Anyone with uPVC/composite stable door in the house?

[v0n]

Hi, as far as bizarre threads go, this will be my "weirdest thread of the week" entry, but I need a bit of a "consumer action" request and I've nothing to lose asking here, as we all know - GD and OCUK forumites can fix ANY problem.

In a process of refurbishing my house I ordered stable door between kitchen and my garden. I'm quite familiar with classic, wooden stable doors, lived in rented accommodation with stable doors twice many years ago and actually always wanted one for my kitchen. For those sunny days when you can just leave upper part ajar and lower part locked and don't have to worry about stray cats (or even foxes in my case) raiding my kitchen supplies and marking their territory inside the house.

Long story short, I ordered uPVC stable door from well established supplier in south east, and it was installed on Saturday, and granted, I can't say I followed or was on top of uPVC technology in the last two decades, but what I ended up with on Saturday is some bizarro world oddity, rather than usable back door. It requires half a minute, four moves routine to be performed including splitting both parts and turning lever concealed on the edge between two parts before the door can be open and closed as one unit every single time.

Fitter claims that's a standard these days and refuses my "not fit for purpose" claim. To me, it sounds like porkies, every kitchen fitted stable door I have ever encountered in my life opened as a regular, single unit by default, but the bolt interlocking top and bottom could be retracted, allowing for bottom panel to be locked in place while upper half remained open. Basically - it was always regular single door first, split door option second. The one they fitted at my place is reversed - you need to split it and unlock bottom panel first to create rather flimsy single door, which then locks only by a single hook and roller of the upper half, until you split it again, lock bottom permanently and shut the top for the night.

What I need is ammo, for my argument with supplier/fitter. If you do have a fairly modern uPVC or composite stable door in your place, could you quickly describe its every day operation, or better yet, pic/video how it operates = 1000 words.

Oh, and the obligatory "in before" re: "shut stable door after horse has bolted" jokes.

 

[v0n]

Well, UPVC stable doors, I have had both types, the one where the door is in two seperate sections, & you need to be Houdini to lock & unlock it

Houdini sounds about right. This is how mine works:
- I have to open the top part

- Unlock hooks of bottom panel via concealed lever hidden between both parts

- close the top part, so both parts can interlock via rather flimsy balcony latch, it's 50/50, sometimes they interlock, sometimes the air pressure on bottom half causes latch to separate again, this part is a bit annoying:

- open both wings together, go outside
- one I close the door behind me, without locking it in the middle it's only kept by a latch on top wing and bottom is held in place only by about 5mm of plastic trim between the doors:

And this what I expected (in terms of mechanism, obviously mine would have a glass) - bottom lock, upper lock, lock in between, unlock top and bottom with a thumb lock, open as a single door, lock bottom, unlock connector between, you can open the top:

the other type where the window opens within the door, which I prefer, as you still have the option of having the window tilting only, providing ventilation or completely opening.http://windowsanddoors.co.uk/estimate/stabledoors/specification.html

Wow, not the prettiest door on it's own accord, but the fantastic simplicity of that compared to mine. Mind boggling.

Sounds like you should have asked more questions about its design and operation at the point of sale / order.

I know we live in times when we have to make a hobby of researching absolutely everything for weeks before buying, but to be honest - when you order a door, aren't we expecting exactly that? Door is a door is a door? No?

 

[v0n]

and this is why plastic doors should be banned horrible nasty things.

I'm with you there. Granted they are much, much warmer, and less maintenance, but OMG, they are all ugly and rough edged like ITV2+1 freeview picture. Would order composite, but my local companies only had ones that open inwards, I've no space for that.

 

[v0n]

Not all doors are created equal, standard UPVC doors vary massively in quality and security, the additional complication of a stable door just adds to the selection process and makes it even harder to pick the 'right one'.

So no, a door is not a door.

I do get that, different PVC profiles etc but this is purely door hardware issue. I'm not complaining about plastic quality or overall door quality (although it could be better, it goes for all PVC products). To be honest it didn't even occur to me at the point of sale that one has to ask how many moves need to be performed to open the door. Similarly I never before encountered a door that wouldn't open after you turn the lock and press the lever. It seems to me like they tried to implement some new idea and ended up with "squared wheel" just for the sake of being different.

But it's sad to think - it's now the second decade of 21st century - and between all the vinyl tech and composites and all the advances of routing techniques and ready made plastic profiles - door and window market, which was supposed to make things better and easier, is all still full of ugly, wonky, awkward tat with novelty ideas like my lock - and we still can't rise the game to at least the level of old school oak and hardwood products.

 

[v0n]

We're you sold it as a uPvc door or Composite, as what you have is Upvc and what you wanted is Composite, 2 completely different things.

uPVC, I posted the pic of composite just as an example of regular locking mechanism.

I do prefer composites, but none of the local installers could offer composite stable door with top AND bottom panel glazed.