Well, I had great plans but didn’t get very far. The idea was to replace the leaky swinging 6′ patio doors with some good quality sliders. So the first step would be to remove the old door. There’s the problem. All nails through the nailing fins and jambs are pulled or cut, and the top and jambs can move. But the sill is holding fast. I can see nothing that is holding it in place. I’ve whacked on it with a 10# sledge. Not a budge. Could it be that the caulking the original installers used is holding this thing that tightly? I had hoped to pull the door out in one piece so that it could be re-used somewhere and not just wasted. If we try to brute force the door out it’s obvious that the jambs will rip away from the sill, and removing the sill will become a demolition project. I’m reluctant to do that without knowing what’s going on with this thing. At this point I can put the swinging door back on it’s hinges and hold things together with a couple of nails, but if I proceed any further I’ll lose that option. Any help is appreciated.
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The sill may be screwed down. Look closely and peel up the weatherstrip if any has been applied. Otherwise, it is probably held by the caulk or adhesive. Tap a flat prybar underneath gently. Work from one end to the other and see if you can lever it up enough to get it loose. The bottom sill should be reasonably thick and goes all the way down to subfloor. Don't pry on the weatherstrip if there is one. Make sure to get all the way under the sill. It could be covered by both the finish floor at one side and exterior trim at the other.
Thanks for the replies. The door is on a wood subfloor, forgot to mention that earlier. I've been working with the prybar, pounding it in very ungently every inch or so and then running sawzall blade under there. I've gone from one end to the other and still it won't budge. Apparently the two carpenters that built this place in '94 decided to put the doors in to stay. There is a huge amount of some adhesive under there that you could use for building space shuttles. This has been an unpleasant lesson. Think I'll have a beer now.
Had a similar situation, turned out that it was a combination of adhesive and some screws that had been countersunk and disguised by filler and years of paint. Only found that out after I had spent hours trying to take it out in one piece, then fifteen minutes breaking the heck out of it.
Hubert,
I genuinely appreciate your focus on conservation but some things are just better handled with a little less finesse. I hate to say it but by the time this is over you may be ahead to buy a new door, just like the one you are taking out, and donate it to someone instead. :-)>
If you are determined to spend the time to save this door, do you have enough access to get a sawzall blade tip between the flange and wall to separate the adhesive bond? You might even use a metal cutting blade to get as far over to the stud as possible and slice the nail fin off. That might leave enough of the nail fin in place that a determined person could drill and rivit a new flange onto the remnant of the old one and re-use the door.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Just to report back and again thank the folks who responded. My brother-in-law was actually right this time, he said that if I hired someone else to finish the job, they'd just do what I was afraid to. So we got serious, sawzalls, big hammers, and no hope of salvaging the old door. It was just some incredible adhesive holding the sill in, and we pulled up a lot of the subfloor with it when it came out. But now we have a really nice tight sliding door installed in its place, and we'll do the second one tomorrow. Makes the beer taste good. thanks to all.
Hubert, you're not the guy I went round and round on door installs with via email , are you?
Man, I thought we had the thing all planned out.
Tomorrow, you will fly.
Best of luck.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
It's not on a concrete sill/threshold is it ? In this immediate area where I live most of the sills were cast right into the concrete. And it's not obvious either, the inner part of the aluminum sill is on wood out to just past the door, but the sill extension has verticle fins on it that go right into the concrete. I've switched a couple of doors, and those sills were not easy to remove.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario