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Water under door thresholds.

T

Traci

New member
We have just finished putting up our 30' pacific yurt with three doors. Everything went up smoothly and appears to be assembled properly but we are getting water running under our doors onto the floor inside. The threshold overhangs the drip edge as instructed. The water appears to pool on the threshold and then runs in at the sides. Water also runs off or out of the door seal into the yurt every time we open the doors. We have one french door (the worst leaker) and two regular doors. We have been killing ourselves off trying to build and keep our platform dry during a typical rainy pacific northwest fall only to have our floor get wet with standing water under the threshold after our cover is up. It is Saturday so we are unable to talk with Pacific Yurts until Monday. I've been wrestling tarps for two months so having to deal with this when our yurt is finally up is heart breaking. What are we doing wrong? Or is this normal? :confused:
 
I'm a carpenter since 1973. Unfortunately there are few low cost no cost bandaid solutions that will slow water entry on any building, like a yurt, that has no overhang above the door.

The real solution is a full awning over the entry, and/or storm door with integral frame, caulked and attached to the yurts door frame. Any install needs a qualified carpenter to get it right, imo.

The storm door frame needs to be installed such that the storm doors sweep is contacting the outward facing slope at the bottom of the entry door threshold. If the door doesn't have a thresold with sufficient protrusion, an extension should be added. Preferably the sweep will contact the door well below finished floor level. Driven water can climb depending on force.

If I were installing this, I'd thoroughly caulk the storm door frame to the yurts door frame. Both sides and the top get a big fat bead to where the silicone is oozing out as the storm door frame gets screwed in place. That just might stop water from entering your yurt.

Adding a 5 degree bevel to the bottom of your entry door, and a sweep that contacts the threshold, might help a bit. In a hard driving rain that blows directly at the door you are basically sol without an overhang.

Good luck.
 
Also, good quality double French doors have a three point locking mechanism activated by throwing the handle upwards on the operable door. A top bolt, bottom bolt, and latch all engage their mortises as the handle is raised upwards.

If you do not have such a door, you can add barrel bolts to the top and bottom of the operable side for tight closure against the weatherstrip in inclement weather. Lock the door, and then throw the barrel bolts. I retrofitted those to exterior grade double doors quite a few times back in the 80s. That still won't stop the water from entering but it might slow it down somewhat.

I suggest you contact a good carpenter to help deal with your problem. Good luck.
 
I get this from time to time myself and am unsure what to do about it. It doesn't happen all the time. Maybe one of the guys at Pacific Yurts will jump in here after the weekend and answer.
 
This is what we have figured out so far. The door seal at the bottom of the door is cut short(on purpose) on the outside edges of the door so the door meets flush with the door frame when closed. When water runs down the door it runs in at the sides and fills the trough of the door seal(between the bottom of the door and the metal). So it was acting like a little gutter channeling water into the yurt. It appeared the doors were leaking at different rates because the ones we weren't using did not leak at first- until the trough was full and then all of a sudden pools of water would appear inside the yurt. The door we were using would deposit the contents of the trough regularly when opened and continue to pool at the sides after being shut.
My husband removed the door seals and sealed off the areas on the sides that allow it to fill with water. He also drilled some holes in the trough that will drain to the outside if water still gets into the trough for some reason. When I say seal I'm referring to the whole metal piece that screws onto the bottom of the door. The rubber piece attached to the bottom of the metal seems to be functioning fine.
We have not had any wind or driving rain yet. We plan on covering the doors with awnings... after we have lived in the yurt for awhile and see how we will be using the doors and space outside the doors.
Right now we have plastic covering all three doors. We are expecting over five inches of rain over the next few days so we are leaving the plastic in place. We are not staying in the yurt yet and don't want to take any chances.
Thanks for the replies. We will talk with Pacific Yurts today. So far they have been really great to deal with and we are very happy with our yurt. I'll update if there is anything new to add either way.
 
Frequently the weatherstrip channel and 'bulb' on the bottom of newly manufactured doors is left full length and extends out past the door. Sometimes it even scrapes the lock jamb. Since there is normally a substantial overhang above the door on the house I trim, there is no reason to leave the weatherstrip scraping the lock jamb, or hanging out to collect water as you have described.

I frequently cut the weatherstrip channel and bulb flush with both door edges. I don't silicone the weatherstrip channel so it can be easily readjusted for good seal as the door and house settle. However in your case, you might consider siliconing the channel in place if water is flowing between it and the door, and into the gap. I don't think you have anything to lose. But, I'd wait for Pacific to address the problem before proceeding with this procedure.

Good luck.
 
We have solved this problem in the past by using silicone caulk under the door threshold before installation.

As Bob writes, it's important not to have too much protrusion and must have the threshold pitched so that water will run out as opposed to inside the yurt.

-Warm Regards
 
I place an uninterrupted bead of construction adhesive under the threshold of the exterior doors that I install, and that includes the garage to house 20 minute fire rated door as well. I pump a big fat bead zig zag fashion on the subfloor from plate to plate, where the threshold will sit. No water no bugs no air.

Off topic but when I built our house I also pumped a fat bead under all the exterior wall plates as well immediately before standing the walls. And nailed off the sheathing with 38K staples on 4" centers. Way overkill but no mice, no bugs, no water, no air leaks. Take that Norm Abram. lol
 
We had exactly same problem. French doors, Pacific Yurt 30’ diameter. Nothing, NO THING stopped or stops it. We had to build porch over front and back doors to keep water out of yurt. Now a seam has has separated in the yurt gutter right over the back door!😳. Water runs onto right side of door, step up, and door facing which will slowly rot the wood. Tried taping the two edges back together. Water still escapes from gutter. If the separation was anywhere except over the dang door it would not hurt anything.

Any ideas how to repair separated (not torn, just let go to two ends that meet as well as two sides that overlap, yurt roof and gutter) yurt fabric that was formerly bonded?
 
I haven't done this, but my suggestion is to get a cartridge of 3M Silicone 2, and a small caulking gun, and either smear it over the damaged area or glue on a reinforcing patch. Walmart, Depot, Lowes etc carries that product in the paint section. The area needs to be clean before applying. l

I have used that product. It is very heavy duty flexible sealant, normally used to seal joints in the bathroom. I know from experience that it takes days for silicone 2 to be fully removed from your skin, so that attests to its adherence quality. Wear disposable gloves. Wouldn't hurt to smear oil or petroleum jelly over your hands before you don the gloves. Good luck.
 
For whoever has a wood entry door exposed directly to weather, entry doors absolutely need a thick UNBROKEN coat of paint or clear finish. I mean recoated no less than every other year. No cracks at all or rot will assuredly start in the cracks from the sun, rain, snow, sun, rain, snow cycle.

Here's a sad story. I meticulously built a five panel yurt door from scratch. Caulked and painted it with hunter green oil base Rustoleum enamel. To see it, copy and paste: here:

Bob Rowlands home made yurt

in google images. Some months after those photos were taken, I hand painted a beautiful 'nomadic' Mongolian design on the exterior using a lettering brush and Testors enamel model paint. Lemme tell you that was a beautiful piece of work. However, I never considered the weather and the direct sun on it year around. I let cracks develop in the paint, because I knew from experience that if I coated the door with clear poly it wouldn't stick to the Rustoleum base paint. Well that door rotted out in about five years. That here in CO, with a dry climate.
 
I get this problem sometimes when it rains hard. What works for me is a dowel cut the width of the door. Then duct tape a piece of tarp on it. When not in use, it lives rolled up beside the door, standing on end. When the rain comes, I unroll it, open the door, and wedge it in the door frame about 10” from the bottom, with the bottom edge of the plastic overhanging the door jamb.

My tarp piece is the width of the door and maybe 12” long - so I can easily step in and out. During really bad storms I have taped a different, longer piece of tarp on the same dowel that blocks the whole door. Storms where the rain is actually running down the door onto the jamb and into the yurt. Not just splashing up from the roof. You do have to then secure the bottom as a piece that long will flap around in the wind. Not 100% perfect, but cheap, easy, and fast.

Hope everyone is well and surviving the virus and fallout. - Cindy
 
Hello Everyone,

I realize it's been a while since this thread has been alive, heres hoping folks are still around.

I have 30' Pacific yurt, pretty happy with the product overall.

I have 3 doors and all of them have sight water ingress around the threshold's. At first I was noticing that the roof line was dripping down directly onto the threshold and water was building up so I added a flashing tucked under the roof flap that diverted the drips away from the door and this helped a lot. In driving rain though water makes its way up the threshold and inside.

I have also noticed that when the temperate drops and its not raining that there is quite a bit of condensation on the inside of the metal threshold where the hot air is meeting cold metal.

Has anyone come up with better ways to deal with these issues?

Cheers !
 
Get down on the floor and eyeball the bottom of the door/threshold to see what's going on down there. If you see any gaps, and you aren't a carpenter, have one come out and see what he can do to get this corrected. Without being there myself I won't be able to diagnose and repair the issue. In the meantime silicone the snot of every place possible.

Quality exterior doors come with a fully adjustable threshold. The threshold is screwed into the bottom of the side jambs, effectively locking them in place, just as the top jamb locks the side jambs in place.

Do your doors have adjustable thresholds? Good ext door thresholds feature an adjustable section, directly under the closed door, that can be raised and lowered about 1/4" inch, with a #3 phillips screwdriver. They face up and are plainly visible when the door is open.

The moveable section is adjusted up or down so it seals against the vinyl sweep attached to the bottom of the door. That very effectively seals out water and air. The fixed part of the threshold slopes to the exterior, so water running down the door stays outside.

I have installed hundreds of these doors over the decades, including three on our house. The entry is covered, so water is not an issue. However the garage service door and laundry door are exposed to rain. No leaks or ants spiders etc. in 20 years.

Also when I install these doors I run a fat zig zag bead of construction adhesive on the subfloor, slab, or furring strip, and set the threshold on top of that bead. That absolutely stops water, air, and bugs from getting inside.

That's all I got. Get a carpenter over there. Good luck.
 
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This is an old thread but in case someone is looking...Aquaseal has worked really well for me to patch fabric and seams. I have same issue with water on the threshold. Silicone caulk under it stopped water coming in under it. But it still runs along the Al below the sweep. I plan to glue a piece of aluminum moulding just under the outside edge of the door so that gravity forces the water to just drip off the outside edge. I'll report back how well it works.
 
Some door sweeps have an extended lip -like a small awning at the bottom of the door- that directs water well out onto the sloped threshold.

Aquaseal is my 'GO TO' sealant for repairing tears and seams on waders, tent fly, boots, poncho, and a few other places I can't recall offhand. If Aquaseal will adhere to the substrate, (it will not on some types of fabric coatings) you will have a tough permanent repair that is extremely wear resistant, tough, and flexible. I extended the life of the toe of my boots with aquaseal. Yes, it IS that tough.

It's expensive in the little tubes. If you have a pile of gear to repair buy the 8 oz tube it is far more reasonable. I think you can find the 1 oz tubes online, that's the size I used to buy. Be aware it will cure by itself in the tube if you leave it stored for an extended period.
 
Bob Rowlands said:
Some door sweeps have an extended lip -like a small awning at the bottom of the door- that directs water well out onto the sloped threshold.
Click to expand...

We've had a few small leaks under doors and windows. Although the rainy season is more or less over, I've been thinking about how to address this too.

In the case of thresholds and bottom sills, I remember English windows and door sills have a groove cut in the underside of the wood. This interrupts any water that attempts to track under the sill horizontally. That's probably old school these days and aluminum drip edges are probably more common, especially in the USA, if I remember correctly.

I tried to buy some drip edges in the building materials zone of Ulaanbaatar but they didn't have any premade. Instead they could cut and form sheet aluminum if I gave them a spec.

Another option, would be to cut a rain-drip groove into sills and thresholds after the installation. This seems awkward because there is often little space to get a power tool, such as a handheld router in the limited space between the foundation and the wood sill.

Any suggestions on how to get a functional drip-edge or drip-interruptor on bottom sills after installation. There's a bit of an overhang of these so I think a small specialist tool might work to cut a groove.
 
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