Recommended wood treatment for door

[goldiiman]

 

Hi all

 

Attached a photo of doors on my canal boat. 

 

Any recommendations on how to get this back to look nice?

 

I am going to replace the air vents and I would like to treat the wood first but not sure what the best product to use to bring the wood back, do I need to sand it before treating, I do not want to make it worse.

 

thanks

martin

 

 

 

[LadyG]

Mess about as much as you like, but in the end, replace with clean wood. You could cut the bottom bit to about vent height, or a bit more, and rep!ace, in any case make it look like that was the intention from the beginning .

I would replace with a solid bit of decent teak or a darker wood wood if possible, either way, the grain would be at ninety degrees. It probably does not need to be flush with door panel.

Clear epoxy will seal end grain of new wood.

There are special hardening products for the despoiled wood.

When you remove vents the aperture may be  smaller than the vents, so you may have some flexibility.

PS I would have a  chrome bolt, 

Edited April 16, 2023 by LadyG

[Peanut]

6 hours ago, LadyG said:

 

 

PS I would have a  chrome bolt, 

I think the vents are a brassy colour.

I would want to try and stop the water getting in from the outside, in some way.  I know, it won't be easy.

 

[Bacchus]

I agree with @LadyG that the ply is probably shot beyond aesthetic repair. You could potentially put a kick-plate or similar over the knackered bit to hide it, or you could strengthen, repair, sand, and paint, but the best solution would be to repair and maintain in future

 

A friend of mine swears by "Woodskin Curing" (from International) - apparently very UV stable and not as glossy as varnish so easy to live with, he has just done the washboards on his yot with it (which were in a right old state)

 

[BWM]

An epoxy treatment would stabilise the ply but wether you can buy a small enough amount to be economical for this small job.. It is unlikely you would be able to return the same finish though so would need to paint afterwards. 

[Jak]

I would also cut the bottom off the doors an glue on new wood. I’ve done this very successfully on our rear doors. Then make sure the bottom of the door wood is properly sealed to prevent this happening again. Having just spent a lot of money on some bespoke replacement doors, I wish I’d done more preventive maintenance!

Good luck, 

Jak. 

[Kendorr]

To answer the main question, whatever you decide to do, you are going to need to sand the surface down and clean it as much as possible. Only sand with the grain, ie, up and down. You might be lucky and the sanding will remove the staining, but you also may find that you need new doors.

 

[magnetman]

The cause wants looking at as well. Is this a case of rain water splashing up through the vents? 

[Hudds Lad]

You’ll never get staining that bad back to how it was, especially if it’s faced ply. The top veneer will be thin so sanding may well just chew straight through it. I’d replace the full board if you can to stand a chance of matching it in with other woodwork, but as said by @magnetman, if you don’t sort the cause too then anything new will go the same way in short order.

[David Schweizer]

5 hours ago, magnetman said:

The cause wants looking at as well. Is this a case of rain water splashing up through the vents? 

 

The standard practice on wooden exterior doors is, depending on the door thickness, to rout a 6mm to 8mm drip moulding into the bottom of the door, about 5mm from the front edge of the door. This breaks the natural tendancy for the water to migrate across the door bottom and cause it to drip onto the door cill. Unfortunately, from the illustration this will merely transfer the problem to the wooden door cill. So the alternative is to eithe fit a waterproof cill, or fit rainbars to the bottom of the outside surface of the doors, fitting small Parliament hinges to allow for the rain bar clearance when the doors are opened. 

[David Mack]

33 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

 

The standard practice on wooden exterior doors is, depending on the door thickness, to rout a 6mm to 8mm drip moulding into the bottom of the door, about 5mm from the front edge of the door. This breaks the natural tendancy for the water to migrate across the door bottom and cause it to drip onto the door cill. Unfortunately, from the illustration this will merely transfer the problem to the wooden door cill. So the alternative is to eithe fit a waterproof cill, or fit rainbars to the bottom of the outside surface of the doors, fitting small Parliament hinges to allow for the rain bar clearance when the doors are opened. 

But is the OP's problem caused by water coming under the door, or through the vents?

[David Schweizer]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

But is the OP's problem caused by water coming under the door, or through the vents?

 

Assuming that the doors have vent covers on the outside, it is unlikely that much (if any) water is getting through them to cause such a high degree of damage, the areas of damage suggest infiltration from the bottom. I have seen many examples, including my own boat, where there was similar damage to the door bottoms, caused by water leaching across the botton edges, and the original doors did not have the vents in them. I replaced the doors with steel ones with wooden infill panels.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by David Schweizer