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gk245

Water came in through the entry doors, floor destroyed.

gk245
16 years ago

We had about a 1.5 feet of snow piled up against a entry door, and when the snow melted, the water all came inside the house. Is this an installation problem or are all entry doors made this way?

Pics:

http://i11.tinypic.com/80vv3gh.jpg

http://i18.tinypic.com/8f9sth2.jpg

Its a Therma-Tru door.

Thanks.

Comments (11)

  • iasheff
    16 years ago

    I don't know anything about doors-- but I do know that we have 3 doors (2 in kitchen, 1 in dining room) that are exposed to all kinds of weather since there is not any type of covering or awning over them and we have NEVER had any water come in around them. Snow piles up against the 2 kitchen doors during the winter since we only use them during the summer and snow or moisture has never come in. Even during the heaviest of thunderstorms during the summer, water does not come in around them.

    I would venture to say that it is a installation problem!

  • gk245
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    iasheff: Do your doors open into the house or away from the house?

  • hendricus
    16 years ago

    Did the water come under the door or under the threshold? That looks like a new sidewalk, does it slope away adequately?

  • gk245
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I am not sure where the water came from, now that I think about it. I guess it could be under the threshold or even from the side insulation. That is not a sidewalk, but a "concrete pad".

  • iasheff
    16 years ago

    Our doors all open into the house. We live in a 100+ year old house. The french doors that open into the dining room are the only ones that we ourselves (as in hubby and buddy, not actually 'me' LOL) replaced. I do know they put flashing of some sort around it to make sure that it didn't leak. We have never had a drop come in around any of them. All of those doors have decks off of them so they are built up off of the ground. Only the deck off of the dining room is ever cleaned off of snow. In fact, if I went to open one of the kitchen doors right now, I would probably end up with a couple of inches of snow in there since the snow has drifted up against the doors.

    From the pictures, it looks like it might be coming in under the door, which would definitely make it an installation problem. Is this new construction or remodel? Have you ever had any problems before?

  • gk245
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    This is a new construction. I didn't know about the problem until it snowed like crazy, and I didn't clean in front of the doors. Later, when it became sunny, the snow started to melt and went right through the doors. A drop or few is fine with me, but this flooded the area and even went under the walls into the next room.

  • sawdust_maker
    16 years ago

    Although I have no knowledge of the local building codes in your area, this looks like it was done poorly.

    An entry should have a step up, to prevent exactly this from happening. Instead it is exactly at ground level. It even appears that the pad in front slopes towards the door. This will cause trouble for you every time it snows or even rains heavily. I'd suggest that you look into having the ground re-graded in front of the door.

    John

  • joed
    16 years ago

    Very poor setup. Looks to me like the outside sidewalk is level with inside floor. Perfect setup for water to run inside under the door. I like to see one step up into the house at least.
    Looks like the door was not sealed under the threshold when it was installed.

  • GammyT
    16 years ago

    gk245 you said "This is a new construction"

    Call your builder and tell him what happened to see if there are remedies under the warranty. DO NOT say that you let the snow build up though, the same could happen in a downpour. Just say when the snow melted the water came in and that isn't a lie.

    From the photo the pad is the exact same height as everything else, bad construction. If the pad has even a slight slope towards the house, water will run that way.

  • dgmarie
    16 years ago

    I went to look at my entry door and all of them have a step up into the house. We get snow here, too (Chicago area) and never had anything like that. A driving rain maybe some gets in (we replaced the weather strip) but no way anything like that. I wonder if that is to code.

    We did have a patio door which was flush with a deck once and it never let in rain.

  • sawdust_maker
    16 years ago

    Many decks are indeed level with no step up into a door to the house. But when water hits a deck or snow melts, it can run down between the deck boards. In the pictures from GK245, that release is impossible, so the water runs into the house.

    Was it done according to code? I find that hard to believe. I'd suggest a quick call to the local building inspector for that area to verify that fact.