Water coming in over the weather bar and/or door reflector and can not work out why!! With pics

[Skoop]

Hi Everyone - first time posting here and looking for some advice...

Our doors seem to be letting in water when it rains heavily/rain at an angle - and we can not work out why..

There are door reflectors on the front and a metal weather bar at the bottom. The rain water seems to go under the door reflector (water bouncing up fron the step maybe?) and then down the corners of the metal weather bars... I have highlighted on the pics.

We are in a listed, thatched house.

Any ideas why this could be happening and what we could do to remedy?

Thank you!

 

[a twig]

Obvious question - does the threshold slope back towards the door / house?

 

[Skoop]

Thanks for your response! I don't think so but will take a look in the light tomorrow..even if it did, surely the weather bar should be stopping any water?

 

[Stevers]

I have a pair of south west facing french windows with a door bar (and weather bar), and have never been able to stop rain coming in when the wind's in the prevailing direction. My solution was to put an internal gutter in to catch it and send it out again. My gutter was made of 22mm copper pipe slit down the middle with 15mm pipe as outlet down through the wall and it even has a little copper 'S' trap to stop draughts - all soldered. Has worked faultlessly (and regularly) for twenty five years now. Prior to our ownership enough water had been coming in to rot the lintel and blow the plaster in the room below.

Not ideal, and not easy to implement on the ground floor, but offered as a potential way forward.

 

[Skoop]

super interesting way to get around this - good to know... thank you!

 

[mardinor]

Maybe run a hose spray onto it while looking from the inside?

 

[Cubist]

A question if I may. How sure are you that its rainwater being driven over the top of the weather strip and not rainwater that has run down the face of the door and been diverted to the corners by the doors features?

 

[fernicarry]

Looks like you don't have a flexible seal across the bottom so any water blown under the weather bar will still get past the door bar. Also the slight gap at the end of the weatherbar will mean water running down the facings or the door itself can creep in around the corners. I've seen weatherbars recessed into the facings on the jamb I suppose for that reason but that exposes a lot of end grain on the facing which could then deteriorate rapidly. What you really need is a continuous flexible seal around all 4 sides of the door, easier said than done. That's what I did when I fitted our french doors but I had the luxury of making the frame to suit. The corners where the runs of weatherseal meet are still a weak point and disappointingly there can be a dribble when the weather is wild. A simpler solution might be a commercial door bar with a soft wiper seal that bears on the outside face of the door. These have drainage channels that catch any water that gets past allowing it to dribble back to the outside somewhat like @Stevers invention. They're not the prettiest of things though.

 

[Skoop]

A question if I may. How sure are you that its rainwater being driven over the top of the weather strip and not rainwater that has run down the face of the door and been diverted to the corners by the doors features?

Thank you for your response - yes it absolutely could be this. The underneath of the rain deflector bar is wet when we check it...

 

[Skoop]

Looks like you don't have a flexible seal across the bottom so any water blown under the weather bar will still get past the door bar. Also the slight gap at the end of the weatherbar will mean water running down the facings or the door itself can creep in around the corners. I've seen weatherbars recessed into the facings on the jamb I suppose for that reason but that exposes a lot of end grain on the facing which could then deteriorate rapidly. What you really need is a continuous flexible seal around all 4 sides of the door, easier said than done. That's what I did when I fitted our french doors but I had the luxury of making the frame to suit. The corners where the runs of weatherseal meet are still a weak point and disappointingly there can be a dribble when the weather is wild. A simpler solution might be a commercial door bar with a soft wiper seal that bears on the outside face of the door. These have drainage channels that catch any water that gets past allowing it to dribble back to the outside somewhat like @Stevers invention. They're not the prettiest of things though.

Thank you - this is very helpful! yes no flexible seal at all on either doors. Will take a look at the commercial door bars - thank you!