Not sure French doors are what we ordered?

Steel_2

Three weeks ago hubby and I ordered a set of french doors to lead from our kitchen into our conservatory.

The quote we were sent specified that the doors would have the left leaf as the master leaf. We (perhaps mistakenly) assumed that would mean the two doors would lock into each other, with the slave door bolted or secured top and bottom. Our conservatory doors work that way. we also specified we wanted a minimum of a five-point multi locking system.

The workman turned up today to fit it, got about half way through and couldn't go any further as they didn't have a drill suitable to do the main fixings. As it stands, the main door is fixed into place with expandable foam and the glass has not yet been fitted. They are coming back another day to finish.

After they went, we noticed that the doors were not as we expected. First they had gold handles after specifying silver, but that's easily changed I think. However, these are two identical doors that lock separately into a middle bar, obstructing you from walking through the middle. This is the last thing we want as we have a very large oak dining table to fit through the gap.

The specs should be as follows:

1390mm wide by 2070mm tall
Door hinge: Flag Hinges
Door lock: Hooklock
Cylinder: paired alike
Master leaf: Left leaf
Viewed from: outside

Have they manufactured and fitted the wrong doors? If so, what are these doors? I assumed french doors didn't have bars down the middle?

Anyone have an idea?

edited to add: they actually left the invoice in an envelope on the side for us (no biggie as we told them to bring one and would pay after the fitting was complete) but the spec on here makes no reference to a master leaf at all. Just the door lock as a hooklock. In fact, no mention is made of the hinges or cylinders either.

Also, the style of the door in the quote is referred to as style 1 while the style of the door on the invoice is referred to as style 16.

27col

I should get on to them ASAP. Get them to explain exactly what they think you ordered and compare it with what they are installing. There does not seem to be any point in making a French Door with a central bar. It rather defeats the principle of having a nice wide opening. Sounds as if there has been a mistake or a miss-communication somewhere.

thebaldwindowfitter

have you actually opened the doors all upvc french doors have a centre mullion which is fastened to the fixed door so when the door opens the mullion does too

Provide

Hi 'Steel',
I can totally understand your frustration. I would certainly chase the joiner/carpenter and try to resolve all those issues. If you specified your requirements in writing you have a good case to pursue.

few tips which may be useful..
If you are left with having to replace the door handles for chrome, stainless steel etc. I would go online and checkout one of the ironmongery sites like http://www.tradehandles.co.uk or http://www.myknobs.com as you should be able to find replacements for under £20. I have used them both and have found what I needed.

Also make sure they use some very heavy duty fixing from your frame to the surrounding wall etc., not just expanding foam - that's just lazy and not that secure!! Fisher is the industry favourite I think but any wall plug and screw at least 4 inch should do it.

27col

I was in my neighbours yesterday and we were looking at his french doors. They had a large mullion in the middle and he thought that it was fixed. But it wasn't, as a6windows says, it opened when the apparently fixed door was unlatched.
There would be little point in having two doors with a mullion between them.

Steel_2

Hi guys

Thanks for all your responses. Slightly embarrassing update.

The door does have a centre post attached to the left master door. We were unable to open up both doors to see this as the frame hasn't been firmly fixed into place yet with screws (the phrase they used was 'don't tug too hard or the bloody lot will come down'), so we were going off what we could see when we gingerly opened up the right hand 'slave' door.

I think the presence of two handles threw us off guard - we were expecting one attached to the master door (like our conservatory door) and a slave door that locked into place top and bottom.

The really embarrassing bit was that I had rung to try and explain what I thought was wrong and they were completely non-plussed about what I was talking about and arranged to come round and check it out.

Luckily I managed to catch them before they came and apologised for being thick!