interior door sills - for patio doors and between rooms

[CaramelFlat]

I'm thinking of getting my carpet replaced with Amtico. But I have full length windows, including patio doors, on two sides of the main room. All along those windows/doors, there is a wooden sill that slopes down from the level of the door to the floor - about 5cm slope (over about 20cm sill). It was a new build, so I don't really know what's underneath. It's the wrong colour for the Amtico floor, but I'm not sure whether I need to replace it with something equivalent, or whether I can just have the door with a bit of a threshold to step over, and get rid of the sill entirely. I haven't been able to find any similar sills online (none of them are sloping, just the same depth all along - which might be OK if whatever makes it slope is something built underneath. I assumed that it was a wedge shaped sill, but it might not be). I could try to paint the sill but I'd rather have it the right sort of wood instead, if I actually need one. (The floor will be oak-looking, and the sill is a kind of mahogany colour).

Is there any reason why not to have just the doors meeting the floor? It might make things feel a bit more spacious in the small room, as right now I avoid putting any furniture/plants etc right up close to the windows because of the slope.

I imagine the builders put it in to stop there being a trip hazard, as the new-build homes were meant to be suitable for all future use, including wheelchairs etc. (of course I could add some kind of sill if that were ever needed).

But if the sill is taken off I wonder what that will leave underneath, whether it's level with the rest of the floor, whether the bit of the skirting that's been covered up will be unpainted, whether the bottom of the door looks messy or unfinished etc., and I wont really know until it's taken up.

Any thoughts?

Also, if you are replacing carpet witih amtico, it's presumably less deep, so does that make the doors look funny if they're a bit short? Or is it unnoticeable? Do you put a sill/threshold between rooms even if it's the same floor all the way through? I'd like to keep the floor consistent and not have a threshold between the main living area and corridor, unless it would look odd to have the door too high. But what about the bathroom? That would be changing to a different amtico (stone instead of wood). Would you have something to fill in the gap under the door, and if so, would you use wood or something that goes with the stone, or what?

I'm finding the patio door sill hard to imagine, might be worth adding a picture for more ideas.

Where I've got LVT that was laid at the same time and is the same type I haven't got any internal thresholds (ie hall & downstairs loo, kitchen & conservatory & utility) however I have got a threshold between those 2 areas as although they are the same type they were laid at different times and so the joins wouldn't be completely level, which they'd need to be.

With different types I'd ask the fitters advice.

the estimators are coming next week, so I will check with them, but I just wanted to have some ideas of the right questions, and also know what is normal, so that if they say something is a good way to do it, I don't want them to just be trying to get me to do something that is easier or cheaper for them!

Do the doors look OK between the rooms with no thresholds? I think it probably would for me as I rarely close that door. But less sure about the bathroom one, as that would be a different colour (though same type, spacia, and I think one of the advantages of Amtico is that they are all the same depth).

The patio sill is hard to find a picture of but I can take one of mine later. But it's just a long wooden board, about 20cm wide, running the length of the room under the window/door. But it's about 5cm high at the edge by the windows/door, and slopes down to be about 1cm high where it meets the floor of the room.

kind of like this, but sloping (it's easy to find the long boards that don't slope, which is why I'm wondering if maybe the slope is somehow built beneath the board and it is just a flat board).

www.loveskirting.co.uk/window-boards-shelving-c14/all-oak-products-c268/oak-25mm-window-boards-c270/solid-oak-rounded-window-board-2-4-metre-x-25mm-p196/s137987?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=solid-oak-rounded-window-board-2-4-metre-x-25mm-finish-unfinished-de-finish-unfinished-depth-145mm-oak-rnd-wbrd-2400-25mm-unfinished145mm&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2tCGBhCLARIsABJGmZ7qAXJ4uW4MEDJyFZ4pEkxKSdb2n0jmygQGc9Ub9jW2ZDjuOEd7zhQaAlPCEALw_wcB

I can't find any to buy that are already sloped, but also not really sure if I actually need one. But I don't want them to take the old ones off and find that it's kind of unfinished or uneven underneath, though I suppose they should be able to deal with that when installing...

When they install they lay a screed which needs to be totally flat to then lay the LVT onto. So if underneath the sill isn't very good they would deal with that. But it does sound like you would then have more of a step over it, which might be a trip hazard.

I've never noticed the levels underneath the doors without a threshold being an issue, the LVT issightly raised anyway due to the screed.
One of mine is hallway/downstairs loo so that is mostly shut.
The other is kitchen/utility which is shut some of the time.

thank you. yes those doors look absolutely fine with that gap, so hopefully that will be the case for mine and I won't need one even into the bathroom.

I guess there would be a bit of a trip hazard with the door, but I'm not sure it's enough to worry about. I think most patio doors must have a couple of inches at the bottom to step over? hmm. I could always add a sloped sill later I guess. It might just be habit to learn to step over it for now! If I'm right that it was done to make the flats fully-accessible, then I could always add it back if I needed that. And if they can deal with the uneven or unfinished bit underneath, then it should be ok.

I guess the skirting might need painting where the sill was against it but eventually all the skirting will. It all has silicone stripping at the bottom anyway as the old floors are vinyl, so I don't know what it will look like when the stripping is taken off - I hope it doesn't take the paint off or look faded, but it might. I hope it's reasonable, as I don't think I will be able to get it painted right away.