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Bow doors swollen from the wet weather


clendee

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1 minute ago, clendee said:

Hi folks,

 

The bow doors on our narrowboat are completely swolled from the recent wet weather and we cannot open them..

 

Is there anything we can do, either to treat the doors in some way to reduce swelling in the wood?

 

Thanks.

 

Would it happen to be a boat built by East-West boats ?

They were built in Asia and used Bamboo for the woodwork, the Bamboo does not like UK weather and there are many reports of doors / cupboard doors etc all swelling and splitting.

 

It may be best to remove and replace the doors with some stabilised wood that is not going to swell, otherwise you could end up with the problem every time it rains.

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Just now, clendee said:

I will look into replacing the doors, I just wanted to make sure I wasnt just missing out on key info.

My shed door is built with 'floorboards' and this winter it has totally buckled and looks like a big corrugated sheet. Previous Winters it has swollen and I have had to plane a little off to get it to open / close, the problem then is that in the Summer there is more than an inch gap. I really need to replace it with some 'decent' wood.

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Wood can swell a surprising amount, really the best thing is to trim /plane/sand them until they work ok. In the summer they will shrink and then you can fix draught excluder or wood covering strips over the gaps or some sort of thing. They are not big doors so a few mm can make a big difference

Edited by Bee
missed a bit
  • Greenie 1
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When we go to the boat after it has not been used for a while some doors have expanded a bit (but not the main doors) and we find that heating the boat shrinks them back to size in a few days. If your stove is near the front doors, they might get back into shape if you have the fire on for a while then you can seal them by painting

 

haggis

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If the doors have swollen in the wet weather to the extent that they will not open, they are probably made from a soft wood. The best long tem solution is to replace them with solid hardwood doors, which will have minimal swelling in the dampest of weather. The front door on Helvetia was made from solid 2" thick  Mahogany, and varnished with Blackfriars Yacht Varnish. They hardly swelled at all in the winter.

 

 

Edited by David Schweizer
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Mine do that. I just go in the other end and wallop them open from inside, then boot them hard to shut when I leave. I think it's probably normal for a holiday boat that stsys damp for ages. Didn't happen when I lived on it.

The ceiling inside is tongue and groove and that shrinks in summer - I used cheap B&Q wood for part till I learned better.

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58 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

If the doors have swelled in the wet weather to the extent that they will not open, they are probably made from a soft wood. The best long tem solution is to replace them with solid hardwood doors, which will have minimal swelling in the dampest of weather. 

Yes, or perhaps with steel doors?

We have learned to leave cupboard and wardrobe doors ajar on 'Trojan' over the winter, as otherwise they were all stuck solid in the spring.

We've also learned (and this will be relevant to the O.P.) that dry heat, from stove, radiators or both, will help shrink the doors back to their desired size.

Arthur's "boot them open" technique is appealing, but could cause problems if they won't boot closed again afterwards.

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5 hours ago, Athy said:

Yes, or perhaps with steel doors?

We have learned to leave cupboard and wardrobe doors ajar on 'Trojan' over the winter, as otherwise they were all stuck solid in the spring.

We've also learned (and this will be relevant to the O.P.) that dry heat, from stove, radiators or both, will help shrink the doors back to their desired size.

Arthur's "boot them open" technique is appealing, but could cause problems if they won't boot closed again afterwards.

Ah, they do. In the end. The tricky one in the boat in winter is the toilet door. If I forget to leave it open it remains firmly wedged shut until either I light the fire or April.

5 hours ago, bizzard said:

Arthur boots his laptop too. :)

I do, I do. Second one was a reboot.

  • Greenie 1
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Couple years back, I fitted a solid oak porch and front door at the house in summer.

 

I seemed to be for-ever plane-ing off the swollen door when it rained. Some-one in here said don't stop until you can slide a 50P (edgeways) coin <door to frame> in the gap.

 

That worked.

 

This year the wet weather has been exceptionaly <sp> bad for swelling doors.

Edited by mark99
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17 hours ago, mark99 said:

Couple years back, I fitted a solid oak porch and front door at the house in summer.

 

I seemed to be for-ever plane-ing off the swollen door when it rained. Some-one in here said don't stop until you can slide a 50P (edgeways) coin <door to frame> in the gap.

 

That worked.

 

This year the wet weather has been exceptionaly <sp> bad for swelling doors.

 

Tell me about it. 3 years ago I had some iroko garden gates fitted. Never had any problems with swelling until this year when they have had to forced open and closed.

 

I'll wait until the summer when they have dried out to see if they need planing.

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