How do you fix a rotted door

Dark spots and the spongy surface of timber are the clear signs of a door rot. If you poke it with a sharp object like a knife or screwdriver and the timber doesn’t offer resistance, obviously, this area is struck by parasites. What are they? Usually, the culprits of door rot are fungi ‒ microscopic organisms that eat wood fibers. They emerge due to the high humidity level and its abnormal change variations. Their lives fully depend on moisture, so if the timber is soaked through, the fungi spread rapidly. As a rule, those bacteria affect mostly external doors due to the weather conditions, which are usually changeable outside.

If you spotted a trace of rot on your doors, it’s time to do something about that. Below, we prepared a list of what to do with a rotted door:

1. Take the door off the hinges. It’s recommended to remove the door from its entrance, as this way, it’s easier to work with it. However, if the damage is not severe or you can’t leave your entrance open, you may work with it when it stays on the hinges.
2. Remove the rotten wood. Just take something sharp like a screwdriver or a putty knife and clear the affected areas from rotten wood. You may also use a drill with a conical nozzle, similar to how the dentist’s drill the holes to put a seal.
3. Drill the holes around the damaged wood area. It’s advisable to do this as the bacteria which causes rotting leaves the wood fibers around the affected area weak and may spread further. If your door has deep holes due to the rotten wood, you can take pieces of adhesive tape and stuff them inside the holes to fill up the cavity so that you could have something your hardener could stick with. Don’t worry if it looks really cheap and funny, but once you get a filler in there and it will pack in, everything will look really smooth. Instead of tape, you may use a spray-expanding foam if you have more time.
4. Fill the holes with polyester wood filler and epoxy. First, mix the hardener with epoxy resin, but use different sticks for this purpose so that the first material wouldn’t get inside the second can. Take the third stick to mix them until it turns into a homogeneous mass. It has to be done as fast as you can, as the material starts to harden in 2 minutes. Apply the mixture to the holes, filling them. Add as many layers as possible, letting the previous ones dry a bit. Get a putty knife and smooth that out, ensuring no craters are left.
5. Sand the surface. This step is a perfect finish once you’ve filled the holes, leaving them dry overnight. Take a sander and grind the surface down flat. Then use the primer to cover the sanded area and let it dry. Get paint that matches the door color and apply it in two layers.

Now, you have a perfectly repaired door with no signs of rot and saved up money. However, if you see the door is severely affected by fungus and needs a replacement, feel free to use house locksmith services for that purpose.