How to stop aluminium sliding doors from leaking?

[Russ42]

I have been trying for 7 years to stop the frame of 2 sets of aluminium sliding doors from leaking when it rains. I understand there should be a waterproof sill under them and I am trying to avoid removing the frame and putting one in as I think it could be opening a can of worms. The 4 pieces of the frame are simply butted together and I have removed the old silicon several times and replaced it with limited success. Once again I have removed the old silicon to try it again. Nothing that I have tried seems to dissolve the old silicon. What can you recommend re cleaning the area properly (I have tried Turps, Metho, acetate). What product would you recomment to reseal it (I have used several silicons including Roof and Gutter Silicon and I think a Sikens sealant.

[EricL]

Hello @Russ42 

Thanks for sharing your question about your aluminium sliding doors. I propose using Selleys 375g Silicone Remover. Please note that silicone remover needs to be left on the old silicone for an extended period of time in order for it to be effective. If it is scraped off too soon it will not have enough time to melt the silicone.

Another product you can try using is kerosene, but it must be soaked in it, in order to soften the silicone. I propose manually removing as much of the silicone as you can using a CornerTape Professional Silicon Remover before applying the chemicals.

Can you please give us a description where the rainwater is entering from? Is it bridging along the surface and entering the channel at the bottom and overflowing? Does the channel have an overflow exit at the side to allow water out? I've placed an image below to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Would it be possible to cover the bottom front of the sliding door with a Raven Weather strip? This should prevent water from entering the channel and leaking into the room.

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1, @Nailbag and @TedBear for their recommendations.

Please remember to wear personal protection such as gloves, and goggles when working on your project.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Nailbag]

Hi @Russ42 will need to know where water is getting in, as per @EricL  question. Under the frame or from water pooling within the tracks?

Nailbag

[Dave-1]

Morning @Russ42 

My door sills at home look very much like yours tho only silver They dont have any silicone on them and I do believe the dodgy brothers installed the sliding doors so would suspect all kinds of things being wrong with them. That said they dont leak, they dont have any silastic I can see and the main issue is that the tracks fill with dirt/dust and leaves from outside. To the point I have to clean out the cjhanels with a flat head screwdriver. 

When you mention leak do you mean water in the base channel or water entering the house from underneath the whole door frame? Was there silicone there before you owned the house?

Dave

[TedBear]

Hi @Russ42 , judging from the photo - assuming that the Righthand side of the photo is the outside (the small gaps in the wheel guide channels, which appear to be blocked with silicon in the photo, are to drain any runoff to the outside)  - and if the frame is sitting at outside floor level, as it appears to be, then your can of worms has already been opened and has been active for 7 years.  The water seal comes from having the frame sit above the floor level and there is no way that those channels can keep water out. They are only to guide the wheels and the only part of the doors that sits on them is the wheels. There will be a gap above them since the doors themselves don't sit on the channels and they will only let any small amount of water that slides off the outside glass run out, but not prevent any quantity of floor level water from coming in. 

You could try the door seal strip as suggested by @EricL  but it is likely that water will seep under the frame and down onto the lower floor inside.

Options (that I can think of from a distance):-

1) Glue a small (so you don't trip over it) right-angle aluminum strip to the outside floor along the front edge of the door to create a barrier at that point.  Downside is that it wont let any water out that falls off the glass. (Does any water come from that source?)

2) Cut a channel into the outside tiles next to the door to make the actual frame be above the adjoining surface. A messy process that will need something to sit in the channel and somewhere for collected water to run to - but may still be easier than option 3.

3) Remove the frame and sit it on a sill as it should have had at installation.  This would be problematic at this point in time, as you would know better than I do. You would need head room for the top of the raised frame to go into and would raise the bottom of the frame higher above the inside floor level.  This is probably not a viable option now - but then I haven't seen the whole situation.

[Russ42]

Thanks Eric. I have worked on it since I posted to remove more of the silicon. I have also applied a gel silicon remover recommended by the experienced fellow at the paint section at Bunnings. I am having trouble removing the dead silicone and the gel from the small gap on the left of that photo and am thinking of trying a gentle water blast, in the absence of an air compressor. As far as your question as to where the water is entering from: the vertical sill on the far inside of the bottom frame is about 50mm high so water is not entering over that. It is my opinion it is entering through the but joint of the vertical ( door jam?) and the bottom track. There are no drain holes as shown in your photo (I suspect there could be if a flashing was installed under the door frame when the doors were installed). A Raven Weather slip may help but I doubt, in driving rain (it faces south west), it would seal the doors. Thanks for your help, Eric. I will attempt to post a photo showing the inside vertical sill I mentioned above.

[Russ42]

Thanks Nailbag, I think I answered your question above. It is my belief the water is getting in through the tracks. I tiled the outside and was very careful to bring the membrane up the small wall in the photo and to the door track in case water was getting under the door frame. The grey silicon beween the door track and the tiles seems to be intact still

[Russ42]

Thanks Dave-1. It is my belief the water is getting in through the tracks. I tiled the outside and was very careful to bring the membrane up the small wall in the photo and to the door track in case water was getting under the door frame. The grey silicon between the door track and the tiles seems to be intact still. See the photo I posted in re[ply to EricL above.

[Russ42]

Thanks TedBear, The Righthandside is the outside but, as you can see from the reply photo I posted to EricL above, those breaks in the door tracks do not impact on the drainage as the inside channel wall ( about 50mm high) is the key. The breaks in the door tracks were put in by a previous owner. Also, the channel is above both the inside floor and the outside tiles. To answer your 1) above: lots of water comes off the doors as they face south west. Your number 3) above is my plan B and may open a can of worms. Thanks for your reply, TedBear.

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Russ42,

The previous owner might have cut those sections out in the lips to allow built-up water to escape rather than fill up the channels.

I agree that it sounds like water pooling within the track and making its way out the corner of the frame and into your concrete slab. I think it's important to see where the water is entering. Can you close the door, run a hose on it for 20 minutes, and see if you can track down the ingress route? You can open the door periodically to check how far the water is penetrating within the frame.

Mitchell