The Pedimented Window - Part 3

 Last fall when the front porch got a new roof, the guys removed the storms for the Pedimented Window. The storms didn't get reinstalled because they needed some work first.

The oldest of the glazing compound was failing and the paint was starting to peel. Over the past couple of weeeks in the down periods waiting for varnish to dry, etc on the the back door, I scraped, sanded, and removed the glass from these storms. Of course, when removing the glazing compound and glass I broke one of the panes (the one I'd replaced last time, I think. Its putty was in good shape but I figured I'd do a full restoration...). Fortunately I had a piece of glass that was big enough. It just needed to be cut down to the correct size.

Over the weekend I started the next part of the process, including final sanding, primer, and re-installing the glass. All the glass is bedded and pointed, but only one of the storms has been completely puttied. The other one will get the exterior putty sometime this week. Then I wait for it to skin over before final coats of paint and re-installation.

I'm using Sarco putty this time. It's way easier to work with. I highly recommend it.

Maybe in the Spring

The back door was practice. As you can see, this is a little more involved.

And I'm especially not looking forward to the prep work for all this detail...

There is no way for me to get all the prep work done on a timeline that still allows me to be varnishing at reasonable temperatures before the snow flies.

The Back Door - 4

Over the weekend I put on the finals two coats of varnish.

The final two coats used Epifanes' Wood Finish Matte sanding with 320 before the first coat and in between coats. The resulting satin finish looks great in my opinion.

After the final coat of varnish was dry I reinstalled the hardware, including the new deadbolt.

And then finished installing the weatherstripping on the hinge side and top of the door frame.

As usual, the screws for the doorknob escutcheons are a mishmash. Of the four, only one is correct; the other three don't match (and even then they are not self consistent...). I've already gone through my stash of saved hardware and don't have ones that match the correct one. So another trip to the store to get the correct size and length...

And the local neighborhood hardware store for the win!

The Back Door - 3

Throughout the week I've added two more coats of Captain's Varnish.

Get up. 

Remove the hardware.

Sand.

Vacuum.

Tack rag.

Varnish.

Wait 12 hours for it to dry.

Reinstall the hardware for the night.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

This weekend I plan to do the final two coats.

During the down time while waiting for the varnish to dry I've been picking away at some of the other little things.

Drilled out and glued dowels into oversized screw holes for the hinges, etc. and installed the new spring bronze weatherstripping, including lockstrips.

Everything fits properly and no daylight shining through the gaps!

The Back Door - 2

Throughout the past week and over the weekend in between steps on the screen door, I've been making progress on the back door.

Mostly that involved using a chemical stripper to get the old finish off and then sanding with progressively finer sandpaper to get the surface fully prepared.

Then a once-over with the vacuum and a wipe-down with a tack rag to get a dust free surface.

And today a first coat of varnish. Now we wait for it to dry enough that I can sand it down before the next coat.

The recommendation I got was 2 coats of Pettit Marine Captain's Varnish (sanding with 240 in between coats) followed by 2 coats of Epifanes' Wood Finish Matte (using 320 in between coats).

The Captain's Varnish has a bit of an amber hue to it which darkens and warms the wood tone nicely.

Based in this first coat, I think I might be doing 3 coats of the Captain's Varnish, but time will tell.

Back Screen Door

 While I've been preping the back door, I've also been chipping away at the back screen door. It has a number of issues as well:

• the screen has holes in it (not the normal kind; big ones that would allow decent sized animals through)
• the latch is a mess and doesn't keep the door closed

So I ordered proper replacement screen and a new latch that looks more appropriate to the age of the house.

First the screen.

Along the right edge of this photo you can see some of the holes in the screen. At least one of which was caused by an umbrella...

Friday afternoon I carefully removed the screen molding, damaged screen, and as many staples as I could. Then I cut the new bronze screen material to size, stapled it in place, reinstalled the screen mold, and painted the exterior of the door.

The new bronze screen looks much better than the old black aluminum stuff. In most light it is less obtrusive and easier to see through.

The new latch arrived a week or so ago. It is a simpler version of what is installed on the front screen door. As the back is not a "public" entrance, the less ornate design is appropriate.

That it is brand new polished brass is less appropriate, so I used some of my leftover aging solution to make it look like it's been here a while.

The shape of the strike can be clearly seen in the upper right of the photo. This will become important later...

I also tackled the door jamb along the way. On the left edge of this photo you can see the old latch and the mess in the jamb.

I first fixed the mess in the jamb by piecing in some new wood, filling in the voids, and painting it when I repainted the door. I needed a little more structure here because the new strike is morticed in around both faces of the larger piece. (Refer to the shape of the strike in previous photo.)

Once the paint dried, I could mortice in the new strike and install the latch. Photos follow.

First the outside.

Then the inside.

And finally a video of a working latch that keeps the door closed!

The dog won't be able to treat this as a "dog flap" any more...

The Back Door - 1

This is the first in what I know will be several posts about the back door.  It has a number of issues that need to be corrected.

• The exterior has needed new finish for longer than we've been in the house.
• The weatherstripping doesn't seal properly - you can see daylight between the door and the jamb.
• The gap between the door and jamb is inconsistent. The bottom half is fine, but the top half is more than a quarter-inch.
• The doorknob latch doesn't.
• The rimlock night latch is sketchy. The latch keeper looks like it would fall off at the slightest touch.
• Several of our keys stopped working reliably, which means the cylinder is worn  and is about to give it up.

So the time has come. Night latches aren't that secure, so I found a deadbolt to replace it. It arrived just before the kids went off to college. That meant my threat to change the locks wasn't really a joke...

As you can see in this photo of me removing the old bits, there are failed attempts to bridge the gap between the door and jamb. The spring bronze should work, but the adhesive-backed foam in the background is applied to the jamb as a backup.

In several places the spring bronze had cracked along the crease between the nailing flange and the leaf. It's hard to know for sure, but maybe that the reason for the (ineffectual) foam strip.

In more than a couple of places there were random nails through the spring bronze (needle nose pliers points to one example). These were usually long brads rather than the (appropriate) copper nails. If there is a reason or rhyme to this, it escapes me. I don't see why you'd want to prevent the leaf from pushing against the door; that's the whole point of weatherstripping.

Once I got the old weatherstripping bits off, I fashioned a filler strip to even out the gap, much like I did on the second floor door eons ago.

It is tapered to get the gap between the door and jamb to a consistent 1/8-inch from top to bottom. I had to use some spare copper nails to keep it from curling on the thin end while the glue dried.

I also used some Abatron WoodEpox to fill the old holes in the jamb. The old hole for the doorknob's latch plate was a mess and the plate was installed improperly so that it didn't line up with the bolt. That's mostly fixed now and the strike plate and bolt line up so that they function properly; it actually latches now. To get it to look nice will require a bit more filler.

I then morticed out the new deadbolt strike. (But kept the old rimlock keeper in place while all this was happening. I needed to make sure I could still lock the door at night until the new deadbolt was in place... I'll have to fill in the casing later...)

Then I could install the new deadbolt. It required enlarging the hole through the door and drilling a hole through the edge of the door for the bolt (rimlocks are surface mounted). The thumbturn on the back of the door still isn't installed because ... this door is 2 1/4-inches thick. Despite what the manufacturer's specs say, the standard tailpiece only works with doors up to 1 3/4-inches thick. They're sending a new cylinder with the extended tailpiece. And there is other stuff I can do while I'm waiting.

For example, you can also see that I started sanding the door in preparation for its new coat of finish.