Hello, in my 2 family home that I rent out there is a walk-up from the basement. The door that's exposed to the elements is original (I'm assuming) to the house circa 1940, and made of wood. Needless to say it's seen better days. Originally I was going to powerwash it and put a sealer on it but in looking further at it a good portion of the framing is rotting. I'd love to slap a pre-made bilco door on it but the dimensions are very custom. It is way too narrow for one of the bilco doors as I have checked them out. I'd rather not spend a ton of money on it but I'd like to fix it and have it last for years. Other than just replacing all of the original wood with new wood does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

s, o g o t p.

I had a very similar situation with an old old home. I went to menards with the current OPENING deminisions, and the deminisions of the far outside wall/stone (the one-page front&back sheet available at the Millwork or windows desk at menards does a much better job at explaining this!) and kept asking questions and even called Bilco until I spoke to a very helpful rep there that explained what door to get and how to "make it fit". instead of their steel plates, I ended up buying the recommeded door/frame, but then made a new 'sill' on top of the existing stone, sloped walls, out of pressure-treated 2x12's.

It's been years now, and still looks great. I fell much better about teh safety too. I do have to say, however, they are no-where near 'sealed', they are steel after all, no weatherstipping, etc. I also wish they'd have welded a clasp in place inside to put a padlock thru instead of their little turn-pin... but I worked thru bothof these issues with an inner door with more weatherstipping, and a lock.

I installed a bilco bulkhead where an old wood bulkhead once stood.

My question: What is way too narrow?????? The area where the bulkhead will be installed???? Please explain in detail.

My old platform was too narrow, but easily widened to the bulkhead width using concrete. I custom built the frame which the bulkhead doors lay on and it came outt very nice.

John

New Jersey

The current opening is approx 27" wide. The door swings to the left right against the house so I have no wiggle room there. All of the bilco stuff that I see are 2 doors and much wider than 27". I really can't expand the frame much. I'm also dealing with a sloped wall application. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

My bilco door also swings to the left against a wall of the house (when in the basement facing out).

not sure what you mean by a sloped wall. What is to the right?

If you want, I can take detailed pictures and post them for you to see.

John

New Jersey (Morris County)

Thanks John, that would be helpful. By sloped wall I mean that the concrete foundation for the door is sloped and the door frame is flat, as opposed to how they normally do it nowadays by laying a flat concrete foundation and have the door frame itself sloped.

There is nothing to the right of the door.

BTW - I'm over in Little Falls (Passaic county).

mark, by your definition mine is also sloped. i will gather pictures this evening, upload them and post back with instructions and details.

john

Mark, I uploaded a boat-load of picture of my Bilco door to my picture page, JOHN(NJ).

If you are not sure hoe to find my picture page on this site, copy and paste the following address into your browser and REMOVE the "*".

ht*tp://pics.mrlandlord.com/John(NJ)/index.mgi2?all=1

The Bilco door pictures are titled "990 - Bilco" through "9997 - Bilco" and may be under my other unrelated pictures.

Since there are so many pictures of the bilco door, I did not explain all the pictures so if you have ANY questions, please ask and mention which picture by title you would like me to explain.

Sorry about the doors being dirty as I did not have time to wash them before snapping the pictures this evening.

I have a boat load of pictures that I took when I built the bulkhead several years ago, but I can't find them in my archives at the moment.

John