The joys of home repair

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
So our front door started to give up the ghost this past winter. It is solid wood and the panel started to crack. In addition the storm door was looking like it only had a few more storms before it would follow Dorothy.

Being a good proactive home owner who knows nothing about door placement I went to a home repair company and got a quote. In fact I went to several and got quotes.

The guy I eventually went with measured the old door and told me what to order. I ordered EXACTLY what he told me to. The custom door came in and today they were here to do the install.

Problem is he measured wrong :mad3::mad3::mad3:

The ordered door was for 2x6 construction and I have 2x4.

Their quick solution was to go by a similar door and use the frame form that. Problem with that was none of the holes for the locks lined up.

So now they are taking my ordered frame back and trying to reorder the correct one. I have a temp door installed right now that they bought.

The tradesman told me that he screwed up and will take half responsibility. I could care less how much responsibility he wants to take. But he is taking ALL the cost as I ordered exactly what he told me to and I have his hand written note with the measurements on it.

I hate home repair! :mad3::mad3:

It seems like nothing ever goes right.
 
When you do it yourself, it is either done right, or you have no one to blame but yourself.:D
 
I feel bad for you but you brought this on yourself. Instead of going with a vendor who would order the parts and charge you for that service you went with a installer who had no responsibility to get the parts correctly but agreed to install what you bought. You are lucky if he is willing to pay anything toward the cost of getting the correct parts. Next time go with a vendor who responsible for the entire job. You tried to save money by getting the parts yourself and it ended up costing you more then you would have saved by hiring someone to do the whole job.
 
jtheune said:
I feel bad for you but you brought this on yourself. Instead of going with a vendor who would order the parts and charge you for that service you went with a installer who had no responsibility to get the parts correctly but agreed to install what you bought. You are lucky if he is willing to pay anything toward the cost of getting the correct parts. Next time go with a vendor who responsible for the entire job. You tried to save money by getting the parts yourself and it ended up costing you more then you would have saved by hiring someone to do the whole job.
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Huh?

I got the parts I was told to order. I am paying nothing more than what I have paid and what is on the quote. They made the mistake and will have to eat it.
 
The mistake the installer made was letting the home owner get involved. It only goes down hill from there as the price goes up.

~signed, guy with 20+ yrs in residential remodeling
 
You payed for the door. The cost of the door is likely more then you are paying to install it.
 
Richard said:
The mistake the installer made was letting the home owner get involved. It only goes down hill from there as the price goes up.

~signed, guy with 20+ yrs in residential remodeling
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How was the homeowner involved? Other than ordering the parts the INSTALLER TOLD HIM TO ORDER? Sounds like the installer is at fault here.
 
BTW, Scott, why does the whole unit need to be replaced? Why can't just the door be ordered and installed in the existing frame? Any carpenter worth his salt can do that. And then he can drill the holes where they need to be.
 
Not enough data given but it appears that the door frame is the issue and it was ordered for a 2x6 frame instead of the 2x4 frame that Scott needed. 2x6 is a much more standard frame width and I'm going to guess here that it was not specifically called out. But the bottom line is if you don't know what your doing and your hiring someone else to do it for their knowledge, make them use it. If the person doing the work had ordered the door it would have cost Scott more because he is paying the guy to do it, but if it's wrong then it's the guy's problem and he needs to deal with it. Now it's Scott's problem becuase he is the one who ordered ( and payed ) for the door. One would hope that the installer would man up but I would not bet too much money on it.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
BTW, Scott, why does the whole unit need to be replaced? Why can't just the door be ordered and installed in the existing frame? Any carpenter worth his salt can do that. And then he can drill the holes where they need to be.
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Exactly. Doors used to be sold as blanks, you'd have to fit to the frame, bevel for the swing, mortise for the butts and bore or mortise for the lockset. But you had to be a real carpenter to do it.

Now everyone wants a prehung in a frame, no skill required.


Trapper John
 
jtheune said:
Not enough data given but it appears that the door frame is the issue and it was ordered for a 2x6 frame instead of the 2x4 frame that Scott needed. 2x6 is a much more standard frame width and I'm going to guess here that it was not specifically called out. But the bottom line is if you don't know what your doing and your hiring someone else to do it for their knowledge, make them use it. If the person doing the work had ordered the door it would have cost Scott more because he is paying the guy to do it, but if it's wrong then it's the guy's problem and he needs to deal with it. Now it's Scott's problem becuase he is the one who ordered ( and payed ) for the door. One would hope that the installer would man up but I would not bet too much money on it.
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The door frame measurement from the installer called out 2x6 construction. What was ordered was EXACTLY what he specified.

He went out an bought the temp door that we have in now while the new frame is being ordered.
 
smigaldi said:
The door frame measurement from the installer called out 2x6 construction. What was ordered was EXACTLY what he specified.

He went out an bought the temp door that we have in now while the new frame is being ordered.
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Actually, it's Bush's fault, if we had more regulation of these free-lance home improvement guys, this never would have happened. :D

But seriously, you have learned the first rule of project management (no matter how big or small) and that is specify the work to be done in as much detail as possible. Don't know how you went about getting the quotes, but a simple "provide all labor and materials to replace front door" would have solved a few problems. You becoming the purchasing agent, left this open. Actually, the fact the guy is willing to cut you a break on the costs, is not all that bad.hope it works out in the end and the door is installed correctly.

Gary
 
Gary said:
But seriously, you have learned the first rule of project management (no matter how big or small) and that is specify the work to be done in as much detail as possible. Don't know how you went about getting the quotes, but a simple "provide all labor and materials to replace front door" would have solved a few problems. You becoming the purchasing agent, left this open. Actually, the fact the guy is willing to cut you a break on the costs, is not all that bad.hope it works out in the end and the door is installed correctly.
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Ya know, sometimes a guy just wants some empathy for a sucky situation... I see a lot of presumptions made in some of the comments on this thread about Scott's ability to manage his purchase. :rolleyes:

Scott said he had the contractor come out and measure the door himself... I'm fairly certain he was clear as to the work he wanted done.

Scott, I'm following this with interest, as I want to replace all exterior doors on our home. It's been an adventure just finding "who" to call.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
When you do it yourself, it is either done right, or you have no one to blame but yourself.:D
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My theory exactly. Which is why I do much of the work myself. Exceptions being the roof (I've done 2, don't have much interest in doing them again), the plumbing mains (don't much feel like core sawing the floor and digging the trench), gas (risk), and replacing the electrical panel (ditto, plus the hassle of pulling the meter). There's other stuff, too, like major additions & foundation work that's worth paying someone else to do.

Someone I used to work with had a rule (passed on to him by his dad): don't hire someone to do work you're capable of doing.
 
Depending on how the contract is written, Scott is probably 100% right on this one. I would not pay a penny more than quoted for the work.

The defense of the contractor comes kneejerk from people that are used to being screwed by the contractee....but in this case, as worded by Scott, the builder made the mistake of having Scott order the door by his specs.

Now - if Scott had ordered the door by his own specs and it was wrong, that's his bad. But using the specs provided by the contractor...should make the contractor culpable.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Ya know, sometimes a guy just wants some empathy for a sucky situation... I see a lot of presumptions made in some of the comments on this thread about Scott's ability to manage his purchase
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No intent to belittle Scott's situation, it's a PITA to be stuck like that.

No knowing how the quotes were obtained and how the drama unfolded, it's impossible to draw judgement. Maybe it's just one of those "learned from life" moments.

Gary
 
Think of it this way: you could have bought a brand new home last year in the peak of the real-estate market. You'd have a nice front door, but you'd be thousands in the hole.

M
 
Even though a lot of people on thread jumped to many incorrect conclusion and seemingly did not read the entire first post I thought I should at least give you an update.

The new frame was ordered and arrived. I picked it up and the cost was $222 that was covered by a check from the installer.

They came to my house a few days later and everything fit. The door looks great. The installer even helped me out with my airplane. I had to get it to another airport for the 430W installation. So I needed to be picked up. What we did is to drive to the airport where the install was to happen and he left his truck. Then we jumped into my car and drove up to my airport. We left my extra car there and took the plane up for a ride. He loved it!!

We flew over his house and he called his wife from his Nextel phone (not covered by FCC Part 22 so calls can be made) and she came out an waved. We then flew to the other airport and he drove me home.

Well I got the bill from the installer and he is NOT charging me the extra $222 for the new door frame. Just a reminder I ordered the frame to the dimensions that he gave me. I have his notes in his handwriting. IOW he knew the mistake was his and is eating the cost of the new frame.

While I am not happy a mistake happened this guy made it right. He bought a new door for the temp installation, he bought the new door frame, and he did not try to charge me one dime extra.

For those of you in the Cary/Crystal Lake area I say to you if you are looking for a general repair/installer type TBI Handymen is a good company. The new door installation is fabulous.
 
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smigaldi said:
Even though a lot of people on thread jumped to many incorrect conclusion and seemingly did not read the entire first post I thought I should at least give you an update.

The new frame was ordered and arrived. I picked it up and the cost was $222 that was covered by a check from the installer.

They came to my house a few days later and everything fit. The door looks great. The installer even helped me out with my airplane. I had to get it to another airport for the 430W installation. So I needed to be picked up. What we did is to drive to the airport where the install was to happen and he left his truck. Then we jumped into my car and drove up to my airport. We left my extra car there and took the plane up for a ride. He loved it!!

We flew over his house and he called his wife from his Nextel phone (not covered by FCC Part 22 so calls can be made) and she came out an waved. We then flew to the other airport and he drove me home.

Well I got the bill from the installer and he is NOT charging me the extra $222 for the new door frame. Just a reminder I ordered the frame to the dimensions that he gave me. I have his notes in his handwriting. IOW he knew the mistake was his and is eating the cost of the new frame.

While I am not happy a mistake happened this guy made it right. He bought a new door for the temp installation, he bought the new door frame, and he did not try to charge me one dime extra.

For those of you in the Cary/Crystal Lake area I say to you if you are looking for a general repair/installer type TBI Handymen is a good company. The new door installation is fabulous.
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Glad he came through for you.
 
Henning said:
Glad he came through for you.
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...and glad you took the time to tell about it.

All human, we can screw up. Lots of people will tell when someone does them wrong; precious few pipe up when it's made right.
 
Knowing the story had a happy ending, I have to laugh. As a carpenter and tech I have seen this sort of thing happen many times. Occasionally, it has been my mistake (but usually not).

My favorite was an excellent bathroom makeover I did once under a remodeling contractor: the owner was an architect, who of course was a self-appointed expert on how to do everything involved. He picked the tile, designed a very nice two-tone pattern of black and white, and was so adamant, so incredibly anal, so imperious about placing the ceramic TP-holder (which is, in effect, a tile) precisely where it was shown on his beautiful drawing, that when I dry-fit it and showed the boss why I thought it would not be right, he said "just do it anyway." I shrugged and glued it to the wall. As a co-worker once told me: "boss say dig a hole t'China, I dig a motherf***in' hole t'China!" :)

Imagine the look on the owner's face when he sat down on the can and realized the TP holder was digging into his knee... :rofl:

We made it right, but it cost him... and he was a lot quieter after that.:D

I know you were not the dumbass in your story, but you did break a cardinal rule of owners getting involved in remodeling and home repair: you assumed something. :D


Here is an explanation of why that is bad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqUwyHseg4

And as a more general rule, refer to the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdxDroSVdL4
 
Troy,

Don't call Windoor World unless it's a slam dunk deal and you have plenty of time for do-overs. The missus found "the" door at their store and ordered it to replace our old one. It was higher than giraffe nooky but that's what she wanted.

Four tries, numerous service calls and a couple of letters later (very civil and factual) I ended up with a free front door.

For both you and Scott, I would be very hesitant to use another wood panel door in direct sunlight. They just aren't made as well as they used to be, and it's only a matter of time until they crack, split and blister. It doesn't hurt as bad if you got it free, but it's still a PIA to start over.

TangoWhiskey said:
Ya know, sometimes a guy just wants some empathy for a sucky situation... I see a lot of presumptions made in some of the comments on this thread about Scott's ability to manage his purchase. :rolleyes:

Scott said he had the contractor come out and measure the door himself... I'm fairly certain he was clear as to the work he wanted done.

Scott, I'm following this with interest, as I want to replace all exterior doors on our home. It's been an adventure just finding "who" to call.
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