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I want to repair cedar screen doors which have rotted at the bottom corners following weather exposure (and inattention by me). I would like to replace the horizontal piece of timber between floor level and the bottom of the flyscreen. This would involve cutting off the rotted section of the damaged vertical timbers and attaching a new piece across the full width of the door. This will weaken the structure of the door, but my hope is that this could be managed sufficiently by screwing a rigid vertical metal strip across the join between the existing vertical timber and the new piece at the bottom. The repair would be visible but not too ugly if done neatly. The only alternative seems to be spending 1000s on new doors. The doors are not prominent - at the end of a south-facing deck and used only occasionally during warmer months.
Advice or suggestions on ways to deal with this issue and on the practicality of my current plan would be appreciated.
Afternoon @joeth
Think I didnt explain my idea of the sheet metal joing well enough 
Here is a quick sketch of the idea.
The green diagonal strips are the piece sof timber that you will be removing (Hope I have that right)
The solid green pieces are the new timber to replace the old rotted timber. These are the full width of each of your doors.
The will be slotted up into the space once removed.
The pink vertical pieces are new pieces of tin/sheet metal cut to size a little smaller then the width of the timber edge aroun 30-40cm tall. These can be painted black.
You could use screws to attach the metal to the timber to secure (6 top and 4 for the new piece) or use bolts all the way through both sides of the metal fixings
If you feel that the door may get mistreated with boots holding it open then you could go down the track of the tin being cut in a giant U across the bottom width.
Dave
Thanks for the clarification @joeth.
It would be best to install either biscuits or dowels when joining the bottom section. Adding additional brackets wouldn't be a bad idea also.
Mitchell
I've cut the doors as indicated in my second picture, and have a dowel kit ready to join the cut verticals to the new bottom cross piece.
Unfortunately some rot has extended past the cut into the vertical sections I need to keep. I have applied Earl's wood hardener in a couple of sessions which has helped but there is still some sponginess in the timber. Here is a picture of the worst affected end:
The left side of the timber in the picture is good and I believe/hope a dowel will hold well. The right is softer. If I fill and flatten it with polyfiller will it hold a dowel and glue to any useful extent? The situation with the other vertical is similar, but not as bad.
I plan in any event, as discussed/advised above, to use metal brackets over the join for stability and reinforcement, but would obviously like the dowel joins (if I proceed with them) to be as strong as possible. My plan is to use 2 10mm dowels in each vertical - four dowels into each new cross piece.
Any further expert comments appreciated!
Dave, thanks for your illustrated suggestion. I have some metal brackets about 95mm which I plan to use. I want them to be as unobtrusive as possible: if they stand out too much I might try wood instead, depending how the dowel join goes.
Morning @joeth
Id continue with the same companies products. I have seriously been swayed by their videos of how to and showing the process of using them
And acording to Timbermate you can use the filled area once it has set with no issues (just follow the products use directions )
Dave
