Front door fitting dispute - Advice please

bristol85

I’d like some advice on a compose front door I had fitted last year and an ongoing dispute as a result.

I hired a building company to do some work on my home. There were two parts to the job: 1) Put in a stud wall to make a hallway by the front door. 2) Install a new composite front door.

I was initially pleased with the work until professional floor fitters came round to measure up for the laminate in the hallway leading up to the new front door. They informed me that the door threshold is too low and laminate won’t go under it.

I have contacted the building company and told them about the issue. After months of waiting (due to lockdown/Covid) the man who actually fitted the door (a sub-contractor) turned up today to look at it.

He told me I had agreed with the building company at the time for a “low threshold door”. This may or may not have been the case but I certainly would not have wanted a door fitted that was so close to the floor I couldn’t put laminate down under it. I certainly wouldn’t have known at the time what that term meant, only that a “high threshold door” is something of a potential trip hazard. How low is too low?

The floorboards exposed at the time were GREEN marine plywood which was so obviously going to have some sort of overlay. I find it hard to believe a builder wouldn’t have had enough sense to look at the floor the door is opening over and not think to themselves - “he’s going to want some nice flooring at some point, I better leave enough room”. There isn’t even enough of a gap there to put a standard door mat.

I may even have said in passing that the plan was to put laminate down after but it’s not written down anywhere so the building company could dispute that.

In my opinion there is a difference between a “low threshold” and “no threshold at all”.

I discussed all this with the sub-contractor who is going to talk to the building company but he implied they won’t do anything.

Where do I stand on this? Any advice appreciated.

Aylesbury_Duck

I can't see you have a cause for complaint.  You asked for a low threshold door and that's what you've got.  Ideally they'd have asked but they're not clairvoyant, either, and it might be reasonable to expect any new flooring would go up to the threshold and not under it. 

bristol85

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I can't see you have a cause for complaint.  You asked for a low threshold door and that's what you've got.  Ideally they'd have asked but they're not clairvoyant, either, and it might be reasonable to expect any new flooring would go up to the threshold and not under it. 

Thanks for the reply. Just to be clear, I just want the new flooring to go up to the threshold. So that when the door swings open (and in to the hallway) there is laminate there for me to walk on. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

At the moment there is only about 4mm gap between the bottom of the door and the floor whilst it’s swinging open. Not enough for anything. Would you be satisfied with that? I’m an elderly woman and have no idea about how big the gap should be.

pinkshoes

Aylesbury_Duck said:

I can't see you have a cause for complaint.  You asked for a low threshold door and that's what you've got.  Ideally they'd have asked but they're not clairvoyant, either, and it might be reasonable to expect any new flooring would go up to the threshold and not under it. 

I'm going to disagree with this!

A low threshold door would still allow for a floor to be fitted. Otherwise that is ridiculous!!

tacpot12

Basically, they haven't fitted the door with an appropriate degree of professionalism. Either they should have left enough height for the maximum height of floor covering (1 inch would normally be required for tiles on plywood) or asked what height you wanted to be allowed for. 

The issue now is what do you want them to do about it? There is pretty much only one option and that is to remove the door and refit it with packers under the frame. This is not really a big job, providing the door only needs to be raise a little and there is height to do so at the top of the opening. If you offered to split the cost of refitting, I think they would see this as a a good way out. It really was your job to specify the height to be left for floor covering because the thickness of flooring covering can be so variable. 

Keep_pedalling

tacpot12 said:

Basically, they haven't fitted the door with an appropriate degree of professionalism. Either they should have left enough height for the maximum height of floor covering (1 inch would normally be required for tiles on plywood) or asked what height you wanted to be allowed for. 

The issue now is what do you want them to do about it? There is pretty much only one option and that is to remove the door and refit it with packers under the frame. This is not really a big job, providing the door only needs to be raise a little and there is height to do so at the top of the opening. If you offered to split the cost of refitting, I think they would see this as a a good way out. It really was your job to specify the height to be left for floor covering because the thickness of flooring covering can be so variable. 

Even a vinyl floor needs more than 4mm clearance. 

ToxicWomble

What flooring was already in place when the door was fitted ?
You asked them to install a new door which I assume replaced an existing door.
Did the existing door have any clearance issues ?

bristol85

ToxicWomble said:

What flooring was already in place when the door was fitted ?
You asked them to install a new door which I assume replaced an existing door.
Did the existing door have any clearance issues ?

It was an internal door there before. And I was replacing it with a proper front door. (I have no idea why the previous owner removed the front door and used on the porch as the official secure front door). When opening you walk in to an open plan living room that was carpeted right up to the door. 

Here is a before (when the floor was being fix from a previous job) and after:

pinkshoes

That’s ridiculous. 

When we had our front door replaced the first thing they asked was what sort of flooring would be fitted.

You have concrete by the door, so whoever fitted that have not even allowed space for thin vinyl to be put down, let alone any other type of floor! Very unprofessional.

This is unacceptable and they need to rectify it at their own expense.

If if they asked if you wanted a low threshold, the next question should have been what type of flooring was being fitted, and making sure the low threshold door sat low to the flooring.

Aylesbury_Duck

Well, having seen that photo, I have changed my view somewhat. That is a daft installation, but not helped by your lack of clear instruction.  However, it looks like you might have a struggle on your hands to get it rectified. tacpot12's suggestion may be a good one. 

Flight3287462

So what is the gap from the bottom of the door to the floor?