Panel Exterior Door gapping in winter - how to fix?

[Brad Friesen]

Hello
I have Simpson Fir exterior doors and my front door (6 years old) is displaying gaps along two of the panels - see pics. I would like some advice about what my options are to repair this in the summer when the panels are tight - staple? brad nail? other. Thanks for your time and input - I appreciate it.

Brad

407451407450

[glenn bradley]

Ideally one would have something in the grooves to keep the panel centered during seasonal changes. Being a commercial product, I you an I don't know what method Simpson uses for this, if any. I'll assume the panel is not loose enough to shift over to split the difference and fill the gap?

[Bill Dufour]

That is very odd.The panel should swell in winter when it is damp and dry out and shrink in summer.
Bill D.

[Brad Friesen]

I tried to shift the panel but it is tight - I did not put a clamp on it to try and shift it as I felt like it was related to wood movement and not panel movement...thanks for thinking about this with me

[Kris Cook]

That is very odd.The panel should swell in winter when it is damp and dry out and shrink in summer.
Bill D.

Bill - while that may be true in California it is the opposite in much of the country.

[Brad Friesen]

Bill - I think you have it turned around - dry low humidity in winter and things contract - swell in the summer with inc humidity / at least that is the case in Vermont :)

Cheers
Brad

[Mel Fulks]

With light showing thru only at the bottom it's possible panel is too tight and split leaving a piece stuck in the groove.
sometimes the best way to fix is just cut out the sticking (AKA moulding ) . Then patch or re-glue. If you know the
brand of the door you could pursue warranty. They should , at least, mail you some sticking.

[Bill Orbine]

My opinion is the panel problem is more of a manufacture defect. It is common for panel to shift by seasonal expansion and shrinkage. I can see that the panel bevel in the corner out of alignment of the sticking profile approximately 3/8" which give me the idea the panel is made too narrow from the beginning. For that panel, I would expect it to move 1/8" at most between seasons for a panel I estimate to be about 8 inches wide. Curiously, what is the shoulder width of the panel compared to the other panels on your door? They all should be the same. You might have one bad panel out of the rest. Or the center stile might not be centered.

I would try an see if Simpson will take care of that for for you and replace your door. However, they could deny and make a case that door was improperly installed or sealed all 6 sides. Or it's been 6 years, too bad, buddy! It's worth a try. Otherwise, take a good size block and place it on the opposing shoulder of the panel and give it a good whack with hammer to shift the panel.

[Richard Coers]

There's a chance the tongue on the panel split off. Did you do the finishing? I'd suggest that too much clear coat locked the panel in place and when it shrank, the thin fir split. Fir is susceptible to splintering and splitting. Do a little probing and see if the groove is full in that section, or if the panel just wasn't centered.

[John TenEyck]

What's the RH in your house in the Winter? If it's less than 35% then that would explain why it shrank more than it likely was designed for. The panel might be off center, too, as others have discussed, which is easy to determine by measuring from the center of the raised section to the sticking on both sides. If low RH is the answer then get a whole house humidifier and keep the RH at 45% during the Winter. I just did that and problems I was having with veneer splitting have stopped.

Flooring, doors, all kinds of things are designed for an RH range of 35 - 65%. That may seem overly tight, and completely wrong in some areas of the country, but the more you can keep the RH inside your house in that range the fewer problems you will have, as I'm finding out.

John

[Bill Dufour]

Bill - while that may be true in California it is the opposite in much of the country.

we do not even know what contiment, much less country the op is in.
Bill D

[lowell holmes]

I think I would try wood glue when it swells.

On second thought, no.

[Bill Dufour]

I think I would try wood glue when it swells.

NO!NO!NO! wood glue will stop the pullout but the forces will still be there they will just rip the panel apart on a grain line instead. that break will be impossible to fix invisibly. You could try a suction cup and pull the panel to the side it is not engaged enough into. I would take at least one season in the dry season see which sides are not engaged and by how much. I would wait until the wet season and see if the panel has aligned into the groove. If it has then try to pull it further in. the pull only needs to be the gap width plus a fraction.
I suggest waiting for the wet season since trying to get the panel into a groove is asking for trouble. let RH do the job for you. Maybe slap it a few times over several weeks to line it up and let nature take its course.
You could run a screw into the filed of the panel and attach a handle to pull and hammer on. You might have to wait again for the dry season if the damp wood is too swollen

[Lee Schierer]

Contacting the manufacturer is a good idea.

Since both the upper and lower panels are gaping, I don't think the panels have split. I would try a clamp, if one will reach, and attempt to recenter the panel while it is dry. Or stick a block of wood to the face with some double sided tape and see if you can recenter the panel. Mark the panel so you can tell how far you have moved it. If you can center the panel it would be okay to glue about 1" of the center of the panel (top and bottom, nothing on the sides) so that it will pull in from each side in the future.

[Jeff Davies]

I agree with manufacturing defect . The panels are too narrow. send those pics off to Simpson , and tell them you are discussing it on an international forum, and everyone is surprised because Simpson doors are usually good .