panelled door outside

[shim20]

im making an oak door, the customer wants a panelled one to match all other door in the house, its a oak door, my concern is the panels spiting, my idea was to use 1/4 saw oak and make the panels 5/8 thick and biscuit joint them together and use a good exterior glue, cant see what else i can do?
just wondered what peoples thoughts are on this? or am i worrying to much?
thanks all
ben

 

[Chrispy]

A couple of notes to make;-
Biscuits (unless you get the expensive ones) are made from beech which is not durable so will decompose very quickly if they get wet.

The trouble with exterior panelled doors is the rain runs down the face of the door and into the groove that holds the panel, it has no where to go, so the panel soaks up the water and rots.

Sorry no happy ending to my rant.

 

[AndyT]

There are thousands of perfectly good panelled front doors round here, mostly about a century old. The thing is, they will all be made of good quality softwood, painted, and the panels will be single pieces, not glued.

The trouble starts if people decide they don't want paint on their doors.

 

[shim20]

yes i know there a water trap, tried to convince the customer but there dead set on it, sopose i might be able to do them i one piece but there about 10 inches wide, and glueing two bits together would make them more stable, hopefully they will do the little porch they were thinking about after ive done the door, thanks for the above input

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Oak veneer over ply?? Thats all the shop brought ones tend to be!

I tend to run a thin bead of clear silicon on the panel where it meets the grove after its hung and finished (before paint but after oil/varnish) to help stop the water getting in.

 

[shim20]

could use veneer but the door get all elements would be worried that over time veneer might start pealing off?, good idea on the silicon i could do this, the door will be finished natural with some sort of clear finish,

 

[Chrispy]

Don't know if this helps, some manufacturers put two panels in one groove back to back, the one one the outside takes the weather and may split, the one one the inside is protected and hopefully doesn't. (if you have to have joins then offset them).

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I have fitted many of veneer doors and only one to my knowledge had pealed and it was one of the 3 I had fitted to my house and turned out to be a manufacturing fault as one of the joints wasn't correctly constructed. The supplier sent us a new one which is doing well with 7 coats of teak oil.
If pealing was a major issue they wouldn't be made in mass product surely?

 

[shim20]

I have fitted many of veneer doors and only one to my knowledge had pealed and it was one of the 3 I had fitted to my house and turned out to be a manufacturing fault as one of the joints wasn't correctly constructed. The supplier sent us a new one which is doing well with 7 coats of teak oil.
If pealing was a major issue they wouldn't be made in mass product surely?

good point and taken on board, they probably use construction veneer?

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Sorry whats construction veneer? I would have thought it would be real wood veneer of the species of door your buying. If oak then oak veneer, if hardwood door then Meranti normally.

 

[shim20]

Sorry whats construction veneer? I would have thought it would be real wood veneer of the species of door your buying. If oak then oak veneer, if hardwood door then Meranti normally.

it is real wood veneer just thicker, i got some a while back2.5mm thick for some laminating, they do it in different thickness's, they probably use the normal thickness veneer

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I see. I think it is the standard thickness.

 

[katellwood]

This has been in for approx 5 years now and absolutely no issues with the panels to date, just a coat of danish oil once a year, That being said it is well set back under the eaves of the roof, will take a current photo when the snow subsides

I do have a full WIP for anyone interested

 

[shim20]

that looks very nice, how wide are the panels? did you join them must have done what glue did you use? im sure it will be fine in solid that what they used years ago

 

[katellwood]

that looks very nice, how wide are the panels? did you join them must have done what glue did you use? im sure it will be fine in solid that what they used years ago

Hi

The panels are approx 12" wide and are glued up from two pieces of oak, I cannot remember what glue I actually used for the panels however for putting the door together it was the first time I used titebond III as I was reliably told it had a long open time. If the panels were not TB III it would have been a polyurethane adhesive

 

[shim20]

that looks very nice, how wide are the panels? did you join them must have done what glue did you use? im sure it will be fine in solid that what they used years ago

Hi

The panels are approx 12" wide and are glued up from two pieces of oak, I cannot remember what glue I actually used for the panels however for putting the door together it was the first time I used titebond III as I was reliably told it had a long open time. If the panels were not TB III it would have been a polyurethane adhesive

yes the pu is so-post to be good outside, a recent pic would be good to see how its held up with the Danish oil
thanks again