Restoring Doors at Tredegar Iron Works

 We recently completed a small job (there are small jobs, but no small clients!) for Tredegar Iron Works repairing two custom doors that had rotted from water that had gather around the bottom during heavy rains. 

The first step was getting the doors off an in the shop. They were heavy! It took 3 to 4 people to move these doors.

First, we performed surgery using a scalpel (never an ax) to remove all of the rotted portions of the doors.

Next, we did dutchman repairs on the door stiles.

then we took tongue and groove boards and cut them to fit inside the large lower panel. The fact that the boards ran diagonally required special attention to make sure that the diagonal cuts lined up with the stiles and rails frame around the panel.

Then, re-installation. Paint will be done by others.

Sean decided to get to know some of the locals.

Door Dutchman Repair

As an aside to our shutters project for Centre Hill, we picked up some work repairing the doors on the mansion.

We started by cutting out the rotten portion on the door stile.

We had to use two different pieces of wood cut to leave room for the flush bolt lock and then put another layer on top, to mimic the original milling of the stile.

And finally, epoxy the joints to hold it together and make it blend seamlessly with the existing wood.

Restoring antique doors

Progress at Hillary Baker House

When the rain traps us inside, the inside gets built into something awesome! Here you can see the framing we've been doing, from the beginnings of a new staircase with spots for a microwave, minifridge and oven underneath, to the wainscotting knee wall going up. We've also been chugging along with window restoration, and it is so nice to get sashes back in place. You can see the cute casement windows with super wide stools.  We have one window we built from scratch to take the spot of what used to be a 2nd back door - the brick masons built the wall back and we framed and trimmed in the window. We're also working on getting the historic mantles back in place. And some HVAC person left some modern art in our historic jobsite!

A million little dutchmen

I like to do dutchmen in the original material, or as close as possible. That way the wood will 'breathe' (expand and contract with moisture) at the same rate. In this case, more antique pine.

Termite damaged door frame

The new frame has already been milled out of fir. We'll reinstall the antique door. We thought we'd be able to save the trim, but it turns out the paint was the only thing holding it together.

Through the doorway is Ronnie Gray, our favorite plumber.