Front door crumbly putty

[JacquieJet]

Does anyone have any experience with fixing an entry door that's filled with wood putty?
Mine just crumbled today.
My neighbour had a similar issue and ended up putting a metal plate on their front door that wraps around the lock and knob portion of the door (so like front-to-back). I'm considering it, but are there any other ways to repair the door? Like, maybe brace it with wood somehow? It's original to the house, and I'd like to keep it... but I also have to have a door that locks properly. I feel like I'm going to pull the door handle clean off!
Any experiences/ideas?

[1918ColonialRevival]

I've removed a bit of wood putty from several areas of the house over the years. There are basically two solutions - either replace the wood or try to salvage what's there. I've had good results with Abatron's WoodEpox for surfaces that are going to be painted. I have repair areas that have been out in the weather for about 8 years now and they're still fine.

https://www.abatron.com/product/woodepox/

It's not the cheapest product out there, but you get what you pay for. For wood repairs, it's much better than your standard wood putty from the hardware store or any other substitutes, such as auto body filler.

If you have any rot, it needs to be stabilized before it can be filled.

[phil]

I got a bunch of epoxy that was leftover and outdated and from a place that supplies products for concrete finishing. I got a couple of buckets of amber colored stuff and 10 gallons of stuff that is some sort of crack filler but it is a beige two part epoxy. they both work great and what I have been doing is I just get a scoop of sawdust from under my tablesaw and put it through a sieve to take out the big chunks. I mix the epoxy up then add the wood dust. Its fine for stuff like that. Im sure you can use what you can get your hands on, some of it hardens faster. You can do the same with the 5 minute epoxy from the big box places, or you can try the albatron or there is a product called PC woody that comes in white or wood color.

Just keep in mind that any wood soaked with epoxy wont' take in stains and it may show if you do a clear finish, but you can make it match. you can add powdered dies to epoxy too. Just mix it well with one part before you add the other and begin the chemical reaction.

Of if you like wood you can chisel out a shape and make a plug, or drill holes and insert dowels. one good solution is to use a combination and make your plug fit best you can, leave it so it is a bit proud of the surface, then use epoxy to glue it in. it will bridge a gap which means you dont' need to do any really fine fitting and most of your repair is still wood. after it is dry you can level it off.

If you have any gaps after fitting your plug, you can hammer in little wood wedges that you cut to fit, and stick in there while the stuff is still not hard.

If you wan to cover up things you can cut thin wood and chisel in just below the surface then epoxy in your patch. If you match the grain pattern and wood type you can do it so it is pretty invisible. what is inside you dont; see but you do see the surface and if the wood is a bit proud when you sand that's all you'll see.

if you wantot do an invisible repair you can do a "boat". what you do is chisel out a shape, rounded shapes work best so it might look like a boat or this ()
then cut thin wood, about 1/8th thick or whatever you like is fine.
cut the boat shape in first then cut the patch so it fits the shape. glue it in and when dry you can sand the surface all flat.
the reason you dont' use square shapes like squares and triangles is because those aren't the shapes of natural wood imperfections. done right even if you do see the repair it can look like a natural defect in the wood.

if there are cracks that aren't broken away , take a thin spatula, like one for smearing oil paint on canvas and you can work the glue in , you can also run a bead of it along a hairline crack and then open and close the gap slightly , the wiggling action draws the glue in.

If you smear epoxy all over the wood it is hard to get out of the grain so particularly if you are ever going to do a natural finish. try to localize and confine the repairs. you can use masking tape and pull it off before the epoxy cures so it isn't affecting a larger area than you need.

as the epoxy hardens it will turn from a liquid to somethign like honey then to something firmer. so because it can be runny at first I'd pull the hinge pins and turn the door so the latch side is up so gravity is in your favor. once it gells up past the runny stage, then you can put your door back on.

its easier to sand when fully cured. wear gloves and try to keep it off you skin.

some epoxies will set in 5 minutes like the 5 minute epoxy, others might take overnight. there are a million products on the market but don't be afraid to grab what you have on hand and experiment on a little scrap wood. You can mix in wood dust or anything else, even dried up coffee grounds.. just don't mix in oily substances. You can even use stuff like aluminum filings. Its fun stuff to play with. You can make molds and stuff with it too. make your own fancy switch plates or whatever comes to mind. If you have a neat one as a sample you can take a mold off it using silicone or other mold making materials, and make more epoxy ones and you can die the stuff to look just like Bakelite.

you can also add strength by drilling holes and inserting wood dowels or metal pins. fit them , then wet the pins with epoxy and hammer them in if you want.

wood fillers have no real strength, so I'd pick or drill out what you can since it is coming loose and was not a sound repair. some wood fillers are waterproof but many are not. The water based ones are ok indoors but dont; use them on windows or outside where they need to take the weather. You can get oil based fillers that stand up better but use them for visual imperfections but not for strength. If you wan to add strength to epoxy you can use fiberglass and you can pack the fibers into voids. you could probably even use some fluff from fiberglass insulation. when epoxy and fibers of glass combine the have a lot of strength.

epoxy is essentialy a glue. It doesnt' have incredible strenght all on it's own but it has incredible strength as a glue, so if you combine it with other things you can increase its strength. Kepp in mind that since it is a non porous substance it won't take in and give off moisture like wood but you will only really need ot concer yourself with that if you start doing larger areas then the patch you need for your door lock.

another little trick. It will not stick to soft plastic. you canuse plastic bags or sheets of plastic to stop it from sticking and to play with the surface, so for example if you put epoxy in , then cover it with plastic and smooth it out , then when it cures you can pull off the plastic ( it wont' stick) and the surface of the epozy will take on the surface of the plastic which is smooth and perhaps shiny.

If you try to sand it and it is still gummy, let it cure. it will ball on your sandpaper and wont' sand well until it cures and how warm it is , how the proportions are mixed and the type of epoxy will create different curing times.
when mixing part A and part B try not to cream it and introduce air bubbles. You are better to stir it with a stir stick. If you have bubbles in your finished product you can use more epoxy to fill any voids.
Mix it well because if there is even a little bit of part A or part B that is not mixed well it will create a sticky spot that wont' ever set up.
because epoxy is non porous try not to put wood filler over it if you need to do that at least sand it well but keep in mind the wood filler will stick better to wood than to epoxy since the epoxy isn't porous. but you can sand and paint it so long as you sand the surface a bit most things like paint will stick fine.

[JacquieJet]

Phil,
I was hoping you would comment! Thank you for the guidance. I'm not sure what products are locally available, but I'll have a look see. The door is painted all around, so it's no big deal if it doesn't take stain- it will just be repainted white anyway. I think the door originally had a stained wood veneer, but there has been a fair number of alternations/repairs over the years by various people that I would never strip the paint off.

[phil]

the albatron is probably fine but if you just go in the box store and look for a two part epoxy. the home depot here carries little bottles of epoxy or if you just get he syringe thing that has two separate parts its probably fine. You can use it like that or mix about 50/50 with wood dust. Keep it out of your lock or you'll glue it stuck. If you want to try the albatron maybe you find it works differently but I'd just get the little bottles or enough of the syringe things to do the job for now and you could try it on a test piece just to make sure it's doing what you want it to.

youmight find a whole bunch of epoxy products. the 5 minute stuff sets up in 5 minutes. it takes longer to cure, thats the working time. one way to get stuck working with epoxy especailly if it is warm out is if you take too much time getting it where you want it. You might find other stuff that takes 24 hours to cure or ones for special purposes like gluing plastics. You don't nee that.

the "PC woody" one is like epoxy with wood dust already in it. it comes in what looks like two plastic film cans stuck together and that one isn't a liquid it is like a thick putty so you might use that and pack it in the hole without taking the door off.

there are similar wood fillers that come in a stick that is the consistency of plasticene. there are two parts in the stick so what you do is cut off what you want with a knife and then kneed the stuff ( wearing gloves) You might find that stuff easier to use as it is not a liquid. the two parts combine and the reaction commences when you kneed it.

if you do a repair and close the door, put plastic between so you don't glue your door shut the liquid stuff will work too but you might want to protect the floor around your work area and sometimes if you use that and the place you want to put it is not level you have to babysit it until it turns more like honey for consistency. once it starts setting up it might happen quite quickly.

if you use plastic tools and plastic cups and things to mix it , just leave them and when the epoxy is set it'll come right off because it wont' stick to most plastics.
You can use a bondo spreader if you have one, they are soft plastic. If you use a metal putty knife you can use acetone for cleanup while the stuff is wet. I usually just look for something like a plastic stick to use as a spreader or something disposable like a paint stick.

it can't take a lot of heat so if you ever want to release it from metal things try heating it up. You can't really remove it from wood unless you start drilling it out.

it won;t wash out so dont' wear your favorite clothes unless those happen to be your overalls

[mjt]

Just a quick note about Abatron WoodEpox. Where Abatron LiquidWood is a two-part liquid epoxy, WoodEpox is not liquid; it's more like creamy peanut butter, but lighter weight. You knead the two parts together using gloved hands and can fill substantial voids with it immediately.

I've used it in several places and it works great.

[phil]

stuff like wood filler or drywall mud dries by the solvents evaporating off so you have shrinkage. Epoxy and plaster and bondo dry by a chemical reaction, so you can put them on an inch thick , no problem, they harden up. You can't do that with (standard) wood filler as it will just shrink up too much.

since epoxy generates heat in itself due to the chemical reaction, it actually hardens up even faster in bulk so if you are working with a lot of it you can mix it but then pour the whole batch out where you are using it as keeping it confined in a container makes it kick off even faster. in some cases, if you make a "hot mix" it can generate a lot of heat from within. You probably won't notice this unless you try mixing larger batches or if you don't follow mixing instructions. working with fiberglass resin ( polyester resin) works similar. most epoxies have a ratio of like 1:2 or maybe 1:3. most polyester, for flabbergasting, and bondo uses a small percentage of hardener. with bondo it usually has die to give you an idea how much hardener is in it. I've had problems at times with that stuff where I think I used it in the sun at too warm of a temperature or went off on mixing proportions and you can get a sticky surface that is hard to contend with.

the fiberglass resin has a mixing table so you look at the temperature you are using it at and then add the right amount of hardener. If it's warm out you have to use less hardener. You might be able to play with the mixing ratio of epoxy somewhat but they are usually much closer to 1 :1 and you may not need not ever do differently. Just realize it'll set faster if it is warm out. Its easy to mix a bunch and find it's hardening before you are ready.

also you may find that these products wont' work if they are too cold, they may not cure at all so I wouldn't use them outside in winter. I think there is a minimum temp that they need to set at all.

one trick is to start with cold ingredients if you want a bit more working time and to try not to do it in the direct sun where it heats everything up.

[JacquieJet]

Thanks again Phil! And Mjt!
We haven't fixed it yet... too many other things going on this week. Hopefully we can get to it soon before I rip my door handle off, haha. Luckily, the deadbolt isn't affected, so we can still lock the door.
Really appreciate the advice. Many, many thanks!