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- 21 Jul 2006
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I’m faced with repairing our old front door – probably late Victorian/early Edwardian, which turns out to be in worse condition than I originally thought (if I’d known I probably wouldn’t have started the job!). The door has four panels with the top two being stained glass and the bottom two being raised and fielded and edged round with a moulding. It’s the bottom panels which are the problem – they both have bad rot on their bottom edges, along with some rot on the corresponding edge of the bottom rail.
I’ve never tried dismantling a door, and with the stained glass panels in this one I don’t want to use it as a bad learning experience! So my question is, how best to repair? It looks like the panels are too far gone to repair with rot treatment, filler and similar stuff, as I can push right through them in places.
My current thinking is to remove the bottom rail by cutting through where it joins the stiles, hopefully enabling me to remove the old panels and then slide in replacements. Then make up a new rail grooved to fit over the panels, and fitting this by routing the existing mortices in the stiles through to the bottom so that the rail tenons can be slid in from the end. If that makes any sense!
As my experience is very limited, I’m hoping that someone can tell me if I’m completely off the mark, and whether there’s a better approach (please no double glazing salesmen!). I’ve also never tried my hand at a raised and fielded panel so any tips there would be helpful – I have access to a router and table.
I’ve never tried dismantling a door, and with the stained glass panels in this one I don’t want to use it as a bad learning experience! So my question is, how best to repair? It looks like the panels are too far gone to repair with rot treatment, filler and similar stuff, as I can push right through them in places.
My current thinking is to remove the bottom rail by cutting through where it joins the stiles, hopefully enabling me to remove the old panels and then slide in replacements. Then make up a new rail grooved to fit over the panels, and fitting this by routing the existing mortices in the stiles through to the bottom so that the rail tenons can be slid in from the end. If that makes any sense!
As my experience is very limited, I’m hoping that someone can tell me if I’m completely off the mark, and whether there’s a better approach (please no double glazing salesmen!). I’ve also never tried my hand at a raised and fielded panel so any tips there would be helpful – I have access to a router and table.