Anyone here a builder

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Zebbo will explain. It wasn't causing the doors to stick that was something else, but the Lintel still needs replacing. The doors don't stick anymore, Zebbo fixed it.

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zebbo
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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by zebbo »

Ok, so, when I arrived it was quite obvious that this wasn't going to be a simple adjustment job. The doors, and head of the door frame have both dropped appreciably, probably 6-8mm, but this isn't from deflection of the lintel as there is a thick foam joint between it and the frame. It may well have been the foam that caused the head of the uPVC frame to sag. The doors are a pair but, even with both doors adjusted out to their maximum the overlap on the centre post is minimal and was even showing daylight in places. I Removed the centre post and packed it out a few mm and adjusted the doors as best I could and they are now functioning reasonably well for now.
The main problem is the lintel. It is a Catnic type lintel but it appears to be very badly fitted. It is not bearing on the full width of the inner skin, being inset by approx 60-70mm. It also protrudes on the outside by about 15-20mm. If you look at the photos you can see the line of the existing internal wall from where the coving is and it is about 60mm inside the rear face of the lintel, not good. The lintel also appears to be distorted as one end sits level but the other slopes to the outside by probably 15-20mm or so, again not good. The outer flange bends down in the middle by about 10-12mm but I think it was probably like that when it was fitted as, although there there are some cracks in the brickwork above, if it was due to that much movement I'd think it would be much worse.
So, basically, it looks to me like they have picked up a damaged Catnic that is the wrong width and just bodged it in. They have made a huge amount of work for themselves only to leave a sub-standard job, it would have been far more straightforward to have done it properly!
The doors/windows will need to be removed and the lintel replaced with a heavy duty lintel of the correct size. Some of the external brickwork will probably come down when the existing lintel is removed and will need re-building.
Personally, if I was going to the trouble and expense of getting this all put right, I'd bite the bullet and get some new doors fitted as the existing ones only barely do the job and will require constant fettling in the future.

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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by Classicrock »

That looks bad! Was that a second hand window as well? That silver in the glazing gap is usually a black/brown polymer now. A decent set of UPVC patio doors will set you back around £1500 plus around £1000 to do the lintel and brickwork. I just uncovered some cowboy work myself while having new windows. Whole bathroom extension walls covered in 3/4 inch of under plaster straight onto block work with no rendering and finishing plaster (hidden by tiles). Luckily whole room is going to be gutted in near future.
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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by zebbo »

The doors are second hand but the Doc bought those. They are not well fitted though as one of the wing lights is off-set from the door frame. I reckon this is because they cut the opening too tight and then, instead of removing some material from the sides of the windows, (you can take a few mm of each side), they just tucked the profile of the window inside the profile of the door to reduce the width but that means the window sits about 10mm inside the door frame which they just robbed up with silicone. They only did that on one side though so they don't even match. I feel bad sitting here slagging off stuff at Doc's but it's not good.
Classicrock, your internal walls don't have to have a sand/cement render, undercoat plaster is perfectly fine, but it should have been skimmed.
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Anyone here a builder

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We were short of money when we moved, usual lark it is so expensive. We were recommended this bunch by a friend of Nadia they did work for very cheaply, and cheaply is what we needed. The rest of the work they did is fine, complete redecoration, painting, flooring, kitchen, garden strip out. The house was a tip. it took them nearly two months to gut and redo, we didn't move until the work was done.

The window came about as Nadia was saying how nice one would be in that point to give wider view and access to the garden, normal window at that point. I was doing my usual ebay searches for bargains, and that window was on auction 2nd hand. I asked the builders (for want of a better word) if they could fit it if we bought it, they said they could do anything if we paid for it :grin: It was in Croydon so not that far to collect. I won the auction at about £300, they went and collected it and fitted it. OK it is bodge, but a bodge that served its purpose for very little money until as we have known for a couple of years it needs either to be refitted or replaced. The good thing to hear is nothing is going to fall down, and we can now afford to get it done. properly.

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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by Classicrock »

zebbo wrote:The doors are second hand but the Doc bought those. They are not well fitted though as one of the wing lights is off-set from the door frame. I reckon this is because they cut the opening too tight and then, instead of removing some material from the sides of the windows, (you can take a few mm of each side), they just tucked the profile of the window inside the profile of the door to reduce the width but that means the window sits about 10mm inside the door frame which they just robbed up with silicone. They only did that on one side though so they don't even match. I feel bad sitting here slagging off stuff at Doc's but it's not good.
Classicrock, your internal walls don't have to have a sand/cement render, undercoat plaster is perfectly fine, but it should have been skimmed.
Thanks but it is far too thickly applied though it may be only that bad around the windows and at least has to be removed from this area. They actually tiled over wooden sill/frame so fitters had to remove tiles and chop some plaster back to get the new UPVC ones set back correctly. In Docs case proves that short cuts aren't savings and cost you more eventually.
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Anyone here a builder

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

It hasn't really cost me more, we had the pleasure of the window for 2.5years we wouldn't have otherwise. In the same situation I would do it again but keep better watch on what they were doing. The problem was we were still living in Epping while the builders were in working on it in Sidcup, other side of London, so we only saw them and checked on the work once a week.

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