Dogs and Doors.

When I first met Katherine back in 1983, along with her MGB GT (chrome bumpers) (the car that is) came her terrier dog George. I wasn't really a dog lover then but George was part of the package. In our lives dogs' have been a constant but they have always lived out side. A consequence of that is that they want to be inside and the back door of the house suffers accordingly.

This is what our back door looks like after about 10,years of dogged canine abuse. What you can't see is that the door is actually distorted at the base due to the dogs throwing themselves at the door. Which lets the heat out and the North wind in big time.

Having reached the stage in life where I'm determined not to have to repeat jobs I determined to make a new dog proof door this autumn. To stop the warping I decided to incorporate a metal internal frame made from 30mm box steel.

The basic format of the door will be box steel frame with softwood frame screwed to the outer face of the box steel. The inner and outer face will have a T and G facing and the inner void will be filled with PU foam insulation. To be sure of getting the steel frame accurate and square I got my blacksmith friend Jeff to weld up the frame with his MIG, to which I then added everything else.

As a finishing detail I added in a stained glass window that Katherine had made back around 2005 and has been awaiting a suitable home. To help keep the door draught proof it doesn't have a letter box but as the postie always opens the dorr and stops to say hello there's no need for one.

To finish the job I added a new lock and also new hand beaten strap hinges. The door was a nice snug fit and to finish I added an external draught stripping. Of course within 24 hours of finishing the installation Muffin had started adding a layer of mud to the foot of the door but as I put about 4 coats of varnish on before installing I am hoping that the door will last another decade or two.