Garage door repair - use wood preservative?

[Muse]

Manual garage door. Posting here picture of the door in its current state.

I cut out some deteriorated plywood and part of framing members. I have cut plywood to fit in the gaps I cut out and I figure to cut wood pieces to fit in the gaps where I cut out portions of the framing.

I figure to epoxy the joints and prime and paint.

My question concerns using wood preservative. I have a gallon can of Copper Green. I figure I'm less likely to see rot from water intrusion from rains if I treat with wood preservative. I figure to probably treat before gluing in the plywood and pieces of fir. The Copper Green documentation suggests letting it dry thoroughly (probably after wiping off excess) and then using an oil based primer. I have some of that, Zinsser. Then I figure to use water based paint over the dried primer.

Is using the wood preservative going to weaken the epoxy bonding? Is it going to be beneficial overall or should I instead depend on the epoxy and primer/paint?

 

[C1]

Dont mess around.

Do it right.
Ive used this stuff for years.
It works and is amazing.
Cant recommend it enough.

https://www.rotdoctor.com/products/cpes.html

Then you'll want to use the two part epoxy filler where needed to fill large missing areas.

https://www.rotdoctor.com/house/Hmain.html

http://www.rotdoctor.com/

 

[Muse]

Dont mess around.

Do it right.
Ive used this stuff for years.
It works and is amazing.
Cant recommend it enough.

https://www.rotdoctor.com/products/cpes.html

Then you'll want to use the two part epoxy filler where needed to fill large missing areas.

http://www.rotdoctor.com/

https://www.rotdoctor.com/house/Hmain.html

I will absolutely check that out. But thing is, right now I'm in a hurry... I want to finish this before the next rain and that's probably in less than a week. Don't have time to order something, need to do something now. If I decide to apply the Copper Green, I need to let it dry adequately before priming and maybe before using epoxy on it.

 

[mxnerd]

Don't think it will be a problem if you believe this post.

https://goo.gl/eYVJ9y

 

[Muse]

Don't think it will be a problem if you believe this post.

https://goo.gl/eYVJ9y

Ah, interesting thread there. Thanks. I just read it all. I have Kilz 2 water based primer, 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket. Also have a maybe never opened 5 gallon ~15 year old bucket of Zinsser Cover-Stain, interior/exterior oil based white primer (not the Kilz oil based recommended in the thread). Will probably follow the Copper Green advice and use the oil based after wiping dry and letting it dry a while. I'm going to check the weather report tonight and see how much time I have. I think there's a slight chance of a little rain in 5 days or so. Maybe I'll chance it. I can put plastic over it if need be.

 

[Humpy]

To me, that all sounds like way too much work when you could just replace the entire piece in one shot. Using pressure treated if wanted, though there shouldn't be any ground contact so I don't see a reason for any type of preservative.

 

[Muse]

To me, that all sounds like way too much work when you could just replace the entire piece in one shot. Using pressure treated if wanted, though there shouldn't be any ground contact so I don't see a reason for any type of preservative.

Here's my reasoning. I don't want to rebuild the door entirely like I did before. Way too much work, I'd need at least a couple of sheets of 3/8" ply and I no longer have a station wagon to get them home, I'd need to rent a truck from Home Depot. Plus, I now have a ton of tools in the garage, I don't want to leave the door unsecured overnight, so I'd need to do stuff in one day.

The left side of the door's ply is decent, although it needs sanding, priming, painting. The cut out portion of ply on the right was bad, but I've cut ply to fit in the empty space.

Now, replacing the entire bottom piece is something I don't want to do because to do that I'd need to detach the left ply from it and I think that would damage the ply. There are nails in there. So, I don't want to mess with that left part of the door.

That's my thinking here. I think if I do this right and keep it painted it will last for years, maybe many years.

My thought now is to cut the fir piece to fit in the slot in the bottom piece and epoxy and nail that in with stainless ribbed nails (which I have left over from the siding job I did over the last 1/2 year), then treat with Copper Green, wipe off, let dry and then prime and paint. Likewise, figure to epoxy the ply inserts at the edges and nail to the framing. I will staple 1/8" strips to the back of the ply joints in order to make both sides lie in the same plane at the same time as I epoxy in the insert.

 

[Humpy]

Your plan will work of course, and it will last years, it's just a bit fiddley to me. There is definitely a time and place for restoration work involving epoxies and preservatives and surgically removing rot, I'm not sure this is it.

From a carpenter's perspective I see it as cutting all the nails with a sawzall, pop out the bad piece, cut a new one, screw/nail it in, nail on the sheathing, paint, go home.

I'm also a fan of people DIY'ing it, so don't take my posts as meaning anything unsupportive.

 

[jmagg]

A PT ground contact 2x4 member on the bottom would be worth the effort imo.

 

[Muse]

Your plan will work of course, and it will last years, it's just a bit fiddley to me. There is definitely a time and place for restoration work involving epoxies and preservatives and surgically removing rot, I'm not sure this is it.

From a carpenter's perspective I see it as cutting all the nails with a sawzall, pop out the bad piece, cut a new one, screw/nail it in, nail on the sheathing, paint, go home.

I'm also a fan of people DIY'ing it, so don't take my posts as meaning anything unsupportive.

Yeah, I would have done it this way I guess, but I don't have a way to get 4x8 sheathing without renting a truck. So, I figured out a way to do it by cutting out the rot and replacing with pieces, epoxied, nailed and with some wood preservative.

I'm near done. I'm done for the day. I decided to use two different batches of epoxy, the first to repair the framing, the second on the horizontal edge where the plywood meets, which I'll do tomorrow. I will have a backing strip where the plywood meets, 1/8" stuff, which is to be stapled to the back of each to keep them in the same plane. I'll do that before the glue starts to set up. 90% of the work is done, actually more than that. The tricky parts were cutting the slot in the bottom framing member and then creating a piece to fit in that slot.Those are now glued together, and there are 2.5" stainless ribbed nails in that joint too. I predrilled holes, which was necessary not just to prevent splitting. Ribbed nails are super hard to drive without pilot holes and the nails will just keel over if you don't have them!

After all this I need to do some scraping, sanding, priming and painting and I'm going to use some wood preservative in some places before priming.

 

[Muse]

A PT ground contact 2x4 member on the bottom would be worth the effort imo.

If I get rot in what I have now, I'll likely use PT next time.

Here's what it looks like right now. Tomorrow I apply the plywood, epoxying it to the plywood above at the seam. You can see the backing strip I stapled to the back of the existing plywood. I'll staple the backing strip to the plywood piece I'm putting in tomorrow. I am using 3/8" staples. After today's work:

Before today's work:

 

[Greenman]

Maybe it's time to consider a sectional door?

 

[Muse]

Maybe it's time to consider a sectional door?

Um, what's that? Are they all automatic? I see people posting about automatic garage door problems all the time. I've never had one.

 

[jmagg]

Um, what's that? Are they all automatic? I see people posting about automatic garage door problems all the time. I've never had one.

Heres what I was up against on a very old sectional door.

 

[Muse]

Heres what I was up against on a very old sectional door.

Jesus, that looks like a bitch and a half to repair and maintain. I think I'll probably stick with the simple design I inherited when I bought this place. IIRC, I bought a new lock and springs, plywood and some framing, the decorative trim (fully optional, but I decided to replicate what they had), primer and paint. Gotta keep an eye on it, though going forward.

 

[jmagg]

Yea, a rock and a hardplace. Odd size door so a special order new door would have been high. That forced my hand to fab a new bottom section, and while at it I built the entry door too. Even reused the glass. These doors were original to the house which was 53, amazing they lasted that long. They don't make wood like they used to.

 

[Muse]

Yea, a rock and a hardplace. Odd size door so a special order new door would have been high. That forced my hand to fab a new bottom section, and while at it I built the entry door too. Even reused the glass. These doors were original to the house which was 53, amazing they lasted that long. They don't make wood like they used to.

My house is literally twice as old as yours. Built in 1910! The garage was built around 1955, I think.

Wood! I had to look around my scraps and such in picking out the insert I glued/nailed in yesterday. Needed to be more than the 1.5" width you find in today's 2x4s, by at least 1/16", 1/8" better. The piece I used feels unusually heavy. Fir can be like that, some pieces just feel a lot denser than others. That wood was weathered, the grain super raised. I belt sanded every surface.

 

[Greenman]

Um, what's that? Are they all automatic? I see people posting about automatic garage door problems all the time. I've never had one.

It's a steel sectional door, $350 at the home depot. It can have an opener on it or not. Cheap, easy, and fast.

 

[jmagg]

Wood! I had to look around my scraps and such in picking out the insert I glued/nailed in yesterday. Needed to be more than the 1.5" width you find in today's 2x4s, by at least 1/16", 1/8" better. The piece I used feels unusually heavy. Fir can be like that, some pieces just feel a lot denser than others. That wood was weathered, the grain super raised. I belt sanded every surface.

The yellow pine i've salvaged and re purposed on this house is amazingly hard and stable. These days I try to use Doug Fir dimensional lumber whenever possible, as it has the highest tannin content and is much harder than the Whitewood stuff .

 

[Muse]

The yellow pine i've salvaged and re purposed on this house is amazingly hard and stable. These days I try to use Doug Fir dimensional lumber whenever possible, as it has the highest tannin content and is much harder than the Whitewood stuff .

Most of the framing I did on the garage over the summer was fir. I was OK unless I tried to drive a nail through a knot, which happened a couple of times. Didn't know until a nail just wouldn't go in without bending over. I think even without knots some parts are a lot harder than others. I notice that some pieces seem much denser than others (heavier).