Miscellaneous Repairs & Modifications

Northwest Portland, just east of Holman Park. Notice the lack of eves. We’ve been told that during World War 2, and for some time thereafter, a shortage of resources necessitated that architecture cut certain corners.

An absolutely gorgeous front door. The naturally finished wood is exquisitely contrasted against the green siding. But the door panels have begun to expand and contract…translating into splits in the panels and various joints & seams opening up.

And the back door is even considerably worse. As the sunshine in this photo indicates, we have a southerly exposure on this side of the house, which is where the lion’s share of moist weather comes from in this valley.

The large panel on this door has begun to warp and twist so much that it has resulted in some of the exterior wood-stops popping off the door. The nails shown here were apparently installed to help keep the panel in the door.

An interior view looking up towards the top of the panel shows the cupping panel pulled away from the interior wood stop material. You may get a better view if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

It may be hard to see from this exterior view, but the top horizontal piece of exterior wood-stop material is bent outward as it reaches the corner of the panel, and this is from the pressure being exerted against it by the panel.

This is what happened to several other pieces of the exterior stop material that have already come off.
If you enlarge the photo, you may be able to see the BOW outward of the panel’s far bottom corner, where the nail is installed.

And so it was that we were employed to attempt a remedy. We brought out our trailer and forced the panel back into position long enough for newly applied wood-glue & fasteners to establish a substantial hold upon it.

The prognosis? Not good. If the wood doors were painted on the exterior, then you would at least be able to caulk (seal) all the seams and joints by which moisture will otherwise most assuredly continue to gain access to the unfinished portions of the various wood components, no matter how many coats of varnish are applied.

But sometimes folks simply have not the ears to hear such things when they’ve already spent a considerable amount of money to achieve a particular look…which is, however unwise, stunningly beautiful…for another year or two.