Home DIY

If it was my job I'd be trying to patch up the bottom of the right hand one just because of the modern alternatives potentially being such crappy wood.

I was planning on doing that, but honestly a good ⅓ of the bottom of the door is fucked.

It was just painted before we bought. Then our tentants smashed in the bottom and blamed it on the oddest break in ever (I assume in reality their son did it playing football or something).

The doors I'm looking at are made from 15mm "good quality European 5th Redwood". Although you've made me a bit nervous about what gets delivered. There's a bit of flex in the price, but as someone else is buying them for us as a gift I don't want to take the piss.

If they are well made you'll still have to treat the knots and they will possibly cause early failure of the paint if they weep sap. One way to sort is infra red which melts out the sap, then filling.

It's just the way it is and the reason most joinery grade work is in a wood with no knots. It's normal for this type of door though. Just be aware that you may need to apply knotting before priming and even then you might get some knots weeping sap and spoiling the paint finish in the first few summers.

Thanks for taking the time to share tips.

Invaluable as ever!

yeah, literally taking notes over here

If the wood is a bit shit - i.e. full of knots - then (to repeat Airhead's advice) you gotta hit the knots with heat from a gun to push the sap out, then sand, then treat the knotty shitty bits with knotting fluid (liberon do some that worked in my experience), fill any cracks with filler, then prime the fuck out of it before hitting with some good quality exterior paint. It's a lot of work.

Looking at those doors, I wonder if you could make some out of hardwood deck boards.

Ground floor bay window, north facing, gravel outside possibly too deep (gets pushed up over time due to car parking).

Found mould on the back of the sofa.

Is it rising damp? Or just damp damp?

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Happy to lift some floorboards if you want to look underneath

Apologies for the terrible mitres on the skirting. Not my finest DIY hour. I think I was under time pressure.

Money would be on condensation due to temp differential and lack of air flow. If it was damp coming from the wall, it would have totally fucked skirting board from behind causing ripples in the paint, but what you seem to have is surface deterioration.

Clean up with wrag + vinegar, see what you are left with.

Just where your sofa was, kill it, HG mold spray (is very strong). TBH just bleach would do [edit it'll be on the soft too]

TBH just bleach would do

Actually no, it doesn't.

I don't think DIY door chat is allowed in this thread?

Well it'll get the surface first stance, can't say it'll never come back

Looking at those doors, I wonder if you could make some out of hardwood deck boards.

I can't imagine it's any harder than making some garage doors (which I easily have the ability to do BTW) - it's more the time cost.

I'd still have to paint and fit anything I make. My dad suggested I check with a carpenter for how much it would cost to get some made, but I assume they'd want a couple of k, assuming anyone would quote in the first place.

On the heat gunning the knotts - why can't I just use something like colron knotting solution on its own? Why do they need blasting first?

For fixing the doors, to make it more secure, I was wondering if there was something like a coach bolt that would work for fixing the hinge to the frame?

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Knotts bleed faster on exterior, learning the resen content (and how long the timber has been cured) takes feel and time , if it's smelly and sticky stand clear and pass it by, dry and light is what you want . Beyond that on a good percentage it'll be fine without burning anything

Acid/vinegar soaking into the surface a bit makes a less hospitable substrate for mould. Bleach might clean it initially but doesn't work so well long term. And is liable to make your sofa go a funny colour.

I was going to ask about garage doors

Decent hardwood you wouldn’t have to treat so aggressively compared to the softwood crap you get today.

On the heat gunning the knotts - why can't I just use something like colron knotting solution on its own? Why do they need blasting first?

Because it brings the worst of the sap out so the knotting fluid has a chance of working.

You’d kick yourself if you didn’t do it and the paint fails a year down the line because it got hot and it pushed the paint off.

If it normally has a sofa in front, then @Howard 's condensation suggestion seems most likely - cold wall, sweaty room, no airflow, mouldy walls.

Otherwise, you'd need to be looking behind the skirting and plaster, below the floor, and under the gravel in front.

Cheers, I was having a disbelief moment, sounds like a better route

If you don't want any different functionality I'd definitely just fix those doors.
Can't be more time consuming than making new ones fit and so on.
Also probably cheaper.

Do you feel Zinsser allcoat is better than little greene exterior? Love it for undercoats but never used it as overcoat/final paint.

I meant to qualify this a bit yesterday but I didn't have some of the details to hand.

For LG or F&B colours I have been using a specialised primer and top coat. I get the primer from Ray Munns (Global Paint / Baseprimer X-tra) and the top coat from Papers & Paints (Mylands Wood and Metal in some cases).

Most of the exterior painting I do is in white gloss because it's the most durable exterior finish. I have been using Zinsser Allcoat for about 6 years, since it was launched and have seen good results with it. I also use it for Satin Black on railings etc.

I have had early failure on railings from F&B and LG exterior paint so I don't use them anymore. Both F&B and LG are more difficult to apply especially in heat than Allcoat or the other paints I've been using.

There's a development in the acrylic paints over the last couple of years that brings them very close to oil paint in the way they handle.

I have had some great success with the old oil based Dulux Weathershield system but I don't use oil based paints any more wherever possible for all the reasons (except durability).

The only big name system I couldn't understand what the fuss was about is Sikkens oilbased. Some people loved it though.