Patio Doors Wrong Size

Eddington

Hi There

I have a problem with the new patio door fitted, its short on one side by about 30mm. The install team tried to fix it (move the other side (it’s a 4 panel) to no avail)

I have a new team out on Thursday to “Fix” the problem….. so….

Are they just going to pack it out

Could this be a security issue

Should I pay full price for something that has been made to not fit right then adjusted to do so

Thanks in advance

latecomer

I suspect that most PVC doors that are made to measure will have some allowance to make them easy to fit. Not sure what would be normal though.

Eddington

I’m sure there is room for maneuver but it seems a lot of packing out to me

sillygoose

They will probably just try and fix it with packers and very long screws and then cover it all up with acres of UPVC trim and quadrants. If thats the way it goes at least make sure they fill the gaps with some expanding foam to keep the noise and thermal insulation up (just 2mm of plastic either side of a big gap aint good at that).

Thats worst case, hopefully they can come up with something better but not holding my breath.

Eddington

If they did that should I request a discount as they will be patched to fit rather than made to fit

sillygoose

Eddington wrote: »

If they did that should I request a discount as they will be patched to fit rather than made to fit

Sorry can't advise on that one, I had a lot of work done recently and managed to catch everything as they went along (mostly) but I hadn't paid anything up front (not even deposits) so they had to indulge me.

Best thing is to poke your nose in constantly while they work, your not in the way its your house and money, if your not happy with how its going reject it there and then tell them to down tool. Also have a camera handy and take lots of pictures and close ups as they do everything, just might come in handy later.

DirectDebacle

Eddington wrote: »

If they did that should I request a discount as they will be patched to fit rather than made to fit

Assuming you have had upvc patio doors and frame made then the problem may be that the aperture in the brickwork is out of square either by poor original build, movement or a combination of the two.

Usually when measuring up three measurements each of the horizontal and vertical is taken. The frame will be made to the smallest of these measurements less perhaps 10mm to give an overall clearance of 5mm all round. The frame will be made square.

If the opening is out of square this could lead to a gap of 30mm. To check that this is the reason and that they have not mis-measured you need to measure the aperture in the brickwork. If the diagonals are equal then the opening is square. Unequal it is out of square and will tell you by how much.

If they have been made the wrong size then you can refuse them and request they be made correctly or negotiate a discount.

If the opening is out of square then they need to do the best fitting job they can as others have suggested.

Eddington

Thanks for the replies

I had a quick measure and the left side is 10mm higher than the right.... but I also found the report that the fitters left behind, it says

Patio doors out of line/frame too wide on the width/frame needs refitting and reducing by a min of 10mm

So it seems the glass is fine but the frame and the hole isnt, seems it wasnt measured correctly

So what can I expect, some padding and then a patio door that wont look square (the old one looked it)

I wont be happy with that

Forgot to mention that yes it is upvc patio doors and frame " made to measure"

I also spotted that when they did the bay windows the just put a plastic cover over the big gaps and didnt fill it with foam.... should I ask them to review that also

cyclonebri1

You have to reject it. At least it's filled the hole for now. 6mm per side is what they would have aimed for, 30mm plus?, no way.

Some profiles that are used for ready sized windows can acept snap in filler strips for the edges in 10 and 20mm step ups, not acceptable to my mind in a bespoke product, kick !!! time.

sillygoose

Eddington wrote: »

I also spotted that when they did the bay windows the just put a plastic cover over the big gaps and didnt fill it with foam.... should I ask them to review that also

They did exactly the same thing on my bay, but I made them foam it just in time. decent modern glass units have excellent low U values and our house is much quieter than the previous wood frame double glazing, last thing I want is having 5% of the area (the sides) with zero insulation.

They fully agreed it would normally be foamed but it was very cold so a hassle getting the foam to spray, in other words too much hassle to put can in a bucket of warm water a while!

Eddington

Thanks for all the replies

I will see what they say and do tomorrow, I will ensure I have lots of photos and luckily enough I took a video of the before works

When they called again thay did say that 1 engineer will be coming round to "fix" it

Sounds like they are just going to fill the hole a bit more and leave me with it