Replacing exterior doors with rotted sills

That should sit on the inside floor level so you new floor buts into the threshold.

 

Thanks. I'm also considering getting https://www.lowes.com/pd/Royal-Buil...n-x-5-5-in-x-8-ft-Common-PVC-Board/1000443069 for the door sill. Mfr said it's OK to use as a sill. It's meant for exterior use & I can probably paint it if need be to protect it from the sun. I'll have to measure to see if I need to raise the sill up more. Time to make dinner though.

 

Thanks, Neal! I watched the first video and was bugged that they didn't use the pvc glue on the lip going up to seal it (it probably wasn't necessary, but I would have done it to make it stay together).

I'm watching the 2nd video now and got a chuckle out of "John checks his notes for jokes... No jokes". Ok, The narrator for that video is great. Make sure you're using an actual drill while the guy in the video is saying "Make sure you're not just making noises with your mouth." I love when humor is incorporated.

I noticed there was a metal sill for that door that seemed to have come with it, but I'm not sure. I will have to look to see if my exterior door came with that type of threshold/sill. If not, I can still go with the PVC and paint it.

I'm leaning toward using the SureSill because it slopes to direct the water. I found that blue flashing stuff on amazon (the stuff you talked about way earlier in the thread). I'm probably going to have to nag my brother to help me on his days off because my friend just tore a muscle between his shoulder and back all the way up to his neck & the doctor said he's out of commission for the next 6 weeks.

I believe the door frame I got splits in half down the middle so worst case scenario, I can take the door hinges out to remove the door, then move the frame & put them both in my truck to take up to the back of the house and see if I can lift things in by myself. Need to find my steel-toed boots in case I drop something on my foot.

 

Non of these guys do every step but this will give you an idea of actually setting the door in.

 

Thanks!
I saw comments on the video saying they should hide the screws behind the weather-stripping but I'm not sure if it makes that much of a difference. I would just putty over the screws & paint so they wouldn't be visible.

I'll use spray foam instead of fiberglass insulation though-- compressing the insulation the way he did doesn't make it very useful. Gonna see if my brother will help me with the door sometime today (to get it up on the work table).

 

I found out that the "solid core" of my door is actually some kind of foam. I pre-drilled holes in 4 corners for the pet door to make it easier to use the jigsaw. After I cut I discovered that the blade was just shy of being long enough to go all the way through (and they don't sell longer blades). So I flipped the door over and had to cut on the other side. The steel started to peel back and tear instead of cutting off though and my battery got low on me. Need to go get my charger and get the battery back up to full power to see if it helps with the cutting. I should have cut the hole just a little larger than I did because now it's going to be a royal pain to get it cut right. The pet door did not come with templates or written instructions. Just drawings which I tried to follow- except the swinging door part didn't want to come out for me to trace. Apparently the hole needs to be a little larger for the inner side frame. I also managed to get the cut slightly crooked so the frame warps just a tad and the outside piece wont fit inside it but they both sit flush against the door well enough. I don't like the jagged steel & the foam just being exposed like that so I'm going to get some kind of tape (maybe flashing tape) to put on the inside. Instructions didn't say what size hole I'm going to need for the screws & they don't seem to be self-tapping. Worst case scenario if the pet door doesn't line up perfectly, I can use caulk. I plan to caulk around the outside perimeter anyway-- think I'll use clear caulk since the door will be painted blue. Or paintable caulk that I can paint blue afterward.
I'm about to head in to pick up mail and get my charger. I'll update after I charge my battery and see if that helps with the cutting. I may have to break out a dremel tool to trim just the steel part enough so it won't be peeling & tearing.

 

I had to get a new mandrel for my Dremel tool but the battery went out on me. I tried charging it but I used an outlet that needs to be replaced so it didn't charge during the daytime. I got it fully charged last night & I'm about to go out and see if it will work now. It's not strong enough to just cut straight down in to the steel but I found if I cut in from the edge it actually starts to do some cutting. I got a little teeny bit trimmed before the battery went out. My friend suggested rolling the steel inward somewhat. I might try a grinding wheel on the edge a little. I'm trying to figure out what type of tape would be the best to use on the edges to cover the foam & hold the steel against it. Once I have it taped I'll get the paint & paint the door. I'm wondering if there's anything I can use to smooth out some of the dents it got on the outside, but they aren't major. Maybe the paint will cover it up.
My mother was saying I should do like in some TV commercial and build a frame for the pet door but I have no idea what commercial she's talking about & it sounds like it would be a royal pain to do. I'll update after I take another crack at things with the dremel tool in a few minutes.

 

Been too long to edit my post so I'm updating. The dremel tool managed to trim the steel enough that I could fit the inside panel of the pet door in snugly. I was trying to make it stay tight & marked the screw holes. Then I realized something: The screws are meant to anchor in to wood. Being that the inside of the door is foam, it wouldn't hold the screws very well. So I'm going to have to see if I can find bolts of the same diameter & head size to run all the way through & then use nuts on the inside to hold them on. It won't look pretty but it should hold stuff on.
I still need to flip the door over & work on the other side a little to make sure the outside panel fits snugly, but the battery ran out on the dremel again. I have it charging & am trying to get my mother up to go pick paint colors at HD. Hardware stores in town are closed today so I'd have to go to one of the big box stores to get stuff. The pet door did come with doublesided sticky tape, but I don't trust that to be secure enough. I want to make sure this thing stays on.

 

If you drill a small hole, sheet metal screws will work good for that.

 

Tape didn't want to stick to the foam very well so I decided to nix it after several attempts (I'm a total monkey with anything adhesive-- the tape stuck to itself several times & got stuck to my hand a few other times). I got both pieces fitting together and used some #6-32 bolts. Can't remember if they came with nuts or if I misplaced them somewhere, but I can't seem to find them. I tried the #8-32 but they were too large. Unfortunately, the longest length they had in the 6-32 was 2" and I think I need 2-1/2" which would have to be special ordered. I had to do some adjusting and drill a little more to get the bolts to line up and go through properly but they did go through. Now I need the nuts to see if they can go on. If there isn't enough room I will have to special order the longer bolts. I've been trying to get my mother to go with me to the store to get the paint (because I can't get the 10% discount without her there & the paint is expensive). I think I may have to still use the tape on the deeper frame to hold it in place and then slip the smaller one inside & bolt it down. It's sort of weird, the deeper frame goes on the inside of the house but goes around the outdoor part goes inside of it. I was typing up inside and outside frames but realized that would be confusing. LOL. I want to get the door painted before I secure the frame fully. I also want to pre-paint the trim & jamb then do touch-ups once it's installed. Right now its just primed. I plan to touch-up the primer on the door before doing the paint. The door got some scratches & dings and I'm hoping the primer will help disguise that.

Mom likes the Deep River paint color, which I think they can mix up in the store if they don't have it in stock.

I haven't taken more pics yet since I didn't take my phone back down to the workshop, but I took a pic after I drilled the holes & then after I cut the piece out-- you can see how the steel snagged & tore instead of cutting at the top. I think it was because the battery started going out but I didn't notice until it was too late because I was determined to get that thing cut. LOL.

I had to recut that curved edge on the left so it didn't stick in as much.

 

The 2" bolts barely went through so they are too short but I found some #6-32 in 3" at the local hardware store & got 6 of them (2 extras in case of stripping, breaking, or loss). Good thing because I misplaced one of them. The shorter bolts did come with nuts though.

I tested to make sure the bolts went all the way through the holes without the pet door pieces. Then I tried to fit them together but they wouldn't line up. Redrilled, enlarged the holes, etc & tried again. The bolts will slide right in to the inner pet door half from the other side but I have to use a screwdriver to get them to go through the outer half (and I start from the outer half). I was having a hell of a time with it. I had to flip the door over again & I've decided to nix the idea of painting the door and then putting the pet door on because that will be a royal pain & I will probably scratch the paint while trying. So, once I get both halves on and secured they are staying there. I'm going to caulk around the pet door & then use painter's tape to cover the pet door & paint the door. I'm hoping that some primer might help hide some of the scrapes on the door from flipping it over & moving it around. The door came primed already but I want to use primer over where it got scraped off.

I did end up using some of the white duct tape I got to seal up some corners and hold the steel tighter to the foam. When I was drilling out the holes in the square corners the foam started eroding a bit too much & I could see the bolts but there is still steel holding them in place. I reinforced the corners with tape. When I get the inner frame in place permanently, I'm going to put tape inside & wrap it around the steel edge on the other side to seal it up & hold it tight before putting the outer half on. It's going to be tricky to make sure everything lines up.

Right now I have it set in place with the bolts going through just the holes (without the other half) and through the inner ring to make sure it lines up enough. When I put the two halves together without the door in between the holes line up. The bolts slide through the holes in the door relatively easily now so I'm thinking of screwing them in to the outer frame so they stick out far enough to go through the holes in the door & stick out the other side enough that I can make sure they line up with the other half, then tape the bejeezus out of the inner frame to lock it in place, and finish screwing in the bolts & securing them with the nuts. I can trim off any excess that sticks out too far from the door frame & I'll hit them with white paint. The nuts are too large to fit inside the holes meant to hide the screws.

It was cold and rainy today & it was dark, cold, and rainy when I left the workshop. I have one more picture I didn't upload (my computer isn't reading my phone so I have to send it to myself via FB messenger & download). I did upload a few more photos though. I have the urge to go back down there to work on it now but not in this rain & with it being so dark. LOL.

This is the threshold that came with the door & frame (floor needs to be re-sealed):

This is the frame from afar with the door on the work table. The ladder behind goes up to the little loft area over an insulated room (there is a tropical poster on the door to the room):

Outer pet door piece in place:
I traced around the pet door with pencil in the hopes it would help me line it up again when I go to put it back on. There were only 2 lights on in the workshop but they are LEDs and they are *very* bright so they lit up the whole room. The old fluorescent lights sucked. I had the paintbrush on the door to sweep away debris after drilling & cutting. I had to crack out the dremel to smooth out the steel where the drill bit poked out and pushed it out a bit & then I used a hammer to flatten things even more.

 

This is what you should have had. Screw and barrel nut.

 

My problem is getting the bolts to go through both halves of the pet door. I had to adjust holes on the door multiple times to try to get them to line up. I got it so that the bolts would go all the way through one piece & through the door but when I tried to fit the other piece on it didn't want to line up. So then I tried with putting the inside piece on and just sliding the bolts through the holes on the opposite side & putting the nuts on to see if it would sit snug-- it did. But when I tried with the other half the bolts didn't want to fit through the holes the same way. I had to walk away bc I got frustrated & didn't want to break something. Bc I got to the point where I tried to pound them through with a mallet. The inside piece kept pushing out when I tried to put outside piece on so I flipped the door so that part was on top but then the bolts kept falling out & I didn't have a good way to maneuver when I was trying to hold the other piece on. That was about the point that I walked away. I thought about it and decided to try again where I put the bolts through the door & through the inside half & secure it with the nuts. I then taped the crap out of it (covering the rough metal & exposed foam) to secure it better. Then I flipped the door over but propped it at an angle so I could see underneath. I took note of which bolts went through which holes and then pushed the top piece down and tried to push bolts through. Some went through most of the way, one went through all of the way. I unlocked the flap so it would open enough for me to put in clamps but that still didn't help bc the plastic corner of the inner half kept pushing out anyway. I now have two of the bolts through and secured with nuts (top left bolt and bottom right bolt) but the other two don't want to go through. I might go to the store and grab more bolts that aren't bent on Monday to see if that would help any. It would probably be easier if my friend hadn't lost my screwdriver heads for my Matrix. I can't find a single one of them in my Matrix kit (and I'd had several) or in the little notch on the tool itself where a two-headed bit is supposed to go. I'll have to see if it's in my tool bag that is at his house. The little handheld skinny screwdriver doesn't give much grip for turning and takes forever. Worst case I'll drill holes through the inside piece & use washers to secure the nuts if the holes are too large.

 

The big hole in the door should be big enough so you have a little wiggle room to help things line up.

 

It was just a problem of getting the bolts to line up. If the door had been wood or solid inside, the bolts would have gone straight through-- but the foam deteriorated and allowed the bolts too much wiggle room before they reached the end. I took another crack at it. I brought a flashlight so I could see if there were any obstructions, wallowed out the plastic a little bit to allow the bolt to slide better. I had pushed the bolt through the 3rd hole all the way & started turning it with the screwdriver. It pushed the plastic on the other end enough that I could see where it was coming out & adjust the angle of the bolt in the opposite direction so it would meet the hole. That seemed to do the trick. The last hole was the biggest problem because its the one I had to redrill more than once so the foam inside was pretty much gone & let it move too much. I had to find a bolt that hadn't been bent and play around with the flashlight. I stuck drill bits (not attached to the drill) through the hole to test the movement and clear debris. I drilled to enlarge the hole in the steel a little more. I enlarged the hole in the plastic a little with the drill. I managed to get the bolt to go through the opposite direction just fine but when I tried to push it back the other way it didn't want to cooperate. I got it to the point where I had the door on it's side so I could reach through the opening of the pet door and push the bolt through while looking at the hole to see the end of it. I got it right to the opening but it wouldn't go through. When I tried turning it with a screwdriver it slipped out of alignment & wouldn't go. I finally got it so it was lined up & tapped it with a mallet (I used the mallet a few times to get things to go through) & it worked. So now I have all 4 bolts in. I got some washers I'm going to use on the inner half and then I'm going to trim off the ends of the bolts that stick out too far. I got some door & window caulk to put around it-- supposed to be ready to paint within 20 minutes but I'll let it sit for a few hours & put primer on it just in case.

I still need to buy some primer. I need something that I can lay on thick enough to cover some of the scrapes & dings on the door. It got pretty beat up before I got the moving blanket in there.

I'll take some pictures & post them later.

 

I got the washers on-- made sure to secure the pet door with clamps so I wouldn't have any problems with stuff popping out.
The door got some nasty scratches but I think I can use filler primer on it (This is the inside half):


The bolts stuck out quite a bit once they were through and secured with washers so I trimmed them with the Dremel

I put white tape over them

I got 3 of the caps on the outer side with no problems but the last cap (the one that was the hardest to get a bolt through) was really giving me trouble. I ended up having to lay the door flat & tap the last one in with a mallet. I then tapped all of them for good measure to make sure they were tight. Killed 2 more wasps in the room while I was at it (still not sure where they are getting in, but they are very slow & there are a bunch of dead ones so something is killing them in there).

Next step is the caulk. It was already cold and dark by the time I finished so I wanted to wait for it to be a little warmer before I applied the DAP door & window caulk. I'll have to pick up some filler primer for the deeper scratches & maybe some regular primer to touch-up the surface scratches. I've been told the filler primer I want is rather thin so hopefully it will go on smoothly without any problems. The store doesn't have the paint I want in stock but Behr's reps said I can have it mixed in the store-- just said to tell them which base and which color pigment to add.

 

With a steel door they fill dents with automotive bondo.

 

Like this: It doesn't say "automotive" but Rustoleum's answers to questions say it is for automotive. It's similar to bondo in spray can form. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Automotive-11-oz-Gray-Filler-Primer-Spray-249279/202097276
They are mostly light scratches but there are some that could use a little bit of build-up from the filler. It can be "wet sanded" as well as dry sanded.