Replies

1. 
   Ian.D.Gilham. | Apr 16, 2001 08:19pm | #1

   *
   Ed,
   My understanding is that a door 'sill' usually applies to an external door. This is what I would regard as a 'threshold'

1. 
   Ed_Hilton | Apr 16, 2001 10:08pm | #2

   *Nice floor. Did you do the work?

1. 
   Ross_Welsh | Apr 17, 2001 03:38am | #3

   *Ed:My understanding is that "sill" refers to a slope, as in a window or door sill that is sloped to shead water. Stool is the correct term for the level portion at the bottom of a window that lies to the inside. I have always used the term "threshold" for doors but I think "sill" is correct. They seem to be somewhat interchangeable but my door shop consistantly uses the term sill. I have heard the term saddle used for low rise thresholds, as in handicap acess types. Ross

1. 
   James_DuHamel | Apr 17, 2001 04:45am | #4

   *If you look close at the picture, here's the difference.The sill is the wooden framing member right up against the concrete (in this picture). It is beveled downward (anywhere from 10 degrees to 20 degrees) to keep water from entering under the door.The threshold is the area that holds the weatherstripping that the door sits on top of when closed. It can be thin, or wide.On pre-hung metal units, the threshold is the aluminum piece at the very bottom of the door frame. It has the weather stripping built into it, or the door will have it mounted on the bottom of it. The sill will be the wooden framing member that the door frame sits upon when installed. Not all openings have sills. On a lot of slab construction, the area where a door will sit has an area that is recessed. This recessed area is where the sill plate would sit. Some slabs do not have this, and the threshold on a pre-hung unit would then sit flat on the concrete slab.Industry techniques and standards have changed the way a lot of this is done on new construction. On old construction (especially in the south) this method is still prevelent.James

1. 
   Steve_Turner | Apr 18, 2001 02:36am | #5

   *I'm with James on this one.Seems somewhere I read that the "threshold" term originated when homes had mud floors, and straw or whatever was spread around the interior.The "threshold" kept the straw from drifting outside when the door was used. Fact? Fiction? Beats me...Steve

2. 
   Phill_Giles | Apr 18, 2001 03:22am | #6

   *true

3. 
   CaseyR_ | Apr 18, 2001 06:08pm | #7

   *I would tend to agree with James Du. However, some common reference works tends to obfuscate things a bit, at least in common usage (putting quotes in italics tends to make them harder to read, so I will leave quotes in standard type and make non-quotes bold):From http://www.dictionary.com:thresh·old (thrshld, -hld) n. 1.A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a doorsill. 2.An entrance or a doorway. 3.The place or point of beginning; the outset. 4.A point separating conditions that will produce a given effect from conditions of a higher or lower degree that will not produce the effect, as the intensity below which a stimulus is of sufficient strength to produce sensation or elicit a response: a low threshold of pain. [Middle English thresshold, from Old English therscold, threscold; see ter-1 in Indo-European Roots.] Word History: Perhaps the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold is dying out, but knowledge of the custom persists, leading one to wonder about the -hold or the thresh- in the word threshold. Scholars are still wondering about the last part of the word, but the thresh- can be explained. It is related to the word thresh, which refers to an agricultural process. This process of beating the stems and husks of grain or cereal plants to separate the grain or seeds from the straw was at one time done with the feet of oxen or human beings. Thus, the Germanic word ·therskan, or by the switching of sounds called metathesis, ·threskan, meant “thresh” and “tread.” This association with the feet is probably retained in Old English therscold or threscold (Modern English threshold), “sill of a door (over which one treads).”threshold n 1: the starting point of a new state or experience; "on the threshold of manhood" 2: the smallest detectable sensation [syn: limen] 3: the space in a wall through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close; "he stuck his head in the doorway" [syn: doorway, door, room access] 4: a horizontal piece of wood or stone that forms the bottom of a doorway and offer support when passing through a doorway [syn: doorsill, doorstep]My British published Oxford Dictionary of Architecture doesn't give "threshold" but does give "sill":cill or sill, sole, sule. 1. Horizontal timber usually called a cill-beam, ground-cill or sole-piece or -plate at the bottom of a timber-framed wall into which posts and studs are tenoned. A cill-wall is a low wall of brick or stone supporting the cill beam. In timber framed construction, an interrupted cill runs between main posts and is tenoned into them.2. Lower horizontal projecting element below an aperature (e.g. doorway or windows) to throw water off the naked of the wall below.3. Lower horizontal member of a door or window-frame. course, those Brits talk almost as funny as the 'stralians - gotta save my pennies and buy one of them 'spensive US arch dictionaries... My Random House desk dictionary simply defines "threshold" as a sill: 1. the sill of a doorway 2. the entrance to a house or building.whereas "sill" is defined as: 1. a horizontal piece or member beneath a window, door, or other opening. 2. a horizontal piece or member beneath a windows, door a foundation of a wall, house, etc. more than you ever wanted to know... (really gotta save up to get a US architectural dictionary...)

2. 
   Ed_Hilton | Apr 18, 2001 06:15pm | #8

   *
   Is there a difference between a threshold and a door sill? Or is it a matter of regional terminology. I have also heard it called a saddle. Same thing?