faulty installation - customer rights

[bartekb]

Hi
We had to exchange the external door to the side of the building - we decided to go for a big company to make sure there are no trouble - unfortunatelly there are
The upvc doors were installed, my wife signed that the product is ok and the guys left, what we noted on the next 2 days:
1. the doors are installed uneven, you can see it on the ground (compared to the tiles) and you can measure the depht the door is installed on the inside wall - the difference is approx. 30mm in depth
2. and this got me more than the first one - what the installers did they just drilled the frame to the sides to the brick wall and filled the 10-15mm gap between the frame and the brick with sealant. When it gets colder what happens theres a cold bridge near the ground on the sides on the sealant and also on the doorstep - resulting in two water pools on the floor from the inside.

My question is simple: will I be able to request the doors to be taken out and re-fitted properly?
By properly I mean: even and using proper insulation - meaning - usinng thermal insulation foam on the gaps

 

[wingcoax]

Had a similar problem with double doors, contact trading standards,then send the company a letter telling them you have contacted t/s,sit back and wait. It worked in my case.

 

[^woody^]

When signing for wok like this you are only signing to say that the door or whatever was fitted. You are not experts, and so are not signing to "approve" the quality or anything else - despite what any disclaimer may say.

I don't understand what you are inferring in item 2, but excessive gaps should be filled with an appropriate filler (foam, etc) and then sealed on the outside for weather protection. Small gaps can just be edge sealed

Frames should also be square in the opening unless there is a good reason why it can't be fitted this way.

Yes, call them back if you are not happy.

 

[bartekb]

Hi, thank you for the feedback
in point 2 i meant - the gap between the door and brick wall approx. 10-15mm was just filled with standard sealant. They did not use any foam filler - so the doors are screwed to the brick wall on the side and the gap got filled with sealant - so I have like a book example of "cold bridge" because the sealant does not provide any thermal insulation
I contacted them in writing and Im awaiting an additional inspection from them - will let you know how it ended up.

ps. As a funny side story - we also paid for installing a catflap - the company first: installed the wrong model, then sent an installer that failed to install a new catflap (took him like 5h and now they said that they would have to installed a catflap in the panel in their factory and will showup with the whole panel to exchange it.

Its the same catflap that me and my wife installed in 40 minutes in the previous doors

 

[^woody^]

Its a gap, not a cold bridge.

But it should still be filled if it is that big

 

[bartekb]

its a gap filled with seal - the internal part of seal is significantly colder as the seal is a good thermal conductor - as an effect the air inside is causing water condensation on the inside face of it - this is how I understand cold bridging. An element on the "warm" part of the structure with a surface temperature significantly below the environment.

 

[^woody^]

No its a gap.

A cold bridge, or more accurately, a thermal bridge, occurs were two materials of dissimilar thermal qualities cause a dissimilar, generally localised change of temperature on the surface of a material.

You have an air gap, which, as air is a very good insulator is not creating a thermal bridge any more than the air inside a sealed double glazed window unit is creating a thermal bridge.

 

[bartekb]

every day learn something new cheers