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Need to repair rotted wood on exterior door frame

Posted on 2/27/24 at 6:39 am
Posted by Greenie10
Member since Apr 2019
217 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 6:39 am
I have a set of exterior French doors and one side is rotted on the bottom of the exterior trim. The casing is fine, but the trim is rotted about 5-6 inches.

I've been googling and it seems like I can cut out that section of trim with a multi-tool, which I'm confident in doing.

Then I think you slide in a new piece of wood? This is where I'm hesitant. I'm not sure I can make a piece of wood look like the existing trim.

Any tips? Ideas? Etc
Posted by trident
Member since Jul 2007
4750 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 7:06 am to
Multi tool, shims/wood, caulk, sand, paint the new wood to match. That is about all you can do really.
Posted by East Coast Band
Member since Nov 2010
62790 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 7:26 am to
I have a similar problem, but it's so badly rotten that all I can do is replace the door.
I wish I could just replace the door and not the casing, too. But it's an "Atrium" brand door.
Posted by Bullfrog
Institutionalized but Unevaluated
Member since Jul 2010
56248 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 7:51 am to
Trim rots out at the bottom as they wick up moisture.

You are on the right track but look for a fake wood trim piece to use as the replacement for the first foot or so.

ETA: poor word choices.

After you paint it, problem solved for good.
This post was edited on 2/27/24 at 8:23 am
Posted by gumbo2176
Member since May 2018
15122 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 8:25 am to
quote:

Trim rots out at the bottom as they wick up moisture.



Before you replace that small piece of trim with new, be sure to put a couple coats of paint on the end grain of the trim piece to help prevent moisture being wicked up from the bottom of the new trim piece.
Posted by ItzMe1972
Member since Dec 2013
9801 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 8:51 am to
Is it the brick molding piece? Painted?

I have replaced the entire piece or just a section with the vinyl replacement.

Or, a local cabinet shop may be able to make you piece to match.


Posted by TU Rob
Birmingham
Member since Nov 2008
12738 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 9:11 am to
Post some pics if you can. I dealt with this on our old door out to the deck. It was up on the 2nd level of the house, so it wasn't sitting at ground level. There was a storm door there outside of the main door, but over the years it wouldn't quite shut all the way, and in heavy rains water would get inside the storm door. We've had the deck rebuilt and covered/screened in now, so no more water getting in. But while they were there doing the deck, I had one of the guys repair the trim. He basically did what you are saying, multitool to get the old out, primed and painted the new piece, slide it into place and tack some finishing nails into it, then repainted all of the trim so it would match. Ours was a simple 1x3 or 1x4 as the trim/casing, so easy to match. If yours is anything different and you want it to all look uniform, probably easiest to rip it all out and just replace with fresh all the way around. Wood is fairly cheap and saves you the headache of trying to match looks.
Posted by Tree_Fall
Member since Mar 2021
486 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 10:22 am to
I had a similar problem fixed several years ago. The bottom foot of door trim rotted on only one side. The rotted bit was cut off and replaced by a cut-to-size piece of treated lumber. Then a molding strip was nailed over to hide the join. The exact same molding went on the other side of door frame to make it symmetrical. Looked quite nice. Eventually, gutters on the roof eliminated the moisture. Today, I'd use a synthetic material rather than treated wood. You can paint right away.
Posted by vince vega
New Orleans
Member since Feb 2014
658 posts
Posted on 2/27/24 at 9:55 pm to
definitely just pull the whole section of trim and replace the whole piece, it's easier and will look better;
if you can't find an exact match, you could have it milled or just replace all the trim with something else, just get exterior grade wood (I prefer old cypress personally) and back and end prime everything
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