La Habra Heights Windows & Doors, Dry at the Base
At the foot of an old door frame in La Habra Heights, where rain, sprinklers and mopping wet the wood, we splice in cellular PVC and keep the wood above.
Cellular PVC takes in almost no water, which suits it to the foot of an exterior door frame, where rain, sprinklers and a wet mop keep plain wood damp until it rots. On an older La Habra Heights house we splice it into that short length of jamb and brickmold only. The original wood above stays, and both are painted the same color so the repair is hard to spot.
Cutting in the new base
We saw off the soft bottom of each jamb with a sloped cut, so any water at the seam runs to the outside. A block of cellular PVC is shaped on the router to the profile of that jamb and glued to the old wood with an adhesive made for joining the two, with stainless screws holding the seam tight. The lower end of the brickmold gets the same repair. Before the new piece goes on, the sill and the framing under it are probed, and any soft wood there is put right first. The door keeps its hinges, lock and strike.
Limits of the composite
Heat makes cellular PVC lengthen and shorten more than fir, so we keep pieces short and pin them often. Paint color matters too, since makers limit how dark a finish can go on it, because dark coats soak up sun and push that movement further. That keeps it to the bottom of a frame and to new sills. Everything with a molded profile, the sashes and the upper casing, stays in wood, repaired with epoxy or remade in vertical-grain fir primed on every face. Under the threshold, a sloped pan carries any water at the base back outside.
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We look at where water has reached each window. A sound sash over a soft sill can be saved, with the sill end rebuilt in epoxy or a composite insert and the sash reglazed. If the bottom rail has gone soft along its length, a new sash can be made for the old frame, or the whole unit replaced, and both are priced.
Paint ties new parts to old. Composite pieces, new sashes and original casing all take the same primer and finish coats, in the trim color of the house. New units are sized from the originals, with their deeper bottom rail and pane layout kept, so the windows read as one set.
The building office serving La Habra Heights decides which items in the scope need a permit, and we ask before the quote is final. Splicing a jamb is a repair. A new window or door, or a resized opening, goes through review for energy labels, safety glass and any header the new size calls for.
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