Refurbing old front door - any woodworkers?

[PaulStat]

We bought our house just over a year ago, the previous owners left the old front door in the garage, I'd like to refurb it by stripping all the old paint off, sanding it, painting it etc.

Here's the door in question.

















Now here comes the main question as you can see the bottom of the door has some rot, I'd like to cut the rot out and put new wood in, never having done any woodwork before I'm fairly clueless. Any ideas? (Luckily my father in law has lots of tools I can use to get the job done)

 

[Nightglow]

Bottom rail needs completely replacing, the stiles look ok, but could use a expoxy resin to firm things up.

Another way I done it, is to cut off the rotten section with circular saw, then fit replacement piece of rail with glue & long screws that are countersunk & plugged.

Where I worked, we had a joinery shop attached, & it was quite common people coming in with various doors asking for repairs like yours.

Might pay you to find a local joinery firm or chippy to do the job.

Beeline Carpentry in Redland, M & P Joinery over at Monpelier , R&J Joiners Redland, are three firms which spring to mind, others in Bristol, but I can't find my red book of contacts..

 

[PaulStat]

Thanks, very newb question but how do you remove the bottom rail?

 

[setter]

Regarding stripping, id get it dip stripped. A lot quicker, the new formula of strippers such as nitromors are rubbish compared to what they used to be like.

 

[Nightglow]

Thanks, very newb question but how do you remove the bottom rail?

Need to remove a side rail carefully, you need cramps & a large bench to lay the door to work on.

I think you would struggle doing this door.

 

[bitslice]

Agree, this is tricky.
Part of the stile is gone, so that would need remaking along with it's tongue&groove joint to match the rail, so a router is required. In fact as it's the bottom of the door it would be better to scarf the stile in much further up, otherwise you are relying on two 90deg 3" glue joins to hold the whole rail in place.
Get a chippy to do it and make sure he doesn't just bodge a new bit on.

Worth doing though, those doors are lovely, unlike the utter tat that 99% of home destroyers owners usually replace it with.
Considering that all these post war houses were just thrown up as quick as possible, they did make nice doors.

 

[Maccapacca]

I'd get it dipped first and have a look then, the years of paint could be hiding some horrors. Should be £10 if you can drop it off. Probably depends on the glass if it's coloured or painted glass.

If the bottom of the door is like that what is the frame like? Is it still the right one?

 

[PaulStat]

Agree, this is tricky.
Part of the stile is gone, so that would need remaking along with it's tongue&groove joint to match the rail, so a router is required. In fact as it's the bottom of the door it would be better to scarf the stile in much further up, otherwise you are relying on two 90deg 3" glue joins to hold the whole rail in place.
Get a chippy to do it and make sure he doesn't just bodge a new bit on.

Worth doing though, those doors are lovely, unlike the utter tat that 99% of home destroyers owners usually replace it with.
Considering that all these post war houses were just thrown up as quick as possible, they did make nice doors.

Couple of questions

1. Remaking the stile, do you just mean the bottom section.
2. What does "scarf the stile" mean?

Oh and the door might be post war, but the house isn't



I think you can (just about maybe) see from this it's still the original frame as the stained glass matches.

 

[Nightglow]

Couple of questions

1. Remaking the stile, do you just mean the bottom section.
2. What does "scarf the stile" mean?

Completely replacing the the bottom section of the door, the new rail would need tenon joints cut, so quite a bit of work.

It is Scarf joint were two pieces of wood overlap, cut out a rotten piece in the door & replace a new section, several types of Scarf joint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarf_joint

 

[bitslice]

Oh, it's just exactly like the door on a house I was gutting, nice house

Yep, scarf, just a joint on an angle allowing more surface area for glue, often used to repair a section of wood. The stiles are the two vertical bits of wood at the sides of the door, the rail is the block of wood at the bottom that sits between them, the panel(s) are the thinner bits that rattle around in the spaces.
I'm not sure that is a tenon joint? I was expecting that too, but the side view shows a T&G joint.

 

[PaulStat]

Dunno if this helps, I took a picture of the top of the door showing the joints on the stile a bit more clearly



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Nightglow]

Easy enough to cut with a router with a stile & rail cutter.

Most wooden doors today have dowelled joints.

If you have the door dipped, remove the glass, a friend had a door dipped & glass went cloudy, also it will probably get a bit loose on the joints.

 

[PaulStat]

Another view of the joint, is this T&G?

 

[pitchfork]

Regarding stripping, id get it dip stripped. A lot quicker, the new formula of strippers such as nitromors are rubbish compared to what they used to be like.

Fluxaf Green is actually pretty good. Nitromors is garbage since is become "eco" though.

It was really eco when I binned it and bought something else...

 

[darreny]

Mortise and tenon joint by the looks with a haunch tenon

 

[setter]

Fluxaf Green is actually pretty good. Nitromors is garbage since is become "eco" though.

It was really eco when I binned it and bought something else...

Cheers, ill give that one a try. Got another set of mahogany windows to strip next week.