Major composite door issue - help!

samspam

In November last year I had a composite door fitted. A friend fitted it - it is his business to fit windows and doors he just did it at mates rates.
It is a grey door with a long handle so relies on the key to open not the handle. The issue is that as soon as the sun shines on it (my house faces south) the door will not open at all until the sun goes in. When this happens we have to either climb out of the front window or use the garage - I only have one electric fob to the garage so this is not convenient when there are 3 of us with keys.
My friend has made as many adjustments as he can do and gone mad at the company who sell the doors. He has never had any problems with the company or the hundreds of doors he has fitted from them.
He is taking it up with them but I am just wondering if anyone has any answers / suggestions / similar stories.
As far as I am concerned a front door which does not open is a fire safety issue and is not fit for purpose. As I am writing this I have been unable to open the door for an hour and a half.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Firstly, do you always engage the hooks in the door by lifting the handle when its closed?

Its normal for uPVC and composite doors to get some thermal distortion, especially if the sun is shining on them all day, however if the hooks are engaged this should protect them from anything serious or permanent and it certainly shouldn't be enough to stop the door from opening if it is adjusted correctly and the correct size.

Assuming it has been installed correctly you need to chase this up with the manufacturer if it has a manufacturer's guarantee however beware, if you didn't buy it from them they may not deal with you directly, only the person who supplied the door. Where did you get it from? Under consumer law your contract is with the person you bought the door from, not the manufacturer.

Just to give you an idea, we have composite doors on the front and back of our house (Door Stop). Both are black and the back door is South facing and gets the sun on it for most of the day. We had a bit of distortion in the first month after it was installed (tops and bottoms were not making proper contact with the gasket and the hooks wouldn't engage smoothly) which the manufacturer assured us was due to it acclimatising to the new environment and sure enough since then we haven't had a problem. We always keep the hooks engaged when closed, it opens and closes fine.

I would agree that what your experiencing is not right however is it possible the door is slightly over-size?

Furts

There are countless poor quality composite doors fitted to homes. Yours may be one of them. Even so called reputable manufacturers like DoorStop produce utter dross. But in mitigation there are countless other doors that are no better, or even worse.

To give further guidance you need to establish why it will not open - expansion at the top, or the sides, claw mechanism jamming or whatever.

samspam

I believe it must be heat expansion.
In answer to the question about the handle, it has a long T bar handle which isn't functional, as I said the door relies on the key to open and the hooks engage on closing.
Now I did have a locksmith out who took 40 minutes to get in, he said the keeps needed replacing as the top hook wasn't engaging correctly. My friend came and changed the keeps and adjusted as much as he can to allow for expansion. But it is still happening.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Who is the manufacturer of your door and what locking mechanism is this? You didn't answer my question about who supplied the door.

samspam

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

Who is the manufacturer of your door and what locking mechanism is this? You didn't answer my question about who supplied the door.

I don't know who the door supplier is and I don't know what locking mechanism it is?

I think it is Sterling / Soundglobal who are the suppliers

http://www.sterlingpvcu.co.uk/doors/

Like I said it has a thumb turn only and no handle. There are 4 hooks to engage. I don't know the technical term for this. Apologies for not knowing my door locking mechanisms.

samspam

It literally will not open if the sun is on it. If the sun goes behind a cloud and the door cools down then it opens. It's crazy. It's still not opening. and hasn't opened since 10 past 8 this morning. Driving me mad.

Chanes

samspam wrote: »

It literally will not open if the sun is on it. If the sun goes behind a cloud and the door cools down then it opens. It's crazy. It's still not opening. and hasn't opened since 10 past 8 this morning. Driving me mad.

You may need a new door fitted by someone who understands why that one won't open? We had a door that soaked up the sun (Green/Rockdoor) but it never caused any problems at all, ever. I've seen complaints about composite doors making noises when the sun hits them but I haven't seen a door that just refused to open? You've been very unlucky! And as you say your fitter has adjusted it as much as possible it only leaves the obvious - replace it.

TheCyclingProgrammer

samspam wrote: »

I don't know who the door supplier is and I don't know what locking mechanism it is?

You must surely know who you bought the door from?

I agree the door you have is not fit for purpose but your complaint needs to be with whoever supplied it.

Hoploz

I fitted a dark blue composite door on my last house - also south facing.

It was really hard to lock when the sun was out and seemed to suffer badly with noisy clicking as it expanded - it was a problem.

However, I never found it actually wouldn't open! You're right, you can't live with that and friend or not this must be sorted out. There must be some sort of guarantee?

samspam

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

You must surely know who you bought the door from?

I agree the door you have is not fit for purpose but your complaint needs to be with whoever supplied it.

My friend bought it and fitted it