this door is just annoying me now.

[robgil]

This door is in my bathroom , it leads out to the gable end that is our neighbours driveway. The door has not been used for many years , its nailed shut. The whole thing was under some hard board panelling put there i presume to hide it away along with the clay lump walls and crumbling daub plaster.
I am not sure what to do with it , i dont want to hide it. I am thinking about removing the door and using tongue and groove on both sides of the frame with cellotex in-between , then perhaps a stained leaded light above where the grille is. I would really like to leave the door as is and board and insulate from outside but its pretty far gone with rot at the bottom and would take a fair bit of cleaning to get it up to scratch. My loo will be going right in front of the door with the cistern on the wall to the right of it.
Any ideas guys? I understand that its been there from day one and because of this filling in the doorway isnt really an option, although it is pointless having a door beside a loo.

this is the fella here,

this is the grille above the door,

this is the rotten bit.

 

[middi]

I would restore it, adapt an extractor into the grille and attach a sign on the door to read
----" WAY OUT FOR CURRY LOVERS"---- :wink:

 

[LadyArowana]

Does it still look like a door viewed from outside ? or has it been covered over somehow so it seems just like a flat wall ? How is Mrs Robgil, are we on PPUK baby watch yet or still a while away ?

 

[robgil]

I would love to restore it but how? the bottom is rotten. from the outside it still looks like a door , it still is a working door ,its just been nailed shut for the last quarter century. Ms Robgil is wobbling around like a penguin still , today is the due date so any time now really, hopefully it wont be long now.

 

[Penners]

I don't see the door as an architectural treasure. If it were me, I think I would (with a pang of reluctance) remove it and replace it with clay lump wall - particularly as it leads straight out into your neighbour's driveway.

It looks pretty rotten, so boxing it in is only likely to leave you with a weakened structure, plus the risk of rot persisting and possibly worsening inside the wall.

Ultimately the building has to serve your needs, and those of occupants in the future.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I would love to restore it but how? the bottom is rotten. from the outside it still looks like a door , it still is a working door ,its just been nailed shut for the last quarter century. Ms Robgil is wobbling around like a penguin still , today is the due date so any time now really, hopefully it wont be long now.

Rob, I think it is time to start hinting to Mrs G that you might not get the house finished before she comes home with junior.... 8)

 

[Penners]

But that, when he or she is old enough to handle tools, they'll never be short of a hobby. :wink:

 

[yamin]

Good luck Mrs Robgil! Hope she's not a horribly HOT penguin today - I was pregnant with twins in heat like this and the long hot summer felt like a long hot decade LOL!

I agree with Penners here, if door is rotten and not especially handsome, then removal is a viable, if regretable option.

 

[robgil]

we have just been having a good look at it today, basically I start work on the bathroom tomorrow and this is top of the list. I have some clay lump bricks but not enough to fill the gap. Perhaps I could lath and plaster it , I have to plaster the room anyway. Whatever I do the door will have to be removed (it might go at the bottom of the stairs , if I cut the rot out it might just fit) so I can either plaster over the gap or board over it. I think you are right Penners , I sometimes have trouble knowing where to draw a line between conserving what is here and making this cottage into a usable living space.

 

[robgil]

Good luck Mrs Robgil! Hope she's not a horribly HOT penguin today - I was pregnant with twins in heat like this and the long hot summer felt like a long hot decade LOL!

I agree with Penners here, if door is rotten and not especially handsome, then removal is a viable, if regretable option.

Thanks Yamin , i shall pass that on to Ms Robgil.

 

[yamin]

Sorry, Ms Robgil, - as if there wasn't stuff irritating enough during late stages of pregnancy, never mind people egtting your moniker wrong

And you've got about 9 months to get it all done then! Little one won't be on his or her feet/bottom/knees much before that!

 

[robgil]

The only problem that i am worried about is dust , we currently live upstairs and have a temporary bathroom and kitchen/scullery in the diy extension but dust still gets everywhere. Apart from the plastering though most of the messy horrible work is done so it will begin to look like a house soon and not a building site , and once the new bathroom is finished it should all start falling into place a lot more easily. Ms Robgil on the other hand is worried about everything and anything but i guess once the new arrival settles in she should start to feel better about things.

 

[yamin]

Fortunately they're adaptable little buggers, and I'm assuming once plastering is done that might help a lot with the dust, am I right folks? Otherwise, lots and lots of nice country walks with the baby - all to aid the loss of the baby weight and avoid the worst of the dust! :wink:

 

[Penners]

they're adaptable little buggers

Oh dear - I seem to have lost my bearings. Are we still on the woodworm thread, or are you talking about baby robgils?

 

[Penners]

I have some clay lump bricks but not enough to fill the gap.

Why not make some more? You wouldn't need many.

Ingredients: Clay, straw, water.

http://www.home-energy-saving-tips.com/clay-lump-green-building.html

 

[AMc]

We had a row of store cupboards which had external doors and internally were divided by brick walls. As the orchard and market garden have been turned into a housing estate, I don't think we'd ever need to store potatoes and apples in those quantities again. When it came to remove the interior walls and open up the kitchen we replaced the doors with fixed doors with double glazed windows (3 on the left) the left most one had been adapted into a casement in the 20C so we restored the brick arch and narrowed back to the width of the original step (still in the bricked up wall). The two on the right are the larder then the downstairs loo- they retain their main walls with new door ways inside (reusing the other ouitside doors) for access. On the outside they have the original doors in place, then they are battened , insulated with ecotherm and faced with insulated plasterboard.

So outside you can see the original structure on the inside they look like conventional windows and blanked walls. We felt this maintained the continuity of the exterior but allowed us to make the inside suit our 21C needs.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about the rotten door. If you can replace it with a new fixed door in keeping with the house and the original then fix inside so it appears as a wall you'll be doing OK in my book. I would also use the door as the point for an extractor vent.