door fitter quality? standards? I dunno....

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howdy all,

I had a door fitter come round Thursday, Friday and Saturday to install 8 doors and fix french doors.

he's put them all in, good stuff, but I have 2 uncertaintys that brought me to making this post:

1. Is he supposed to fill in where the door locks and hinges are as there are gaps that need to be filled in:

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2. Also, when fitting 1 door, he broke the plaster to the right of it, and has told me how to fill it in. shouldn't he pay for damaging my wall?

Totally fine doing it myself - I am **** at building work like plastering and fully expect to smudge wood filler over the hinges and locks - It's just something I wasn't aware I would have to do?
 
1. Not unless you paid him to. I guess he was replacing a hinge in this example?
2. No.

It isn't the easiest pill to swallow but there is an "opportunity" cost of doing work to houses, and they aren't quite like Lego kits. Are you happy with the 99.9% of what he did? If so, call it quits on the minor bits. Or pay him to come back and sort out the snagging bits.

How much did you pay? 3 days seems a lot for 8 doors but even at basic trade rates that is £600? Excluding van... tools... insurances... blah.
 
three days to fit 8 doors but I suppose if he was doing it himself it would be slower than with 2 people. I fitted 5 in a day with my father in law and we got quicker as we went along but as I said two of us so I was able to hold the door in place while he put the screws in and I was measuring and cutting for hinges while he was going other bits but three days to fit 8 doors does seem like a long time. Its over 2 hours a door where they hard to fit? We got cheap doors from B&Q and almost ruined one by taking to much off the bottom of one door so it might be that he had taken his time but then again by the looks of it probably not. Did he cut that out or was he just replacing what was already there? if he cut that I would be expecting him to come back and make good on that its a bit crap but if it was already there then its not so bad.
 
For the prices local chippy quoted me for hanging a door I would want them perfect. If I wanted it ok, I could have a go myself.

In (1) he's obviously replaced an existing door and the latch plate (or whatever you call it) has had to move leaving a gap. Looks ****. Yeah I would fill it, unless you want a whole new door frame section there, which is long as the whole frame generally would have to come off and be redone. Same with the hinges. Unless you get the same exact size door as before there are going to be gaps where it moves. You could have taken them all off and filled and repaired first so you could start with a clean slate but hey.

In (2) again, he's presumably a carpenter by trade. I wouldn't expect any damage. It's perfectly reasonable to expect a door to be hung on an already decorated room and therefore any damage would need to be put right.
 
Item 1 is easy to fix. Just take the latch out and out some filler in. I had the same when my doors were fitted. Much neater once resolved.
 
I definitely wouldn't be happy being left to fix damage he's caused, either he should fix it or he should being getting someone in who can.
 
I have done millions of doors in my time. Most builders hate doing them because retrofitting is time consuming (because you have to let glue and filler set). Depends on the builder as to how well he will do the job. But, yeah, I would be unhappy about the holes.

The best way is to use a crosscut saw ( hand or power ) to cut little piece of pine and glue them in to the gaps. Poke glued matchsticks in to old screw holes cutting the excess off with a sharp knife. Wait till the glue sets and use a standard filler to fill in any gaps. Sand the lot off when dry and paint.

I prefer to do that before I cut the slots for new hinges, plates, etc, so you make the frame good before you start work, but in your case you can do it after. Just remove the metalwork before you sand and paint. Just take your time.
 
I have done millions of doors in my time. Most builders hate doing them because retrofitting is time consuming (because you have to let glue and filler set). Depends on the builder as to how well he will do the job. But, yeah, I would be unhappy about the holes.

The best way is to use a crosscut saw ( hand or power ) to cut little piece of pine and glue them in to the gaps. Poke glued matchsticks in to old screw holes cutting the excess off with a sharp knife. Wait till the glue sets and use a standard filler to fill in any gaps. Sand the lot off when dry and paint.

I prefer to do that before I cut the slots for new hinges, plates, etc, so you make the frame good before you start work, but in your case you can do it after. Just remove the metalwork before you sand and paint. Just take your time.

I drill the old screw holes with a 6mm and then dip a 6mm dowel in wood glue and tap it in the hole cutting it off with a multitool. It means that if they are ever used as screw holes again they will take a screw and some load on it too.
 
This guy was there 3 days and couldn't put a bit of 2 pack filler in the hole? It sets in 30 minutes. Some masking tape over the strike plate and filled it could be sanded flush in no time. The touching up of paint would be extra I accept.

Just seems like typical tradesmen half-a-job laziness.
 
I drill the old screw holes with a 6mm and then dip a 6mm dowel in wood glue and tap it in the hole cutting it off with a multitool. It means that if they are ever used as screw holes again they will take a screw and some load on it too.

Same here! I have a bunch of 4mm dowel I use. As you say, it makes the frame good so it will take screws and so on, because they do tend to end up in the same place.
 
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