DaHammer

Any of you guys have any tricks to replace door sills/thresholds? The door is a new Therma Tru 3/0 front entry door with sidelites and a brass finished sill. This is on a new house under construction. Today the drywall delivery guys decided to roll dolly loads of drywall across the sill and bent the s**t out of it as well as broke some of the brick under it. Hopefully I can get a new sill from Therma-Tru, but putting it on looks to be quiet a chore. It appears to me that the entire unit, sidelites attached, will have to come out so I can remove the center sill,replace it, and reinstall the door. But I may could also run a sawzall under the jamb and on top of the sill to cut it free from the jamb and get it out that way. Of course I couldn't reattach the jamb to the new sill very well. To make matters worse the brick is already on the house, so I'd rather not remove the door if I can avoid it. BTW, the sill looks to be in 3 pieces, 1 for each sidelite and 1 for the door. I'm not concerned about water, since it's under a covered porch. But I don't want to screw up a $2000 door either.

I'm sure you guys that do new construction run into this all the time and just thought you may have some ideas.

neolitic

Does Thermatru have an adjustable threshold? If it does back the screws out all the way and pull it out. Then you've probably only got a couple of 16 or 18 ga. staples or nails thru the sill up into the "fat" part of the jamb. Should be able to cut those and wiggle, jiggle and cuss it out of there some how. Cutting a big chunk out of the middle with a sawsall will give you more wiggle room. Round here you can get a replacement at Menards for @$22.
Ron

dougchips

I wish I had an answer for you. I have changed sills on a bunch of new doors but never on a TT. Most of the sills have screws in the bottom and on the side. Your door unit is a "boxed unit" instead of a "continous sill", this means that you might have to detach the sidelights in order to remove the sill! When you re-install the unit be sure to used some long screws through the mull post so the door does not look like a bay window in a year or so (boxed units will bow outward if you don't screw the mull post down).

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DaHammer

The sill has what looks to be an adjustable threshold, yeah. It's made out of vinyl/plastic and has vinyl caps that cover the screws. The threshold comes out easy enough, had it out this afternoon. It just prys straight out. But the aluminum sill is another story. It's not that strudy, so I'm sure there isn't much holding it to the underside of the jamb. And it looks to me like if I run a sawzall under the jamb I could cut it free and then slide it out and slide a new in. Guess I'll wait till I get the new one for it and go from there. The floor underneath is concrete, btw, and there isn't anything except caulk holding the sill to the floor. I was there the day the framing crew set the door and all they did at the bottom was run a bead of silicone.

Dougchips, you make an interesting point about the door bowing out, since it's a boxed unit. That was my biggest concern in trying to replace the sill without removing the unit, that I may cause it to do just that. But thinking about it, there isn't anything preventing that now except silicone. Maybe once I get the damaged sill out I can retrofit some type of L bracket to the sides of the jamb and anchor it to the floor. If I could jimmy the stop loose enough to get the bracket behind it I could completely conceal it, maybe.

neolitic

"Stop" ??? what stop? It's a wood exterior jamb and has a separate stop?
I'm confused--or you are.

dougchips

He might be talking about the piece of lattice that hides the staples where the boxed units meet on the inside.

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neolitic

Oh, mullion molding/mull cover?? Maybe so then.

DaHammer

Yeah what he said. Sorry, not a stop like a stop on an interior door. But I think there is a piece of trim on the inside that is separate. I'll have to look at it again.

Teetorbilt

Does anyone else think that this guy has over-stepped his bounderies? I once put in 14' in-swing french entries in a home with 8' ceilings, pretty easy.

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A W Smith

Buy a new door and have the drywall supplier pay for it. Assuming the door was put in plumb level and square in the first place the brick veneer should not be an issue. Once the sill is removed from a door with sidelights and replaced without re-stapling or screwing it back into the rabbeted legs. the door will lose its integrity. The sill is the only thing preventing the jamb from blowing out if the door is slammed.

grob62

This is doable, I have done R&R on a threshold without pulling the door, ThermaTru in fact. Never on a door with a sidelite however. We always would cut the threshold right down the middle then wiggle, cut, chisel, sawzall where the threshold meets the jamb to get the threshold out with damaging the jambs. Take your sweet time. Then caulk her up real good underneath, and where they would meet and slide, tap, beat it in place. Put screws under the adjustable threshold into the subfloor. An hour and a half for one guy. If your too wussy to do it that way you should be able to pull the whole unit, replace the threshold from the bottom and reset it within a half a day 2 guys.

neolitic

I'm sure he's been waiting a year
to hear from you.

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