPDM, paint all sides of the wood to seal it, and redo the sill with a greater slope to shed water.

that makes sense coming from behind and under. The house was built in 74 but all new doors, windows and sheetrock in 15 before I moved in. the bricks seen better days and im sure the lady I got it from used the lowest cost option when getting doors so probably cheap china wood just stereotyping.
I guess Ill figure out how long I want to live with it and plan on staying in this home before moving.
Thanks for your reply, itll give me something to say to a handyman when I can get one out

 

[PAToyota]

Not as much "Chinese" wood as just that everything is "fast growth" wood these days. This picture is a piece of pine from the 1920's on the left vs. a recent piece of pine on the right. The old wood was so much denser that it didn't soak up water like the new stuff does. As I say, it's like a sponge.

If you were planning to stay for some time, I'd recommend pulling everything out and doing it right. If you just want to keep it together for a few years, you can make some superficial repairs.

Again, it is somewhat hard to tell from the pictures, but the brick mould and door stop are applied to the actual door jamb. Depending on the thickness of the wall, the door jamb may be visible with the stop applied to the face of it and the brick mould applied to the edge of it. It looks like on yours the wall is thin enough that the brick mould applies to the edge of the jamb and butts right up against the door stop.

Neither the brick mould nor door stop is "integral" to the jamb nor attached to the wall, so you can usually get a putty knife behind them to loosen them up and then take them off with a pry bar. Start with the brick mould to expose the edge of the door stop. Replace those with Azek (or other "plastic" trim) so they don't soak up the water. Often, the jamb itself is protected enough that it will be in better shape. Just get new trim of similar dimensions to the existing and put it back in with finish nails into the door jamb. You could lay them in a bead of latex caulk before nailing to help seal it up and then even though the plastic trim doesn't need to be painted, give it all a good coat of latex paint to seal up the joints so water doesn't get in to the remaining wood.

Depending on how handy you are and what tools you have (miter saw, pneumatic finish nailer, putty knife, pry bar, hammer) , this is less than an hour's worth of work.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

Not as much "Chinese" wood as just that everything is "fast growth" wood these days. This picture is a piece of pine from the 1920's on the left vs. a recent piece of pine on the right. The old wood was so much denser that it didn't soak up water like the new stuff does. As I say, it's like a sponge.

View attachment 1703913

If you were planning to stay for some time, I'd recommend pulling everything out and doing it right. If you just want to keep it together for a few years, you can make some superficial repairs.

Again, it is somewhat hard to tell from the pictures, but the brick mould and door stop are applied to the actual door jamb. Depending on the thickness of the wall, the door jamb may be visible with the stop applied to the face of it and the brick mould applied to the edge of it. It looks like on yours the wall is thin enough that the brick mould applies to the edge of the jamb and butts right up against the door stop.

View attachment 1703916

Neither the brick mould nor door stop is "integral" to the jamb nor attached to the wall, so you can usually get a putty knife behind them to loosen them up and then take them off with a pry bar. Start with the brick mould to expose the edge of the door stop. Replace those with Azek (or other "plastic" trim) so they don't soak up the water. Often, the jamb itself is protected enough that it will be in better shape. Just get new trim of similar dimensions to the existing and put it back in with finish nails into the door jamb. You could lay them in a bead of latex caulk before nailing to help seal it up and then even though the plastic trim doesn't need to be painted, give it all a good coat of latex paint to seal up the joints so water doesn't get in to the remaining wood.

Depending on how handy you are and what tools you have (miter saw, pneumatic finish nailer, putty knife, pry bar, hammer) , this is less than an hour's worth of work.

thanks thats great. its on my radar and to-do list this will help big time when the time comes.

Florida destroys things much faster than I am used to. I have a bbq grill that was kept in a garage the first year of its life when not in use now falling apart after 1 year being covered in the elements of the back yard.

Part of life things rot away I guess, makes one really appreciate the quality of materials and craftsmanship used in the past.


*side note I was wanting a home built in 1908 in my area very cool details but I work 6-7 days a week most times of the year so having time to fix up a house doesn't make sense for me but Im hoping in the future to have put in enough work and sweat equity now to be able to take the trips out west for periods of time and fix up an old home or two. Ive always admired and valued that type of stuff. My mother got me into antique furniture and its fun to see how things were made in the past..... was kind of interesting when me and my now wife were dating when I would hurt her feelings with opinions on her styles I saw as very short term.

 

[PAToyota]

As an Architect, I actually see more problems in houses from the past twenty years than from the ones 70+ years old. Not only the better wood from years ago, but a lot of it has to do with the details. Now, too often builders don't pay attention to how they put things together and rely on caulk to seal it up and make it work. Back when they didn't have tubes of caulk, they actually built things so that they would naturally shed water.

Like I say, that brick sill should be sloped more to better shed water. And a related question - how wide are the soffits on your house? Modern houses all seem to have lost wide soffits - the edge of the roof is right at the wall. Older houses had wide soffits to shed rain away from the walls and foundations for a reason…

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

Im thinking alittle over a foot maybe 1.5-2ft a new coat of good paint for them is the next thing on my to-do list. They are wood and were painted in 2015 and already are in need of another coat.


it drives me crazy most homes in my area dont have gutters. they are on a list of things to do but we are already talking of finding a bigger home in our area so probably wont be done by me as this areas market is always hot and no inventory since on a narrow peninsula with no room to build.... only bad thing is people around here dont care or have much garage space like where Im from, this one has at least a two car garage that is 90 degrees half the year

 

[KLF]

I have fixed issues like this by surgically cutting out the bottom ~6" of trim and jamb with a multi-tool saw, then replace with the same size PVC. Caulked and painted well, you can't even tell from a few feet away unless you look really hard. You're better off in the long run to replace it all, but this also works.

@PAToyota is correct, there is not as much craftmanship used in home building these days, the contractors are just too concerned with dealing with profit and the tight costs from the bid. This is especially true on spec-built homes. My house was a custom job, but I've had to fix a lot of things they just slapped together. None of the exterior pine trim around the windows was primed/sealed on the ends before it was installed, now most of it is soft and water rotted (almost 25 years). I'm replacing a bunch of it this year with PVC, squirting spray foam in at the same time (which they neglected to do). None of the exterior doors were properly shimmed and had NO screws or nails thru the jambs into the framing, the trims on both sides was the only thing holding them in.