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How do I make an angled sil for my screen door?

How do I make an angled sil for my screen door?


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Old 09-29-05, 02:13 PM
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How do I make an angled sil for my screen door?

I have a screen door on a three-season porch that currently swings in from the deck. Well I'm having Lowes install an new screen door (cheap install $59 promo) and this time it will swing out onto the wood deck outside. Since the old door swung inside the bottom sill has been damaged by water and it rotted. I need to replace it but I'm not sure what type of wood to buy and how to cut it to get that angle so the new door will sweep up against it and not allow any bugs to get in. Thanks for your help!!!
 
  #2  
Old 09-29-05, 09:04 PM
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Hmm. If I am picturing this correctly, the storm door is going to be your ONLY door? And your "angled sill" also needs to be a threshold as you open the door and step into the room. It's also obviously exposed to the weather, since the old one rotted. In that case, I'd recommend that you fashion yourself a threshold made from oak. At HD or Lowes, they should have precut oat stair treads that are about 1 1/8" thick. These are perfect for making thresholds out of. You'll need to cut the board wider than your doorway opening, and make "ears" on the outer portion of the sill. In other words, the door opening may be 32", but you should cut the sill 36" long so that you can have a 2" ear on each side. Your door trim (brickmould?) will sit on top of these ears, so that ought to stick out about 2" from the sheathing as well.

Hopefully you have access to a table saw, and you can cut an angle (raise your blade as high as it will go and cut the angle somewhere between 7 and 15 degrees, depending) as wide as possible on each side of this sill so that it will drain outward, and also make it sloped inward so that you don't trip on it- that will leave a high flat area in the middle. If needed, you can also make ears on the interior, but it makes the piece a little more difficult to install. Belt sand everything after you've got it cut to size, but before you install it. You'll want to run a bead of sealant- caulk or construction adhesive below the threshold to stop water and prevent air infiltration. As for the finish, you can either keep the wood oiled up, stain and finish it with an exterior polyurethane, or prime and paint it with an exterior paint- something you might use on a porch floor, for example. Oak holds up very well to weather because it is so hard.
 

Last edited by XSleeper; 09-29-05 at 09:08 PM. Reason: additional thought
  #3  
Old 09-30-05, 12:05 PM
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pre cut sills

Most lumber yards have pre fabricated sills if you don't want to make one yourself.
 
 

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