An Exterior Door Project

[jteneyck]

I've been working on an exterior door for a friend of one of my good woodworking friends.  She has a house built in the '20's that has an odd sized door of 38" wide by about 84" high.  The local door companies wanted to use a standard 36" door with wide side trim pieces.  That might have been an OK solution on the outside but the existing inside trim wouldn't work with that approach.  Anyway, my friend told her I might be interested in building her a custom fit door and when she expressed interest the process began.  That was in January IIRC.  She gave me a sketch of a door she liked and I reworked it to fit the opening.  The existing door frame was shot so a new one was part of the project, too, as was new brick molding on the outside.  The existing threshold is concrete with a brass weather strip.  It was OK, but the house had moved over the years so that the threshold has sagged on the lockside about 1/4". 

Enter Joe Grout.  I new I needed help with this project, just like I had with the arched French door project I did last Winter.  Joe graciously answered another barrage of questions I had and offered great advise that made a huge difference in the overall project and how easy the installation has gone so far.  I deviated on a few minor issues to get the aesthetic we were after and with an eye toward maintenance, but the overall approach is Joe's.  My client did not want to add a typical adjustable sill on top of the concrete threshold, and I couldn't argue with her about it because it would have looked pretty ugly, so Joe advised an ADA compliant threshold with a hidden bottom seal in the door.  A what?  I'd never heard of a hidden bottom seal, but they are the cat's meow for getting a tight seal when the sill isn't parallel with the bottom of the door.  Of course, they aren't cheap, the door has to be designed for it, and installing it takes quite a bit of work, but it solved the problem and looks great (because you don't see it). 

Construction of the door was a bit challenging which is why I took the job; it looks like this:



I used Joe's stub tenon construction process that he posted a couple of months ago, with big loose tenons for reinforcement.  I used an LVL core with 3/16" Sapele skins glued on with PRG in a vacuum bag.  I glued up the frame with T-88 Structural Epoxy.  





I don't have a shaper so I used a large panel raising bit in a handheld router to raise the door panels; it took an entire morning to do the four panels but they came out great.





The arch moldings are made from 10 or 11 strips of veneer in a mold:



The sections I needed for each panel was cut from them and fitted to the straight sections of molding around the panel.



Unlike what Joe showed, I set the molding inside the frame rabbet and used a small rabbet on the outer edge of the molding to create a shadow line.  I glued the outside molding into the rabbet with the same T-88 epoxy. 

OK, on to the installation, here's the lovely door that's getting replaced.



And here's the new door and frame minus the panels. 



And with the panels.  The outside panels are from a single board, the inside are two boards each.  





The lockset is a Baldwin with custom made copper escutcheons, sourced by the owner.  Very nice stuff. 



It took all day to get the door installed.  I didn't cut the frame legs to length prior to today because I wasn't sure how long to make them until the old door was removed.  Or maybe I'm just slow.  Didn't install the latch and deadbolt strike plates either for the same reason.  But everything fits nearly perfectly and with another slight adjustment to the lockside frame tomorrow it will be.  Then we'll install the brickmold on the outside and shoot in some foam from the inside to seal it up, and then do the inside molding. 

The outside finish is Cetol Door and Window finish, two coats of mahogany and a single coat of clear, applied with a brush. The inside is dyed to match the existing trim and topcoated with GF's PreCat Lacquer, all sprayed.  Pics of that when it's all done and the lighting is good.

A big thank you to my good friend Metod who's helping me with the installation.  I'd be lost w/o your help.  And of course many thanks to Joe Grout for sharing his knowledge and experience, and patience in answering all my questions. 

More pics when it's all done. 

John

[7DWW]

Awesome work John! it looks amazing, and perfect design on that house

[fredhargis]

Seems like finding words to describe this is very hard, but it is really nicely done. I love that house your client has, the door is a very nice touch on it.

[atgcpaul]

Very nice as always, John. Do you have pics of that ADA sill you mentioned? Why did you freehand that large molding bit and not do a table setup even if only temporarily?

[Adnick]

Wow that's fine work, makes me realize my limitations....


Andy

[Bobby Thompson]

That is one awesome door.

[MakinAmess]

Again you are not a woodworker,  you are a master craftsman. 

Amazing work.

[JGrout]

how is the automatic bottom working out? that could be a post of it's own merit I am sure.

[jteneyck]

Very nice as always, John.  Do you have pics of that ADA sill you mentioned?  Why did you freehand that large molding bit and not do a table setup even if only temporarily?

Thanks everyone for the kind words; much appreciated.  I'll post some detailed pictures when it's all done, and be sure to show the ADA sill.  It's just 1/4" thick, so it hardly adds anything on top of the concrete threshold; hence the ADA compliance.  I did the raised panels with the router held freehand so that I could use a climb cut.  I was very concerned about tearout and a climb cut greatly reduces the chance of that happening, but you can't climb cut safely on the router table w/o a power feeder which I don't have.  I know it looks scary with that big bit in the router, but it was really no different than any other edge molding operation.  I used my Bosch 1617EVS router set on it's lowest speed, with one hand pressed down on the plywood base riding on the panel, the other hand on the router handle on the outboard side.  Probably made 4 depth adjustments to get it done but I only had the most minor amount of tearout in a couple of areas across the bottom of one panel.

John

[jteneyck]

how is the automatic bottom working out? that could be a post of it's own merit I am sure.

Joe, it's working great.  I left a gap of 1/4" under the door at the hinge side, meaning the gap on the lock side is close to 1/2".  The automatic door bottom has a range of up to about 3/4" IIRC and easily takes care of the gap.  I used the one you recommended, this one by Pemco.    If you watch the video you'll see how it works.  It retracts up into the door as the door is opened and drops down as the door closes.  The range is adjustable and you set it so that it just closes down on the sill where your largest gap is.  

I had to cut 2" off the stock 40" length for it to fit the door, but it cut easily on the RAS.  As you can see in this photo, you have to cut a very large dado in the bottom of the door for the hidden seal to fit into.  I used a router with an edge guide, working from both sides, to do it.  There are end cover plates on both sides, too.  I'll show those in the final pics.  The rubber seal is cut off to fill the width between the cover plates, and is replaceable if it wears out.  



As long as I'm showing some details, here's a pic of how the Q-Lon weatherstripping fits in the frame:



You cut a 1/8" wide x 1/2" deep dado for it when you cut the cheek of the rabbet in the frame and the Q-Lon just frictions fits into that dado.  Another excellent product. 

John