Restoring Hardwood Door Rail

Rot is often caused by water collecting at the bottom of panels in rail and mullion grooves.

Restoring hardwood door rail.

Remove the three hinge pins from the door by placing the flat. Refinishing your wood door with quality stain every one to two years prevents weather damage and keeps your door looking like new. This gives you a good key for the new coats of primer plus your chosen exterior paint for wood in whatever colour you fancy. Wear safety glasses when using a palm sander.

Once stripped the door should be lightly sanded with a 120 grit sandpaper to remove any remaining traces of paint and paint stripping product. Coat both the mortise and tenon sides with a good wood glue to and tightly clamp the doors back together. Hopefully this will restore the original integrity of the door by maximizing the glue surface of the joints as originally intended and perhaps they will last another 70 years. Priming end grain areas before reassembly is a good idea especially for exterior doors.

If you leave it too long in one spot you ll damage the wood. Other rot prone areas are the exposed ends of door components since end grain cuts absorb water more quickly than surfaces parallel to the grain. Keep the palm sander moving.