How is rotted trim around my garage door repaired?

Why garage trim rots

The wood around a garage door lives in a hard spot. The side jambs and the trim on them run down to the driveway, where they catch splash from rain and hose water and sit in whatever puddles at the apron. Many were installed touching the concrete, so the end grain wicks water constantly. The vinyl or rubber weatherstrip nailed to the trim seals the door but also traps moisture against the wood behind it.

Above the door, the header trim and fascia take runoff from the garage roof, often with no gutter, and the ends where they meet stucco open up over time. On a south or west facing garage, the sun breaks down the paint faster than anywhere else on the house.

Checking the extent

Probe each side jamb at the bottom, both the trim and the structural jamb behind it. Rot that is only in the applied trim is a quick fix. Rot that has moved into the jamb the door tracks mount to, or into the framing behind the stucco, is a bigger repair and may involve the track hardware. Check the header trim and fascia at the ends and anywhere paint is bubbling.

Then look at what is feeding it. Does the driveway slope toward the door? Is there a downspout emptying beside the jamb? Does the irrigation for a planter hit the trim? The answers go into the repair plan.

The bottom splice

The trim and, if needed, the jamb are cut square above the last soft wood, typically somewhere in the bottom one to two feet. The rotted section comes out and the area behind is dried and inspected. New material is milled to the same profile and spliced in with a scarf or half-lap, glued and fastened. We leave the new bottom end about a half inch above the concrete so it can dry, and seal that end grain before installation.

Cellular PVC is a strong candidate for the bottom splice. It cannot rot, holds paint well, and sits happily in the splash zone. Where the trim has a milled profile that has to match the rest of the house, solid wood is matched instead. The joint is filled, sanded and painted so the splice disappears.

• Cut above the rot, remove the section
• Splice new wood or PVC to match the profile
• Hold the bottom end off the concrete
• Reinstall weatherstrip over sound, painted wood

Header trim and fascia

Rotted fascia and header trim above the door are replaced in sections or full lengths, depending on how far the damage runs. The ends where the boards meet stucco get flashing or a drip cap and a sealant joint with a backer rod. If the garage roof dumps water straight onto the trim, a short gutter with a downspout directed away from the jambs is often the one change that makes the repair last.

All new wood is back-primed and the cut ends sealed before it goes up.

What stays with the garage door company

Levi repairs the wood. The door sections, the torsion or extension springs, the tracks and the opener are a different trade, and springs in particular are dangerous to work around. If the track hardware has to come off a jamb to replace it, we coordinate with a garage door company to remove and reset it. If the door itself is damaged or out of balance, that is their call.

Once the trim is sound and painted, a new weatherstrip goes on, set so it seals the door without crushing against the wood.

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