Any window/door fitters?

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

Evening all

Basically I had a bunch of cowboys fit new windows and a front door on my house, been nothing but grief and wish I hadn't bothered as in my mind everything is wrong. The company have sent different installation teams out to fix the problems but it seems to me like all they're doing is patching over a bodge job. Stopped counting after the 6th call out.

Anyway, the door has never shut properly and let's more draft in than the one it replaced, I can do some adjustment but all that happens is the handle goes tight and you struggle to push the handle up or down and still let's air past the seals.

It seems the door is bowed so doesn't sit on the seal of the frame. Is there anyway of straightening the door out or adjusting the hinges or something?

[TNT ANDY]

Trickey - who fit em?

Firstly - get there qs round to take a butchers and get them to agree / disagree that the work is acceptable / non acceptable. (This is irrelavent as you're going to lead this line of enquiery, but you need to acertain if they hold any standards at all.)

Next - give them fair opportunity to put things right properly and not bodge - sounds like you've done this already, so less to do now.

Next - if you're not happy with what has been done or has been proposed, let them know and see if they are willing to change there approach. If not advise them that you will be in contact with 3 other companies to give an indipendant assessment of the work done including a quote to put the work right of which if there sub standard workmanship should not be put right in a timely fashion.

This is of course, subject to the very poor installation you describe.

[Haz]

There are various companies, and vastly differences between quality of products used. Sounds like they haven't used the correct packers around the frame. The door shouldn't be bowed unless the frame has been put in way off plumb and level. This could be the case depending on what the aperture is like.
Normally the doors are kept closed until in the correct position and wedged in situ. If they haven't that will explain it not lining up. It's then packed out and fixed, then adjusted. To be fair there is alot of adjustments to get it right, even if on the limits it is possible.
I've seen alot fitted 'factory' but they always want tweaking. You want to mark with a pencil where the rollers, hooks and locks are in the locked position, have the door open a cm and mark the frame to see they line up. Also the distance between door and frame, too far makes them hard to lock too.
Just take it easy with them, if they aren't right forcing them will only break them sooner.

[dangerous dave]

On some doors the middle panel is removable and you can put plastic wedges in the bottom corners to lift the far corner.. The doors sag like an unsupported gate, hence are propped with a diagonal brace from the hinge to far corner..

If its not that then they may have badly spaced the doors before screwing in and pulled the frame about.

They are always a fiddle, but a fk up is a fk up.

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

Cheers andy, haz, Dave

Was job worth doing, they're fensa registered but the problem is all complaints ect were done over the phone so they won't help as nothing was put in writing before a certain time scale.

Qs has been out and basically said everything is fitted within manufactures tolerances but the panel might need re packing/spacing. He also said it doesn't have to shut against seals as there are 2, problem is it's not touching the inner seal either. Nobody came back to do it though and they stopped taking my calls and don't call back.

Going to be getting some companies out as we now have money to do the rear of the house, was going to get them to sort out the front.

Just wondered if anybody could tell me how to adjust it the best I can until I can get someone else to do it right

[Brigsy]

What type of door is it? Composite? Some of the composite doors can warp and you will never get it right.

Also check the door actually fits the frame properly, ive seen doors that are too small for the frame. Im talking 5mm+ gaps with massive gasket on

All you can do by the sounds of it is adjust the keeps/hinges etc to try and pull the door into the gasket assuming the frame is plumb and level.

Ive seen some ****e fitment/****e door manufacturers in my years of clerk of the works in social housing. Sometimes the lot needs to be pulled out and replaced.

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

Not the best pictures but you can see the door edge against the frame in these two





This one you can see between the door and frame seal when the door is locked shut



And two random window horns, they're all in similar state or worse

[SCHWARTZ]

Generally there will be a grub screw or a cam type adjustment on the underside ofbthe hinge this will tilt the door and raise it up and if cams can move the hinge side of the noir nearer and further from the frame. There should also be grub screws going through the the door side of the hinge horizontally this slides the door across from hinge side to the lock side of the frame. Hope that makes sense is the most basic way I can think of how to explain.
Try adjusting it but it is only a sort of fine tuning at the end of the day if it has been fitted really badly it may be too far out for the adjustment to sort.

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

Makes sense, I think. Thanks

On the unhinged side there are some Allen key capped cams, these are all at the max to pull the door into the frame but not enough to compress the seals.

Was thinking if there was a way to pull the hinged side closer to the frame then in my mind it would also pull the other side closer, would that be right?

I tried adjusting the hinges but it only seemed to tilt the door on the vertical axis so if I look underneath there might be another adjuster to move it in and out? I'll have a look

[GaryS]

Looking at your door pics does the bottom of the door shut before the top? If that makes sence lol

I'm a window fitter


Or it could just be the shadow. Take a pic looking straight at the door.

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

It does, then the top and the middle follows when pulled onto the latch.

Tried playing on the hinges again now it feels worse than before

Just realised I left my keys in the wife's car and she's gone to fat camp

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

So I had a day off today, nipped out with the wife for half an hour. When we got back the door didn't seem right. I tried adjusting it up but ended up not being able to shut the door at all! Rang the company and they were going to send a fitter out, I continued to play around and I see the lady from 2 house down coming up the path looking flustered.

Turns out her house had been burgled, they'd tried the front door but failed to get in so went through their gate and smashed a window! They got away with kids money boxes and her jewellery.

I decided to check the back of my house and next door and all seemed fine, my garden is fairly secure and next door has 2 staffies.

I decide to continue with my door and got it to shut, turns out I'd slid the drip rail and was stopping door from closing but once I'd tweaked a it a little more and repositioning the striker plate it shuts the best it ever has

Made me wonder if they'd tried our door and failed then moved on to the next until they got lucky

Anyway thanks again to those who have offered and have helped

[TNT!hammond]

nick i told you last time i was over the panel hasnt been packed heel and toe, you can literrallly slide the panel up an down. its a wonder it still works at all as you can pul the door to what ever shape you like.

As for the qs ask him if he really thinks having the fitter out to swing all the adjustment cams to there open positions thus meaning the gaskets are a good 5mm from the door is acceptable as that was all they did last time.

Failing all this get hold of FENSA and log a complaint or maybe GGF. If this still fails ill try and sort it but i shouldnt really touch it till you have them sort it, also ask them why they didnt pack on the fishers and why the frame rocks when shutting not to mention lack of foam or air tightness from a decent silicone bead

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

Update

The draft got worse


Hopefully we'll have a door that actually shuts and does its job

[Mr Raider]

Hope you get it sorted buddy, glad im out of the window game, strange industry and fitters come good and bad, defo a bit of a rogue traders moment! Out of interest, which company did you use?

[car.crash]

Loose that door lock or it can be bumped in seconds.
I wouldn't sleep if that 30p lock was all that was stopping people getting into my gaff.

[TNT Tricky Nicky]

The company in question is job worth doing. They're also zenith staybright, from the research I've done job worth doing is just a name many companies can use to appear to be a national company, job worth doing are the sole agents for tesco door, window and conservatories.

Definitely a mixed bunch alright.

This pair were unfaultable really, up until the point they left. Was showing the wife how smooth the handle/lock was from the outside and low and behold the key was stuck in the lock, tried getting it out by locking and with the door open it locked and wouldn't undo, Called them back and 1 of the guys was right arsey saying we'd lifted the handle and tried to lock/unlock the key at same time, which we hadn't . He whacked the key and wiggled it out, I didn't want to do it as I didn't want to damage it anymore, anyway he was running on still and I just happened to look at the key, low and behold it was bent. He was mid sentence still so I just held the key in front of his eyes and said, I think you'll find the key's bent, he stopped talking and said oh, 2 out of the 3 keys were bent!

He then apologised and fitted a better quality lock , which was good because I happened to mention about the lock bumping as car crash had noticed with the old lock (we've got an alarm which has a door sensor so it's not really worried me as they wouldn't get far)