Moulding for Victorian door required

[PhilipL]

My front door has suffered a bit from facing the sea and the moulding - or at least part of it - needs replaced. I don't have tools to do it. Any suggestion who might do this? I am in NI, but happy to send a piece off as guide.

Philip

 

[Sandyn]

An alternative:- You might be able to refurbish it.
Have a look at the wood, if it is still OK, If you clean the paint off the mating faces of the two bits of moulding, but leave it on the front detail of the moulding, so it still matches the look.
You should be able to repair with the minimum of work.
If you get two bits of moulding replaced, it will look wrong when back in the door. The detail will be crisp and clean, not 10 layers of paint.
That's why refitting the original may be less work in the long run.
I had exactly the same problem with my front door, The top and left moulding had partially detached from the door.
All but depends if the existing moulding is still OK.

 

[PhilipL]

Existing moulding is a bit knackered. I suppose I could build it up with epoxy and filler and see what happens. It's a listed building but no-one in NI bothers with that - someone else would probably put a plastic door in and the historic buildings people would ok it. Your door looks well, by the way. I will have to clean up my brass work.

 

[Spectric]

I think you need someone with a spindle moulder if you want an exact match, otherwise refurb as Sandyn has said, you can even repair slightly rotted wood using resin so long as you ensure it is dry.

 

[Mike Jordan]

That mould looks like a standard from euro cutter No 508
It is normally quicker and cheaper overall to replace all of the moulding rather than trying to copy or bodge up the rotting piece.
As already suggested, you only need to find someone with a spindle moulder.

 

[Ollie78]

Mike Jordan has the right idea.

If I were fixing this door I would pop off all the mouldings scrape back the many layers of old paint, prime it.
Cut new mouldings, prime them, fix on the mouldings then decorate it all with a decent paint.

As long as the new mouldings are near enough it will look a treat for years to come.

Ollie

 

[doctor Bob]

WRP mouldings - B712 is close, but plenty to look at.

 

[Sandyn]

The new moulding will have to be a near perfect match otherwise it will look wrong. I did all the panels of an inner door with new mouldings and it does look really nice to have sharp profiled mouldings. Does your front doors have 6 panels or just 4? It does look great when they are all fresh and new. If you replace just one panel, it won't look right, but you could just paint several times to try and take the edge off the mouldings. I think no matter what you do, it will always look slightly different, but that might be OK?
I just repaired my front door. I call it sympathetic restoration. For my front door, if I had replaced a single panel or replaced all 6 panels, it would have ruined the character of the door. It takes 100+ years to get doors into that state, it like the patina of an old bit of wood. Even though the door would be improved, it just wouldn't look quite right again. As it is, it'a a magnificent front door.

I still have the original inner lock on my door, but only had one key, but years ago I happened to work at a place that did phosphor bronze castings, I got 2 spare keys made at the end of a production casting, which happened to be for a rather special submarine, lol

I'm normally in Hillsborough at this time of year, but not this year!!

 

[LBCarpentry]

You have options. So starting with the cheapest, they are...

Repair and refit existing moulding.

Replace single length. Easy enough to do with a router, block plane and sand paper. No spindle moulder / cutter needed.

Replace all mouldings.

Louis

 

[Cabinetman]

I came across this company a while ago, as said above if they don’t have exactly the same change the lot, I wouldn’t worry about the inside nobody will ever noticed that they aren’t the same. Ian

 

[Sandyn]

came across this company a while ago

Really good prices for real wood mouldings!!.

 

[PhilipL]

Well, the place in Hillsborourgh went AWOL after promising to do the door, I then tried to get the moulding from various sources without luck and then a friend who makes high quality kitchens said he would do it for me if I got the cutters. Whitehill made them up (I sent my measurements and also - just to be sure - a section of the door). The cutters came and the mouldings were made and attached. Looks a lot better now than it did a couple of weeks ago. The pic of the old door doesn't really show that the mouldings were poor and built up with paint. Costly - having to get cutters made - but I think well worth it for the final effect:

 

[Cabinetman]

Well it’s your money, but it seems an expensive way of doing it when you could’ve got something very close off the shelf. Big improvement anyway. Ian

 

[PhilipL]

Well it’s your money, but it seems an expensive way of doing it when you could’ve got something very close off the shelf. Big improvement anyway. Ian

No, I tried to do it more cheaply. I contacted the firms mentioned above but no-one said they had anything close. The house is going up for sale so it's pretty important to have the entrance look well rather than tatty. And, hopefully, I'll get money back on the cutters when I put them up on eBay.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

One option that didn't come up was to replace the one piece with a new one made with a homemade scratchstock. Your end result looks good though!