Sliding Door Removal
Well once the entire floor was up because of the installation of the new fuel tanks, I began thinking about the rot I found on each side, just next to the salon door. We discovered that the rot was caused by water leaking in from the drain scuppers that are located on the end of the gunnels. On our boat those scuppers have a pvc pipe in the cockpit that drains down into another scupper in the floor. That pvc pipe was letting some water run down the outside, and would settle underneath the wall attached to the slider. This happened on both sides.
This water not only rotted the wall and floor but also the wood that was under the sliding door. Interesting the slider did stick on some days, but not on others. Maybe that depended on the weather. What immediately comes to mind is that the ceiling is sagging, putting pressure on the slider. But what was also happening was that the entire slider was sinking down into the floor a bit. Not just because of the rot on the ends, but more because the entire door was not really supported by anything.
There is a bulk head running a mid ship right in front of the door, but the door was not attached to this in any way. It had what was basically a two by four running across the boat with no bracing. I did notice through the years that their was some bounce to the floor there.
So, as much as a sagging ceiling can cause some distortion to the door and resulting stickiness, so can the settling of the door. Any distortion is going to cause problems. Well, with all of that going on we decided to deal with all of it and remove the entire door, fix the rot on the ends, replace all the wood underneath the door, and get the entire thing braced properly.
Heres a picture of the rot, caused by the leaking scuppers, this is the starboard side. You can also see the bulkhead, and a 2 x 4, but the thing to note is that 2 x 4 is not attached to the bulk head in any way.
Heres the port side
You can see here the floor that the door is sitting on is tilting aft and down.
After we removed the 2 x 4, there was another 2 x 4 sandwiched between fiberglass, that was directly underneath the door frame. You can see it removed in the next few photos. The door frame is out now as well.
You can see the distance between the bulk head and the bottom of the door. Quite a bit, it clearly does not "sit" on the bulk head.
Heres some photos of the repar. We put pressure treated planks in the fiberglass pocket under the door, then attached another to that one.
We also replaced the peice on the cockpit side as well
All in all the whole job went really well. I thought once the door was out we might have trouble getting it back in but it wasn't bad. I poked around real quick looking for a replacement door, but could only find custom ones that were vinyl. I didn't want a vinyl one. I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find a company to make you an aluminum one. You can't get one off the shelf because all standard sliders were about 3 inches taller than this one. Right now I have plenty to do so maybe another year we'll get a new door.