Gaps in external doors

Varnishing our doors I have noticed that both sets of French doors have quite large gaps between them. (Normally we have wooden flyscreens in front so I hadn't realised just how big the gaps were until now.) I know nothing about door locks and handles but shouldn't the strike plate have been put facing inside? That way the builder wouldn't have had to cut through the draught stopper on the door as he has done. How do we plug that gap now?


Picture taken from inside the house:





Picture taken from outside:









Strike plate facing the wrong way?

Your striker plate faces toward the direction that the door comes from.
Ed

Hi ed,

So does that mean that to have the striker plate facing the other way, the doors would have had to open inwards?

Yes, that's right. The latch hits the striker plate then the latch depresses and pops into the recess.

Most entry doors open inwards and that "mushroom stop" - as the overlap is called covers the join.

Ed

Thanks ed. Now that you have explained it so well, it all seems perfectly obvious.

External doors should be rebated.
The method shown isn't really the best option for external doors, particularly ones that open out.
If you can see daylight from inside the house then weather and bugs can get in as well.

Hi Chippy,

Not to mention the terrible draught that is coming through at the moment. What do you mean by rebated? Is there any way to fix this problem?

Also we had to pay an extra $200 odd dollars to have these flush bolts fitted by the builder but they just seem to have split and weakened the door. Is this the right spot for them?





And does anybody know what purpose this screw is serving at the top of the doors?

Hi Liliana. Best way to describe a rebate is with a picture:

Typically rebates are cut into the side stiles of door at time of manufacture. I think my supplier charges something like $25 for a rebate set.

The other option and what you would need to do is cut a gap between your 2 doors and then fit opposing beads as shown in that picture. You then need to fit a rebate kit to your lock. These are readily available from bunnings or the like.
That would certainly solve the overly large gap between your doors and give you a nice seal that can have a proper draught seal placed up it.

Those recessed bolts look nice however you do need to take quite a lot of meat out of the door to install them. I'd be concerned that the cut out is allowing moisture to get into the core of the door. Unfortunately that will result in the premature failure of the door. If you can I'd take the bolt off and see if you can use a small paint brush to get some varnish inside the cut out.

You may find that screw in the top of the frame is pushing the top of the door out to line up the top bolt. Or the door or frame may have some wind (twist) in it and that is their way of straightening things up.

Thanks for that chippy! Great picture and explanation. Thanks for taking the time to give us some good advice too.

Great stuff... thanks
Ed

Chippy is dead right with his examination.

Personally it looks lke a handy man with no experience in french doors has done this work. Even though Chippy puts forward the logic behind this madness, Im sure he also agrees this is sub par in the way it has been executed.

You wont find a rebate kit to suit that mortice lock at bunnings. Basiclly the only way to make this good is throw them away and start with new doors and lock.
Trying to rebate the doors now or add beads will change the backset of the lock meaning the holes will be in the wrong place.

And you said this was done by a professional?

This was done by a Master Builder. Who, I might add, has also managed to strip about every third screw in this house. Is it that hard to put in a screw? So, would this be considered a building defect? Surely the gaps mean the doors are not fit for their purpose?

The problem is that the doors were ordered by the builder and the carpenter gets to fit what was ordered. The standard you received would be the norm, I would say 90% + of the time. It is also the cheapest way of hanging the doors. As for, "fit for purpose", there is no performance standard that must be passed for hinged doors, unlike sliding doors and all types of windows.

With stripped screw heads, I dont think there is anything you can refer to except the Guide to Standards and Tolerances, in that it just plain does not look good and is visible from 1.5m.

In real terms, all you can do in these situations is hope your builder has higher standards and concedes it not good enough, and of course check other projects before you place your order.

Ed

Hi ed,

The builder actually put up the doors himself together with his sidekick so it is his work. Also our contract actually specified that all gaps to the outside were to be sealed. You are probably right that this is typical of 90 percent of the work around. I have come to the conclusion that DIY (destroy it yourself) is the way to go. At least it's cheaper.

I can't stand the couldn't care less attitude of people who take your good money, and give their version of service... so he saved $35... Today I decided to replace a whole houselot of windows for a disappointed customer, not my fault, and I could hide behind a disclaimer. But the customer would not be happy, and neither would I... Number 1, make people happy, Number 2, make a living by doing that.

Ed

Agreed!

I didn't want to be to harsh but yes, the way this door has been hung looks like it was done by an amateur.

You could cut and fit beads to the door to form the rebates without affecting the backset of the lock and by the look of the lock I'd say a gainsborough 757 rebate kit would be what you need for the lock.

However, you still have the recessed bolts in the door that would have to be removed as they wont fit with rebates. these check outs would then need to be filled.

Basically the time it would take for a chippy to make all that good you would be better of binning the whole lot and starting again, just don't get the same guys to fit them this time.

I'd be embarrassed if I had hung these doors and would be fixing them out of my own pocket (not that it would ever get to that).

The guy is a master something just not a master builder.

Man that is a rough job !
And some of these clowns expect to be paid for it too.

Stewie

Now I'm really depressed! It isn't really possible for us to bin the doors - they are double-glazed custom made units and wouldn't be cheap to replace. Our only options are to fix them ourselves or to pursue the builder (and the building designer who did the contract administration on this supposedly "energy-efficient" house) to fix the problem for us. But honestly I don't want the builder touching anything. So far my husband has just fixed everything himself - we are too afraid the builder might come back and do some more "quality" work. The doors are going to have to stay like this for the winter because my husband won't be back till September.

I'd leave them as is then get a sales rep from the door company or some building professional to write up a comment on the (non) professional way they have been installed.
Somehow I think you are going to have other issues with this guy anyway.

Stewie

Hi Stewie,
By way of a fix, couldn't a mushroom stop/bead be fitted to the right hand leaf on the inside? Then you can't see the gap. Also couldn't the external bead be tidied up (or replaced) to remove the notch (and the cutouts for the handle and lock), and align the bead with the edge of the striker plate so that it has a continuous line (maybe a narrower bead)?

Thanks
Ed