Swollen external door after 5 years.

[hamster8093]

Hi all,

we installed new composite external doors at about £800 each. After less then 5 years, the door is so swollen, that one can only open it with difficulty, even the lock is hard to use at this stage.

I do not know if the swelling has also caused it to tilt, or if its even warped, but the right side is clearly lower than the left (as one can see form the images below).

I am not sure what kind of handyman is needed and how to find someone. Unfortunately, the company who installed it is dissolved. I was thinking about going to the company who made the doors (they are in the same city), but I do not imagine that they would do anything.

My question is this: What kind of repairmen do I need and how much would a job like this roughly cost? What would be involved?

I would be thankful if someone could help me out a little with some advice.
Thanks.

 

[Wayners]

You should have a certificate when installed and with any luck a insurance-backed guarantee

 

[accelerator]

My guess is this ... it's water getting into the wood in the doors that's making it swell. So, you'd have to take the door off, dry it out, and then make it weatherproof again by applying a waterproofing sealant and repainting. You could at least see what the manufacturer has to say about it.

 

[hamster8093]

You should have a certificate when installed and with any luck a insurance-backed guarantee

Unfortunately, I do not have such a thing, at least did not find it. (Yeah, not very smart). I do have receipt from the defunct company (with a year stamp), but thats about it.

My guess is this ... it's water getting into the wood in the doors that's making it swell. So, you'd have to take the door off, dry it out, and then make it weatherproof again by applying a waterproofing sealant and repainting. You could at least see what the manufacturer has to say about it.

I will try to contact the manufacturer over next few days. But I do not expect anyone to just for the chance of doing work for free, even if they frankly should (a door not lasting 5 years is really just summing up the state of things...).

Anyways, how long would something like this take? And how much would it cost? The other thing is, its an external door. I can not leave a giant hole in the wall over night... What is the general course of action in a situation like this?

Cheers.

 

[Wayners]

Look up old company online and they would of advertised on website the warranty provider. You then contact them directly..
It's worth looking on FENSA website and the others

 

[JohnD]

You say the door is tilted. This can be adjusted on the hinges. It may have technical hinges with adjusting mechanism built it.

Are the corners of the door still square?

When you measure it accurately, is the width at the top the same as the width at the bottom?

Are your pictures showing a door lipping, edging or locking strip that is coming away from the door?

Stand back please and take a full-length photo of the door and its frame, showing the (uneven?) gap.

 

[crank39]

As a couple of others have said you should have an insurance backed guarantee for exactly this scenario so you aren't left high and dry incase the installer ceases trading, the general procedure is they register the installation with a body, the well known one being FENSA but there are a couple of others like CERTASS and [The]GGF, I used to work for CERTASS and their warranty providers QANW, please ring any of the three and see which body they were registered with and they can back track to see if your installation was registered, however it has been known for installers not to register the installation because there's a fee for them to pay, it was included in the price of the doors but if they were experiencing hard times they've effectively took your money and not done the background paperwork which would generate the insurance backed guarantee.

In some of my cases CERTASS and QANW acknowledged the company was known to them but had no records of the installation however as a good will gesture they still honoured the guarantee despite there not being one in place, the warranties usually cost the installer £12/15 but a claim could cost multiple thousands but QANW still covered it so its worth checking

 

[hamster8093]

As a couple of others have said you should have an insurance backed guarantee for exactly this scenario so you aren't left high and dry incase the installer ceases trading, the general procedure is they register the installation with a body, the well known one being FENSA but there are a couple of others like CERTASS and [The]GGF, I used to work for CERTASS and their warranty providers QANW, please ring any of the three and see which body they were registered with and they can back track to see if your installation was registered, however it has been known for installers not to register the installation because there's a fee for them to pay, it was included in the price of the doors but if they were experiencing hard times they've effectively took your money and not done the background paperwork which would generate the insurance backed guarantee.

In some of my cases CERTASS and QANW acknowledged the company was known to them but had no records of the installation however as a good will gesture they still honoured the guarantee despite there not being one in place, the warranties usually cost the installer £12/15 but a claim could cost multiple thousands but QANW still covered it so its worth checking

Cheers mate, will try that. I will also go to the supplied, (basically, one company makes the doors, they still exist, and an other installed it. We only had dealings with the one that installed it, but surely, the company that made the doors will have known the other company to some degree. They might know about the warrantees etc).

You say the door is tilted. This can be adjusted on the hinges. It may have technical hinges with adjusting mechanism built it.

Are the corners of the door still square?

When you measure it accurately, is the width at the top the same as the width at the bottom?

Are your pictures showing a door lipping, edging or locking strip that is coming away from the door?

Stand back please and take a full-length photo of the door and its frame, showing the (uneven?) gap.

It is hard to show it in a picture, but basically, one can see it easiest with the light coming in, where the light on the right hand side (away from the hinges) is much wider than on the other side.

The door is also "bloating" on the bottom, and I can directly see the expanded places hitting the frame and making it hard to open/lock the door.

The hinges is a good idea. Sadly, it does not work, but was certainly wort a try for a quick fix (before I can get a repairman).

Cheers all.

 

[hamster8093]

Hi all, I am assuming you guys mean

Welcome to FENSA | Find Local Double Glazing Installers

FENSA monitor and certify local businesses in the window & door industry. Find local FENSA approved installers today for free by using our search tool.

www.fensa.org.uk

?
Cheers.

 

[JohnD]

The door is also "bloating" on the bottom,

I'm not a fan of "composite" doors, or plastic ones, as I've seen proper wooden doors commonly last a hundred years or more.

What's it made of? Chipboard coated with plastic?

There is surely a flaw in the skin that allowed water penetration, I'd be thinking accidental damage, or edge trimming, or cutting it for a letterbox or handle or something. Do any of the edges (especially top and bottom) feel like they were trimmed? Does water run down the door, frame or adjacent wall?

If the core has got wet, as I suspect, it will not be repairable, though you might trim the edges so it will fit into the frame without binding.

 

[martygturner]

Composite doors do not expand due to moisture, otherwise all those boats in the marinas would have sunk by now, they are all composite hulls these days.
Unfortunately its heat via direct sunlight that causes then to swell. You can trim down the foam and the re glue the plastic capping back in place...its 2 part epoxy resin, best to get a small patch one from a boat chandlers, they all do uv stable marine grade.
You don't need much or any real skill, Stanley blade, rubber hammer or hammer and soft wood and some epoxy, if you want a better job a small reel of glass fibre tape which you roll length ways and push it to the gap helps enormously with adhesion to the core.

If you want quick and dirty some spray foam adhesive ( not expanding) squirted in will do it as well. - as I found out when my wife clipped harbour wall steps on the way out one day..

 

[JohnD]

Composite doors do not expand due to moisture, otherwise all those boats in the marinas would have sunk by now, they are all composite hulls these days.

Depends what you mean by "composite"

Some old hulls need planing off and recoating

Don't composite doors contain reconstituted wood pulp?

Or are they just plastic foam with a skin on?

 

[martygturner]

Depends what you mean by "composite"

Some old hulls need planing off and recoating

Don't composite doors contain reconstituted wood pulp?

Or are they just plastic foam with a skin on?

Composite doors are a generic name not a standard

The op has a foamed door made with vacuum moulding two layers of foam beaten a grp skin same as a hull, with a plastic capping

But the door former can be made of anything, hard plastic is now in vouge but really good doors have a form of wood treated with by vacuum injecting resin into the wood, used as the surround. Its pretty much unwarpable... you see it on external seating seats etc

On the hull front its really the size of the boat that dictates the composition of the hull, small ones could just be fiberglass, move up and solid fibreglass gets pricey quick so you get foam core, the vacuum treated foam, the carbon fibre etc etc.