The doors were very much on their last legs, despite some temporary repairs that I did - oooh - about six years ago. These are visible on the back of the open door. I appreciate that they have a well-used look about them, but practical? No.
I thought I'd start with a door that I don't use very often, the one in the middle. It's normally got my table-mounted mitre-saw ("chop-saw") behind it so even when it's open it's not much use. But at present it does have one advantage: because the top of the stable door is missing, it lets in a lot of light. So the new doors will need to have some kind of glazing.
Here's the old door:
About the only thing that can be said for it (apart from its rustic appearance) is that it can be opened and shut. But if you were able to see the hinges properly, it would be clear that they have been put on effectively back to front: the door should go right into the opening and be flush with outer side of the wall, not sit so that it is a little larger than the opening and touching the outside part of the wall at the edges.
I bought a quantity (about €200) of chestnut planks, 20mm thick and about 2m long, from the timber merchant in Aurillac. And I ordered some twinwall polycarbonate sheet cut to 50cm by 40cm: I didn't think actual glass would survive very long in a workshop.
Et voila!
The planks are lapped rather than tongued and grooved: they overlap about a centimetre so any shrinkage shouldn't let in the draughts too much. I've cut the bottom of the door to fit the v-shaped threshhold, but I might sometime level that up with cement and cut the door straight afterwards. The door is only held shut with wedges at the edge. I plan to make an interior doorcase to give a slightly more airtight fit, and that will take an interior bolt. This door doesn't need to be opened from the outside.
I've used a waterproofer on the timber, which has darkened it a little, and I'm pleased with the results. Now just the other two to do.
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