scholar
Established Member
I have been refurbishing some french windows and have a problem with a significant bow in the closing stile on the slave door - this is 4-5mm which means that the primary door has to be slammed very hard to latch it. This always has been the case, but is probably worse now, having renewed the seal. The primary door stile is straight.
A couple of pictures show the layout:
The end section is removable to give access to the shootbolt mechanism - it is screwed in to the main door and plugged - it has the same bow as the stile on the door and I guess the stile was the original culprit and the end section has taken this up [thinking about it, they may have machined the removable section from the same piece of timber as the stile itself, which with hindsight would seem a mistake.] The doors are a bit under 2.2m tall.
So, having completed the refurbishment, or so I thought, I am now contemplating trying to correct this bow by:
a). Remaking the end section. I didn’t want to do this, but it is relatively straightforward - I will use Accoya that at least will start out straight and stable - but I don’t think that will be enough to encourage the stile to straighten (and in any event, locating the tongue in the slot would probably be difficult without messing with the shape of everything).
b). (The surgery bit) - reconstructing the door stile in situ by routing away each side and laminating a new full length piece on either side and clamping it straight whilst gluing. Again I would use Accoya.
The stile is 55mm thick and I could replace the outer 15mm and probably the inner 20mm, which would preserve the thickness of the existing tenons. The width of the replacement strips would be approximately 85mm, just leaving the inner section of the glazing moulding.
This seems feasible in theory and infinitely preferable to remaking the entire door which otherwise (now) is perfectly fitted.
Does anyone have any experience of doing such an exercise and or any good observations?
The existing doors are red deal, I think - they were made about 20 years ago and if Accoya was around then, I didn’t know to specify it. Today, I absolutely would specify Accoya, particularly as the situation is exposed and coastal.
Cheers
A couple of pictures show the layout:
The end section is removable to give access to the shootbolt mechanism - it is screwed in to the main door and plugged - it has the same bow as the stile on the door and I guess the stile was the original culprit and the end section has taken this up [thinking about it, they may have machined the removable section from the same piece of timber as the stile itself, which with hindsight would seem a mistake.] The doors are a bit under 2.2m tall.
So, having completed the refurbishment, or so I thought, I am now contemplating trying to correct this bow by:
a). Remaking the end section. I didn’t want to do this, but it is relatively straightforward - I will use Accoya that at least will start out straight and stable - but I don’t think that will be enough to encourage the stile to straighten (and in any event, locating the tongue in the slot would probably be difficult without messing with the shape of everything).
b). (The surgery bit) - reconstructing the door stile in situ by routing away each side and laminating a new full length piece on either side and clamping it straight whilst gluing. Again I would use Accoya.
The stile is 55mm thick and I could replace the outer 15mm and probably the inner 20mm, which would preserve the thickness of the existing tenons. The width of the replacement strips would be approximately 85mm, just leaving the inner section of the glazing moulding.
This seems feasible in theory and infinitely preferable to remaking the entire door which otherwise (now) is perfectly fitted.
Does anyone have any experience of doing such an exercise and or any good observations?
The existing doors are red deal, I think - they were made about 20 years ago and if Accoya was around then, I didn’t know to specify it. Today, I absolutely would specify Accoya, particularly as the situation is exposed and coastal.
Cheers
