Door Issues

[Danl]

If you recall, I ordered one door and then ordered the remaining doors for my home.  I wanted a 1/16”/3-deg bevel on both vertical stiles and I was willing to pay for the custom profiles.  The manufacture calls this profile a 1/16” net bevel.  Cutting the bevel is not to reduce the width of the stock door, on one face side.  The 1st door was ordered incorrectly and made incorrectly.   It had the bevel on one stile and on the other stile the bevel was tapered for ~ 14-1/2”.   The manufacture was willing to replace this door.  The replacement door was worse.  See pic.  Top and bottom widths are different by 1/8”.  The bevels are tapered on both stiles and the hinge side stile has a 1/8” bow.  

 

I installed the original door along with the replacement door.  The original door fit fine, but the replacement door had to have a shim added under the bottom hinge and has a goofy fit along the door stop.  I only have two hinges holding each door.  If I had three hinges, I would have to rip a straight edge on the replacement door for the middle hinge to fit.

The other six hinged doors were ordered correctly and are acceptable.  The bevels were not great, but the door jambs accepted the doors.

All twenty of the bi-fold doors were ordered incorrectly and made incorrectly.  The widths of the doors were not consistent with the ordering data and the ordering data was incorrect.  I had to rip 3/32” to 1/8” off each door.  While ripping the stiles, it was obvious that many stiles had a slight bow (1/32’ – 1/16”).  The doors were sized by left/right door sets and one complete closet set had six bent hinges.  I notified my supplier and the door manufacturer sent me new hinges. I ripped material from each hinge stile so that it would not be noticeable when the doors were hung.  I noticed that the doors were pre-drilled for an upper and lower pivot guide.  The hole was to be 1-1/4” from the outer edge.  The hole location range was 1-1/16” to 1-3/16” and not consistent per door.  Normally, a door cannot pivot if the upper and lower holes do not have the same location, but there is enough slop in the pivot guides to allow for this error.  The hole depths were to be 1-3/8” deep.  Actual hole depths were 1 – 2” deep.  I had to redrill two holes.  The pivot guides only needed 1-3/16” deep holes so many of the holes were Ok, even though they were not 1-3/8” deep.

The doors are solid core with a 1/16” hardwood veneer.  The outer stiles have hardwood exposed.  Prior to spraying a WB finish, I sanded each door with p220, vacuumed the dust, and then wiped them with a tack cloth.  The manufacturing finishing instructions notes that using a WB finish may cause raising grain and require extra sanding.  After applying one coat of what Sherwin-Williams calls a surfacer, I had nine closet doors with issues.  I was able to rework three of the doors.  To my surprise, except for one door, the defects which I was not able to correct were located on the inner side of the closet or are now not noticeable. I did not have any veneer issues with the eight hinged doors.

I did not immediately notify the door supplier because I needed to get the doors sprayed before the mid-west weather turned cold and damp and thought if I were to receive replacement closet doors, I would apply the finish next spring.

In hind-sight, I would order stock doors, bought a Mikita track saw, and ripped the outer stiles as desired.  I am sure I would have been dollars ahead and would have had less frustration.  Below are a few pics of the defects prior to repair or spraying the final top-coat.  I did not get what I paid for.  Danl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lew]

I noticed you were kind enough to avoid mentioning the door manufacturer. Not sure I would have been able to hold my tongue 

[Masonsailor]

What a disaster. It looks like the doors were skinned and either they were not pressed properly or the glue is failing. Either way this does not bode well.  Is this a major manufacturer or someone local ? 

Paul

[HandyDan]

That truly sucks.  Redoing a job is the pits and especially after it was done so well.

[Danl]

4 minutes ago, Masonsailor said:

What a disaster. It looks like the doors were skinned and either they were not pressed properly or the glue is failing. Either way this does not bode well.  Is this a major manufacturer or someone local ? 

Paul

The Builder Supply is one of the "go-to" business for the high-end homes.  The Door Mfg is from Idaho.  It is obvious the door mfg does not know how to assemble a door in a production environment.   Not rocket science.  Maybe Covid excuse.   The building supplier also sets doors in their own made jams.  I was informed that they rip their own bevels.  Now we all know why.  The sales rep who ordered the doors had been working the same job for 7-8 yrs. and did not know what she was doing.  Sad.

 

I think I will email something to the supplier customer service to alert them (if they do not already know) of what the customer is receiving. 

Danl