Whoops! Door hanging stupidity plus dryrot. Advice needed!

[idiotDIYer]

Hi,

I moved into a new house about a month ago. I'm renting it, but off my parents who have just bought it.

I play drums, and so i don't annoy the neighbours as much I wanted to put a heavier door on the front room. As luck had it, someone down the road had a solid front door that they gave me for free. Needs cutting, but I'm cool with all that stuff.

I then had the "brilliant" idea of hanging the old door on the other side of the same door frame, so one opens inward and the other outward off the same frame to further help with stopping sound getting out of the room. Thing is, the other side of the frame (which I wanted to hang the original door on) is narrower than the door, as the side it was originally on had cut-outs for the door (sorry, not sure of terminology so might not be explaining this well). I didn't think of cutting down the door, which now seems the obvious choice, and instead I set about chiselling a 50mm channel in the frame for the door to sit in. Needless to say, it looks terrible, and is really uneven.

As I got to the bottom, the frame started crumbling away - the bottom foot or so is very rotten. At this point I'm wondering why the hell I thought it was a good idea in the first place, and I don't know what to do.

This then gets complicated by my dad (landlord) coincidentally ringing me and talking about a bit of dry rot in the skirting board near the door frame that a surveyor told him would need work. He mentioned maybe getting in a specialist to look at it and sort it out, which would (quite clearly) be better than me having a go.

So what do I do? Will filling in the channel I've cut with some wood filler, then painting over it work to get me back to where I was at the beginning, and ready for a timber expert to do what they gotta do to get rid of the dry rot?

Cheers for any answers, I've attached a pic of the frame.

Untitled

• idiotDIYer
• 8 Sep 2010
• 1

 

[masona]

At this point I'm wondering why the hell I thought it was a good idea in the first place, and I don't know what to do.

Don't worry, sooner or later, gonna have to be done sometime, nothing ever straight forward

Chop out all the bad rot and investigate, then take off the architrave, renew with new timber where it's needed and maybe a complete new door lining on one side, is the rot wet or dry?

 

[gregers]

dont forget that if this is dry rot then the plaster will need to be removed and a chemical treatment carried out more investigation is needed.

 

[conny]

No expert but judging by the colour and texture I would suspect 'wet' rot.
Dry rot is light coloured and sandy rather than 'flaky' as in the picture. You would also expect to see 'cotton-strings' spreading across the area with 'dry' rot.
Looking at the picture though, I would suggest a whole new door frame anyway, much cheaper in the long run.

 

[big-all]

as far as sound proofing is concerned i would forget about 2 doors you will just have one door vibrating the other
you would be better with a heavy curtain or egg boxes on the door you have to deaden the sound
also the door handles will get in the way off each other

 

[plugwash]

The rotton wood is probablly going to have to be cut away anyway and if it's dryrot a large margin beyond it too (dryrot is NASTY stuff)

Not much point trying to fix the gouge you have made when there is a good chance most or all of it will need to be cut away anyway.

 

[wastetech]

I have had dryrot and it doesn't look like that. My dryrot looked pale and the wood was crumbly and dryish, with a 'blocky' structure.
Dryrot is serious as it spreads many metres away from where you can see it.
I had to remove all the woodwork within 5 metres of the dryrot that was visible, which meant the wooden floor and upstairs ceiling and floor had to go as well!

 

[mnb]

You've had pretty good suggestions so far, so for my 10 cents:

From the unclear pic it appears to be wet rot, but from the position in the structure why wet rot there in an internal door jamb? So dry rot is a consideration. Is there a bathroom or cylinder/tank above.

Remove the architrave both sides of the jamb very carefully ( there could be pipes or cables present ) and cut away all the damage visible - if you see fibre strands creeping into the skirtings or plasterwork then they too will have to be removed. Take pics and report back here.

Can you gain access under the floor to examine for excess moisture etc. and go above to the ceiling area looking for pipework.

What is most important is to locate the cause of the fungal damage.

 

[Mickymoody]

as far as sound proofing is concerned i would forget about 2 doors you will just have one door vibrating the other
you would be better with a heavy curtain or egg boxes on the door you have to deaden the sound
also the door handles will get in the way off each other

I think that anyone that requires 2 front doors, opposing one another, being a drum player is a good cover, but more likely a front for 'To stop the Police breaking into my drug dealing factory?'

The initial post is ludicrous regarding sound proofing, but legitimate to prevent police breaking in. Unless the drummer is running a one man pirate radio show? Bam Bam, tish! drumroll, boom.

 

[Donkmeister]

Beyond what I've seen on "Police Camera Action!" I know very little about the architecture of drugs factories, however they always seem to have one behind the other at the actual front door.

Drummers do go to ludicrous lengths to try and play their drums at home so I can quite believe that one would install a front door in their living room doorway. Although practice mats or brushes might be a bit cheaper and easier!!!

 

[WestmidsChippy]

Hi,

I moved into a new house about a month ago. I'm renting it, but off my parents who have just bought it.

I play drums, and so i don't annoy the neighbours as much I wanted to put a heavier door on the front room. As luck had it, someone down the road had a solid front door that they gave me for free. Needs cutting, but I'm cool with all that stuff.

I then had the "brilliant" idea of hanging the old door on the other side of the same door frame, so one opens inward and the other outward off the same frame to further help with stopping sound getting out of the room. Thing is, the other side of the frame (which I wanted to hang the original door on) is narrower than the door, as the side it was originally on had cut-outs for the door (sorry, not sure of terminology so might not be explaining this well). I didn't think of cutting down the door, which now seems the obvious choice, and instead I set about chiselling a 50mm channel in the frame for the door to sit in. Needless to say, it looks terrible, and is really uneven.

As I got to the bottom, the frame started crumbling away - the bottom foot or so is very rotten. At this point I'm wondering why the hell I thought it was a good idea in the first place, and I don't know what to do.

This then gets complicated by my dad (landlord) coincidentally ringing me and talking about a bit of dry rot in the skirting board near the door frame that a surveyor told him would need work. He mentioned maybe getting in a specialist to look at it and sort it out, which would (quite clearly) be better than me having a go.

So what do I do? Will filling in the channel I've cut with some wood filler, then painting over it work to get me back to where I was at the beginning, and ready for a timber expert to do what they gotta do to get rid of the dry rot?

Cheers for any answers, I've attached a pic of the frame.

Untitled

• idiotDIYer
• 8 Sep 2010
• 1

I'd say more of a chancer

Maybe your 'old man' should actually spend abit of money and get the job, that needed doing before, right and thus will be around for for another 50 + years and in the long term he would save money

The way i see it, that whole door frame needs to come out, the carpet ripped up, the lino ripped up, the floor boards ripped up and the joists ripping up (this is me guessing that this is a timber floor beneath situated on honeycomb walls) because it looks like dry rot. Dry rot that has creeped up from beneath the newly layed carpet and lino and thus destorying as it goes towards heaven

I dread to see the state of the floor boards/joists if this is what has happened to the door frame but again this is me guessing that it is a timber floor and not solid ie screed etc. Hard to tell from such a teeny pic.

A good way to find out if that is a timber floor without pulling up the carpet is to call your old man round, tell him to stand by the door opening and jump up and down, if he falls through and hurts his legs then that will be a lasting reminder for him to listen to the professionals when first called around!


Could be wet rot, but me canne see where the rot would of got its moisture source from TBH.