Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
jon1270

New basement door, very old house...

Jon1270
15 years ago

A friend has asked for my help replacing an exterior basement door in a very old house. I've gotten pretty good at hanging interior doors, but this would be my first exterior. The "sill," if that's the right term, is just a massive sandstone block, part of the foundation, 14" deep. The threshold of the existing (not original) door sits directly on the sandstone, without any wooden sill, subfloor or flashing in-between. Naturally that threshold has rotted out. The door swings in over the top step of a short stairway, and the upper edge of that stairway has degraded some as well, due to water infiltration.

I've been reading whatever I can find on installation of exterior doors, but all of the documentation I've found so far assumes that the sill and rough opening are entirely wood. Since the bottom of this opening is sandstone, and since the new door is likely to have an aluminum threshold, I'm not clear whether flashing is needed around the lower part of the opening or if the sealant that goes under the new threshold will be enough to exclude water. Any thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated.

Comments (2)