exterior door threshold

11 years ago

I posted this in the flooring section a couple of days ago, but I am not seeing any action. Maybe someone that frequents this forum can help me out:

What is wrong with this picture? (Click the thumbnail please)

We are having flooring done at home and the carpenter installed a new threshold. That is the edges of the engineered wood flooring that can be seen between the metal and the recently-painted, gray sill. I have not talked to the contractor about this yet, but it looks all wrong to me. I am afraid that they will try to convince me that a little caulking is going to fix this right up, but that does not seem right either. The caulking will trap any water that might get in.

I would guess that some kind of weather-resistant wood or wood-like material needs to go on top of the sill to bring it up to the level of the threshold. It seems like it should be painted before it is installed and then touched up. OTOH, maybe the correct and best way is to install a new, thicker sill.

I am just waving my hands here and I could really use some advice from experienced people.

Thanks for reading.

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Comments (5)

millworkman
11 years ago
The picture is not large enough to really see the issue, even if you " (Click the thumbnail please)".
ionized_gw
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, I try hard to keep the image sizes down to save bandwidth and disk space. I won't be able to post another picture today. Maybe a little more narrative will help. If not, I will need some guidance to help me take a picture that shows what you need.

Here is what is in the pic from the top

White: door
black: soft weatherstrip of the threshold
gold: metal part of threshold
brown:edge of the flooring
Gray: Recently-painted riginal door sill if "sill" is the right word
Mottled gray-green: concrete porch deck that I have not yet had time to paint.

Oh, wait, I do have a wider shot if that helps.
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The interior saddle edge should sit on top of the flooring as it does now. But...the flooring should not extend all the way under the saddle to the outside, as it does in your picture. However, if the weatherstrip saddle fits well under the door and does the job, then no other adjustment to the door will be needed. As I said before, the saddle is to 'bridge' the interior flooring and the outside sill. However, I have had to resort to adding wood pieces under the sill edge of a saddle to get the saddle to rest more 'level'...if you understand what I'm describing, and in those instances I used a solid oak strip to do that. In your case, the engineered flooring is what is under the saddle all the way to the outside, if I understand the picture, and is that which is doing the job keeping the saddle level. Your flooring does not end at the sill, but extends over it. You could ask that the saddle be removed, the engineered flooring cut back and a solid oak strip or other solid weather resistant material used to fill the space that the engineered flooring does now...OR...leave it alone, provided that the weather strip saddle is properly fitted to the door bottom, and simply have the carpenter carefully caulk the gap and edge with an opaque silicone caulking compound. Most silicone caulks have a very long service life and will keep water out.
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Just replace them with new wooden ones. They can usually be removed, and new ones installed, without disturbing the trim too much, or even at all. As an alternative you could use one of the Peel-Away type paint removers and get rid of the paint in a couple (at most) coats. Then repaint with non-lead paint and you'd be good to go. The peel-away products can be expensive to use for large projects but for what you're talking about it shouldn't too bad. And because they encapsulate the paint (when you peel it away) there is less chance of chips breaking off and getting ground up into dust. Almost any gel-type (even if not peel-away style) of paint remover, if used carefully would work. A fairly un-stinky, but still effective, one is made of soybeans (Soy-Gel?). I've used it on floor paint and it melts the stuff enough for efficient scraping, with very little problem with bits falling away. Then you clean the wood with a citrus stripper. Since your're going to repaint, I would simply go over it with fine steel wool, then repaint. No need to sand, unless you want a super smooth surface which would be somewhat wasted for a door threshold, anyway. HTH, Molly
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I have a 'real' stone home. The walls are about 12" thick. You need to build the jam up with the wood of your choice - cedar / redwood / pine / pressure treated. If you want, wrap it with aluminum. The sides of my jam are pine, and painted white, the same color as the door. You may be able to use a stair tread for a sill. The entrance door swings into your living space, the storm door swings out, and there is about an 6" - 8" space between the door and the storm door. My sill is a 2x10 pressure treated, and I stained it.
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sombreuil_mongrel
11 years ago
(shakes head in disbelief) You have got to be kidding. Somebody got paid to do this to your house?
Someone needed to point out that previous layers of flooring had to be removed so the new flooring was no higher than the original door sill. Removal costs more dough, but this is just a fustercluck now.
Casey
ionized_gw
Original Author
11 years ago
You almost have it. The LR was down to the joists and plywood went on top of that. I think that they raised that a little so it would be level into other rooms where the subfloor was higher for some reason.

Before this project started, the LR, where the pictured door is, was tongue and groove. The hallway from the LR and one BR, that connected to that hallway were carpet over plywood. I won't go into details about the layers of whatnot flooring in other rooms.

Yes, I pay people all the time to ruin my house. After that is a pile of junk, we can start on the garage!

Seriously now, at first I was hoping that they were not finished. After a time, I realized that there is probably no way to "finish" this without tearing it apart and starting over.

How should this be fixed? The threshold is supposed to sit on top of the engineered flooring, right? What should happen now?

Does the threshold come out and the sill get replaced and the threshold get put back on?

Does the threshold come out and the sill, if sound, get added to so it is high enough?

Something else?

I suppose that I could just demand that the contractor get a real carpenter and let him figure it out. I'd like to know how it is supposed to be done rather than just point point to it and say , "this does not look right and I don't think that caulk is going to fix it."

I've been looking for a good picture or diagram of how the underparts of a doorway are assembled in a frame house with little luck.
ionized_gw
Original Author
11 years ago
Silly me, the unfinished wood under the threshold is not flooring. I should have looked more closely at it.

exterior door threshold

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millworkman

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exterior door threshold

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millworkman

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