I was reading through the Doors & Windows book by Taunton & the author makes use of a door pan which, I assume is to catch any water that might make it past the caulking & divert it back outside – which makes sense,
However, he then puts a triple bead of caulk in the door pan & proceeds with the rest of the door installation. Wouldn’t this prevent water that got past the door frame from escaping? It seems to kinda defeat the purpose of the pan.
I’m sure the author understands far more than I do about door & window installation, but I just want to make sure I’m doing it right.
Replies
Just trying to keep this from getting buried.
If bumping one's own post is a breech of etiquette, I apologize.
I believe the pan would stop any water that had gotten under the door from soaking into the subfloor.
I've been setting my ext doors in large beads of silcone for a long time. Before I used silicone I set doors in a bed of fibrated roofing tar.
Either product eventually solidifies and keeps the threshold from developing annoying squeeks.
How do you attach the pan to the subfloor? If you nail or staple it, than any standing water in the pan would eventually leak through the holes, wouldn't it? If you haven't seen that happen, then I won't worry about it.
I've never used a pan and if water is getting under the door there are other problems. Maybe the pan is there if the door leaks from above. Seems silly to put in a preventative measure based on an assumption the work will fail.
I have replaced many wooden thresholds, occasional rot on old doors. I've found nothing substantial under metal thesholds in doors I've replaced. The metal threshold is essentialy a pan anyway. N'est pas?
If you want to pan and are worried about nails/ staples, why not stick it down with a bead of caulk?
You are right that the pan is there to catch water from above since you can't flash over the brick molding like you can the nailing flanges on windows.
How do you attach the pan to the subfloor?
I posted this exact question just the other day.
The one reply I recieved was to use silicone and gravity would do the rest.
I wondered if there is a different technique between a slab or wood sub-floor??-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWPD
I believe that the water that gets to th pan in most cases weeps in by following the threshold back by7 surface tension, the same thing that can make water run uphill. The caulk does two things - it stops the water frrom weeping in that way, and it is the fastener to hold the threshold in place.
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We have been using W.R.Grace Ice and Water Shield. It is a self adhesive roofing underlayment with a gooey center that is self healing when a fastener is driven through it. My reasoning is in Florida they make us fasten the door jamb all the way around the opening, sometimes as close as 6" apart. The door or window manufacturer supplies engineering with the fastening schedule to comply to the wind zone you are building in. The screws at the threshold would penetrate the pan so we use the self healing product all the way around the opening as an extra precaution.
http://www.na.graceconstruction.com/underlayments/download/GIWS-055F_4.pdf
Good Luck