Question:
I have an Anderson overhead garage door, 18 years old. The sections
are built on a wood frame, with an insulation core, and what looks
like masonite as the surface. The outside surface is texturted, I
guess it is supposed to look like wood grain.
I am getting some water damage (rot) at the bottom of the door (in the
masonite), where snow and rain splash have made some water damage. I'd
like to repair it before it gets too bad. I have considered digging
out the rotten material and using some sort of filler, perhaps an
epoxy. Another possibility is Liquid Wood, which I have used
successfully on a previous house, but I don't know if it would work as
well on a compressed wood material like masonite.
Any suggestions?
Answer:
I see the other door, same kind, starting to show
signs that the material in the panels is starting to
swell, so assume it's time to think about doing that
one too, now. Thankfully, no panels except the bottom
ones have ever showed any signs of problems. Well,
except the one I backed my boat into and the prop sort
of pushed one in a little. That's on the other door I
haven't worked on yet
Put in the new panel, cut to exactly the size of
the old ones. Old ones by the way were glued & tacked;
I thought they'd be loose like cabinet door panels, but
they weren't. So, I glued & tacked the new ones in
(after cleaniing up the area where they fit of course),
then used some old oak molding to make up for the
routed-out wood; looks very close to the original.
of course, so please keep in mind this is my
experience, and only mine. I've had people say I did a
good job, but ... them's sometimes famous last words, I
guess. I used vice grips on the tracks to hold the
door from going up, and tacked boards to each side,
under the door, to hold it open at a convenient height
to work with. The farther up you let the door go, the
less weight there is on the overall frame. Oh, I
forgot: The door opener I reattached too, and let it
help hold the door, then I put the grips and boards on
to add extra hold.
