I have a 3-panel patio door (center opening french door) where the caulking deteriorated in the two lower corners — and yes, I didn’t catch it until after damage occurred. What occurred was water seeped into the lower corners and rotted the 3/4 OSB subfloor material – the bottoms of the door 2×4 framing looks OK. The problem it that the OSB subfloor has turned into a dry spongy consistency that turns to dust when touched. This area is in both subfloor corners of the patio door and is several inches under door and under the 2×4 framing of the frame itself. To add insult to injury, a local ant colony made its new home in one corner as well. They dug or ate away about a 2 1/2″ diameter section of the OSB material. I can literally put my index finger through the OSB into the basement. My question is how do I fix (or replace?) the OSB subfloor that is part under the patio door and part under the patio door framing?
A carpenter friend of mine suggested taking out the patio door and cutting out a 1 foot wide strip of the OSB in front of the door the entire length and extending past the framing to include the all the damaged area, digging out the damaged OSB under the framing, and then sliding in new OSB/plywood to replace. Another friend, not a carpenter, said to get the epoxy material the sell for fixing rotted wood, he thinks is would be less work and easier to do… Advice from you experts is appreciated.
Edited 5/7/2006 9:45 pm ET by mark14
Replies
Listen to the carpenter. The other guy doesn't know anything.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Listen to the carpenter.
is there some way to fix this without taking out the patio door??
If its like the last house I did, no. The subfloor is also rotted under the door itself. It only took a day for us to do the same thing. You don't want to worry about having someone fall through the floor, and getting sued because you didn't want to do it right. OSB looses a lot of strength when it gets wet.
In a word................NO!!
You have a potential train wreck on your hands and removing the door is the ONLY way to determine the extent of the damage.
I got into a similar situation several years ago and wound up reframing about half of a family room floor. The HO knew that there was a "little" leak at the corner of a patio door but ignored it for a couple of years. What began as a screen door replacement turned into a major project.
Hire your carpenter friend and do it right - including some serious waterproofing before the door goes back in.
Renovating the kitchen here & almost done. But surprise... taking up the old floor I found rot at the corners of the patio door - top, bottom, underneath. Now I understood why ants were using the kitchen as a highway. Was original construction (wonder how no caulking underneath got past the inspector) but it took 16+ years before it finally crapped out. Builder-friend helped me with the repair. Sure helps when you got a pro. Point: He suggested removing the osb ("flakeboard") and replacing it with exterior grade plywood. Made sense to me and plywood is a lot more moisture resistant than the osb for only a few bucks more. Thickness difference (1/32 inch, I think) made no difference.
You were lucky, Dunc. The house I was talking about had the patio door on the southern exposure and virtually no roof overhang. It had never had any type of patio cover so it took the brunt of our winter rain. Yours must have been at least semi-protected - lol.
Last fall, I replaced 12 Andersen french patio doors on a semi-mansion. The old doors were coming apart and we were really sweating about possible leaks. The original builder hadn't bothered to flash the doors, but they at least had metal pans. The only water damage was a small area at a south facing door and that was just on the surface. Better lucky than good, right? - lol
Listen to the carpenter.. .yes, there are other ways (like the suggestion from your not a carpenter friend) but the ideas will all be just as poor. Listen to the carperter!
Be sure the joint between the new 1' rip and the old floor gets some blocking perpendicular to the joists. A narrow rip of plywood or OSB can flex a noticable amount if only supported by the original framing. Beef it up while you are in there.
thanks for the additional tip... I'll do so.