New porch door and windows FAIL

Kaipa88

Yesterday I had a new composite door and double glazed windows fitted in my porch. It appears the fitters have used black/dark brown silicone for the interior around the windows and clear silicone ontop. I’ve NEVER seen this before, it looks like a total bodge. I was hoping to paint the porch a light white colour but impossible as it is.. So glad I didn’t paint before they fitted now! I asked the fitter at the end what they used, he confirmed its silicone but said I can paint it with masonry paint.. I’m not so sure. I’ve attached photos of the outside aswell. Would appreciate people’s thoughts before I send the company an email!  Fortunately I haven’t paid them anything yet but I’m really unhappy with the work. 

Kaipa88

And the outside:

Kaipa88

Apologies for the random order of photos this forum seems to re-arrange everything!

Emmia

Aside from the colour, there absolutely nothing "neat" or professional about that silicone, which should have been white, to match the windows in my opinion.

Kaipa88 said:

And the outside:

These ones in particular look like the stuff has been applied by someone who has never used silicone before.

WIAWSNB

Very poor aesthetic choice of colour, imo. And poorly applied too. Oh, and you can't successfully paint over silicone - unless there's a specific type I don't know about that can be. 

Other than that, nice house, and nice windows and doors

I think, for most joints, white sealant would have looked better? See what others think.

However, I'm going to put this out for you to ponder, as I did this very job a month or so ago on one of my own windows, when trying to paint up to it with masonry paint - and failing due to it being silicone. The glazing beads on my window have an 'ovolo' profile, so I bought a 5m length of flexible quadrant moulding from my local Eurocell supplier, and StixAll'd this in place down each side in order to cover the sealant. It's not only much neater, but actually gives the window a lift. Best £5 I ever spent.

https://www.eurocell.co.uk/windows/window-sills-trims-and-accessories/q17564-white-smooth-quadrant-length-5m-x-width-17mm

Imagine this run down each window outside and along the top - it'll 'frame' and add to the overall look, instead of the window just 'merging' into the wall. 

Ditto on some of your inside joints - the windows, and perhaps the RH side of the door inside, and both the outside? Once done - and you stand back and gasp in admiration - then the remaining 'seals' around the window boards could be done in white silicone, but finished using a Fugi-tool. It should look great.

Kaipa88

WIAWSNB said:

Very poor aesthetic choice of colour, imo. And poorly applied too. Oh, and you can't successfully paint over silicone - unless there's a specific type I don't know about that can be. 

Other than that, nice house, and nice windows and doors

I think, for most joints, white sealant would have looked better? See what others think.

However, I'm going to put this out for you to ponder, as I did this very job a month or so ago on one of my own windows, when trying to paint up to it with masonry paint - and failing due to it being silicone. The glazing beads on my window have an 'ovolo' profile, so I bought a 5m length of flexible quadrant moulding from my local Eurocell supplier, and StixAll's this in place down each side in order to cover the sealant. It's not only much neater, but actually gives the window a lift. Best £5 I ever spent.

https://www.eurocell.co.uk/windows/window-sills-trims-and-accessories/q17564-white-smooth-quadrant-length-5m-x-width-17mm

Imagine this run down each window outside and along the top - it'll 'frame' and add to the overall look, instead of the window just 'merging' into the wall. 

Ditto on some of your inside joints - the windows, and perhaps the RH side of the door inside, and both the outside? Once done - and you stand back and gasp in admiration - then the remaining 'seals' around the window boards could be done in white silicone, but finished using a Fugi-tool. It should look great.

Sounds interesting - can you some photos of the results? I’m definitely getting them back out to correct this work regardless 

Aside from the worst bit which is the internal silicone work the outside silicone also looks a mess. They’ve put so much underneath the windows it looks like a child’s done it with their bare hands. I appreciate the need to maybe go abit overboard with the silicone externally as it’s important to fully seal any gaps buts surely it could have been done neater?!

twopenny

I quite like the black and think it looks interesting and makes the frames stand out.
Perhaps I've been looking at too much black and grey paint which seems to be everyone's choice round here.

But as a professional job the application is more than rubbish it's a disaster, if they were using an uncommon contrasting colour it should have been discussed with you.
And it's not just one colour.

Lovely porch. Or it will be when it's done 🙂

WIAWSNB

The poorly applied silicone outside carries two issues - it looks bad, and it doesn't appear to have been pressed into full contact with the surfaces. It hasn't sealed as well as it should.
I'll get pics, tho' the contrast isn't as dramatic in my case as everything is white. Also, I haven't repainted yet...

bjorn_toby_wilde

They have at least used masking tape on the frame itself but the colour is all wrong and the application is poor. White silicone can be problematic as well because it’s harder to get a neat edge on the brickwork (especially if it’s a rough textured brick) and you can’t mask it effectively. They should have used a colour which more closely matched the brickwork.

You’ll struggle to paint over it as paint just doesn’t stick to silicone.

I’d go with WIAWSNB’s suggestion of quadrant trim, with white sealant on the windowframe side of the trim and clear on the brickwork side. Inside the porch you could do the same but using a paintable acrylic sealant on the brickwork side.

WIAWSNB

Ok, this ain't going to sell the idea to you, but it is significantly better that the vary-sized sili bead that was there before - honest. And my walls are in the midst of a refurb...

WIAWSNB

Crudely:

to

A smaller profile trim can be used - they come in all sizes.