Gates Reno
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December 6, 2006
Rehanging the doors
I watched as the doors were all hung, and everything looked all right to me. Without the molding around the doors, they looked weird anyway, so I didn't notice anything amiss. I did notice that they were not flush with the walls, but since they were all being done that way, it didn't look like a mistake.
When the door hardware started getting installed, that's when we realized that there was a problem:
That's right, with the door set back from the wall, the strikeplate didn't extend past the door casing like it was supposed to. Mr. Architect came over to take a look and started asking questions as to why they were doing the doors recessed, not flush. Turns out that in a drawing detailing the molding that was to go around the doors, the doors were shown recessed, but in the drawing detailing the doors, the doors were shown flush, and that was the one that the contractor was supposed to follow. Oops.
They could have left the doors the way they were, but then we wouldn't be able to use the strikeplates that came with the door hardware. It's not a common finish, and it would have been difficult to find larger strikeplates that matched the hinges and knobs.
So, all of the doors had to be rehung flush. This meant that every hinge had to be moved about 1/2 inch on the door frames,
and every door casing had to be rebuilt. Now they are all flush.
But that's not the end of the door problems:
If you look closely you can see that the top screws don't go in all the way. Apparently we were sent the wrong faceplates. Or the wrong inside part. The top screw holes in the faceplates don't match up with the holes in the big metal part that goes inside the door. At first the company said that they would just send us shorter screws, but something weird is going on. We don't think we were sent what we ordered. We thought that these would be regular old indoor locking knobs, and we're pretty sure we're supposed to have the small faceplates that they sent us. Instead, they appear to be, possibly, entrance sets with big deadbolts (and faceplates that are too small).
If that's the case, then we have a problem, because a space has already been carved out of all of the second floor doors to hold the big metal mechanism, and if the ones we actually need are smaller, I'm not sure what we're going to do.
Comments
Yikes, definitely something screwy there. The strikeplates are wrong for the evidently oversized mortise locks. They're made to accept a deadbolt, which your locksets obviously do not have.
Seems to me that the manufacturer, architect, and contractor all let you down. Someone should have noticed something was amiss and, I hate to say it, there's seems to be a pattern here. I'm still trying to figure out how the supposed pros managed to cost you $1,800 extra for a simple tub installation.
Posted by: anon at December 7, 2006 9:10 AM
you need to have a sit down with your architect. Their drawings really should not have shown the doors recessed on any drawing if the door was not supposed to be recessed. It doesn't matter which drawing the contractor was "supposed to follow." The architect can't have several sets of drawings kicking around in the hopes that the contractor knows which one to follow and when.
I agree with anon at 9:10 - there is a pattern here. Either the contractor or the architect isn't supervising the work properly.
Posted by: anon at December 7, 2006 10:00 AM
So who pays for this mistake?
Posted by: anon at December 7, 2006 11:13 AM
These kinds of mistakes happen on every job, let's not all get crazy here and convince Amy that her team is bad. Amy, take a deep breath and brainstorm with your team on how to fix this. If I had a dime for every mistake that was made on our job and had to be worked out, I'd be rich.
Posted by: dt at December 7, 2006 12:22 PM
Hi I am the poster wondering who pays for the mistake. I know that these kinds of mistakes happen all the time but I am, as someone who has gone through a lot of reno work, wondering who pays for this. I have never worked with an architect before and so I have been following the gates reno to understand how it works.
By the way Amy I have really enjoyed your blog recently. Thank you for making some great changes in your posts! I was skeptical but I have to say you have really turned it around.
Posted by: anon at December 7, 2006 2:02 PM
Sorry, but I have to wonder about the contractor. Anyone could tell at a glance that something was wrong with the locksets and that the strikeplates didn't match. And no one recesses doors and installs strikeplates like that. They should have questioned it and consulted the architect before they started carving up the door frames to try to make things fit. Yes, mistakes happen but in cases like this it shouldn't cost the homeowner a dime.
Posted by: anono at December 7, 2006 2:44 PM
I have to admit that the door schedule portion is the least favorite aspect of my projects, especially in a brownstone where there's something like 20-odd doors. Lots of detailed work and craftmanship involved. This is where having a top notch carpenter really makes a difference, and by top notch, I mean those who also have the skill set to craft fine furniture as well. It's not too bad if you only have a couple of doors to hang, but try hanging 20 doors and have to correct them...very time consuming and costly.
I, too, am taken back, that you only found this out after the fact. It needn't happened this way. The best advice is always give the carpenter a sample of the entire set of door hardware (hinges, lockset, striker, etc) so he knows exactly what he's working with. If you find yourself facing a long lead time on the hardware order, ast least buy a sample of whatever that's available in that particular style so the GC can keep on schedule.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but there should have been a better dialogue between the GC and architect, or at the very least, the GC should have asked more questions. I can easily spend 5-6 hours a day on the job site fielding questions from the crew about all the whats, wheres and hows. Architect plans are only 2D, hence very limited in a 3D environment in which we live.
Posted by: jack at December 7, 2006 6:22 PM
Hi everybody, thanks for commenting. I'm dealing with the more detailed aspects of the door mess in the next entry. But I just wanted to comment on a few things that came up in the above posts.
The strikeplates did match the deadbolts. I explain why they didn't in that picture in the next entry. There was some dumb shit going on that day, but not quite as bad as that picture makes it out to be.
The $1800 fix for the bathroom was not the only choice. We could have simply put a different tub in, but didn't want to for two reasons: 1) I wanted the extra-extra deep tub. 2) Any solution that involved a new tub would have meant more time without a place to bathe, which we just couldn't handle at that point. We chose the easy, but more expensive, fix.
Who pays for what, when something isn't in the original contract and is clearly a mistake, is tough to figure out. If it seems in these posts that I'm being too easy on my contractor, it's not simply because I'm a nice person who doesn't like confrontation. It's important to me to keep a good relationship with everybody involved in this reno. It's my hope that as long as we all treat each other respectfully, we'll be able to work out any problems that come up.
Posted by: Amy at December 7, 2006 8:36 PM
I just don't understand how anyone (skilled or not) could think that installing the strike plate like that–where it's actual purpose is being compromised– was OK. To not question the person who instructed them to install it and say "Umm, the wood is going to get all chewed up every time the door closes because the strike plate is BEHIND THE WOOD.
Don't let that guy fix your flat tire or adjust your brakes.
Posted by: Pol Pot Pie at December 10, 2006 1:49 AM
Yeah, I really don't understand it either. But the rest of his work was really good, and the wood was replaced, so no harm done. I guess everybody's entitled to one boneheaded thing once in a while. If it sounds like I'm making excuses for him, well, he's a really nice guy, and karma can be a real bitch, so I forgive him.
Posted by: Amy at December 10, 2006 2:40 AM
Fair enough. It seems like he did nice work– the way he carefully marked and mortised out the wood so the strike plate would fit inside it, lol.
Good Luck and thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Pol Pot Pie at December 12, 2006 3:19 PM
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