Hi all

Wanted to try to understand something here before I call the builder back.
Trying to avoid DIY on this occasion!
We had uPVC french doors fitted as part of a refurb earlier this year.
After a short period, one of the doors started to catch at the bottom.
The guy who fitted them, who turned out to be an obnoxious git sub'd in by
the builder, adjusted hinges etc to resolve the problem.
Plenty of slamming of doors and generally off-hand behaviour sufficient to
upset er indoors!
A few months later, the door has "dropped" again and is catching!

My understanding of this heel-and-toe business is that it is a re-packing of
the glazing unit in the door frame, when the frame is out of square (by door
frame I mean the glazing suround for each moving opener, as opposed to the
fixed outer casing).
So you may get a situation where the individual door frame has
parallelogrammed so far out that it is impossible to achieve the clearance
needed around the door and this re-packing excercise is necessary.

Surely once the door has been set up such that it will open and close
correctly, any further displacement must either be failing hinges or
movement of the outer door casing itself due to lack of fixings?

Anyone clarify this for me please?

TIA

Phil

TheScullster wrote:

My understanding of this heel-and-toe business is that it is a
re-packing of the glazing unit in the door frame, when the frame is
out of square (by door frame I mean the glazing suround for each
moving opener, as opposed to the fixed outer casing).

You can check that by measuring the diagonals.

So you may get a situation where the individual door frame has
parallelogrammed so far out that it is impossible to achieve the
clearance needed around the door and this re-packing excercise is
necessary.

If it was fixed square in the first place it should stay square if fixed
properly. If its now out of square for either reason I'd get the builder
back in.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"TheScullster" wrote in message
...
Hi all

Wanted to try to understand something here before I call the builder back.
Trying to avoid DIY on this occasion!
We had uPVC french doors fitted as part of a refurb earlier this year.
After a short period, one of the doors started to catch at the bottom.
The guy who fitted them, who turned out to be an obnoxious git sub'd in by
the builder, adjusted hinges etc to resolve the problem.
Plenty of slamming of doors and generally off-hand behaviour sufficient to
upset er indoors!
A few months later, the door has "dropped" again and is catching!

My understanding of this heel-and-toe business is that it is a re-packing of
the glazing unit in the door frame, when the frame is out of square (by door
frame I mean the glazing suround for each moving opener, as opposed to the
fixed outer casing).
So you may get a situation where the individual door frame has
parallelogrammed so far out that it is impossible to achieve the clearance
needed around the door and this re-packing excercise is necessary.

Surely once the door has been set up such that it will open and close
correctly, any further displacement must either be failing hinges or
movement of the outer door casing itself due to lack of fixings?

Anyone clarify this for me please?

TIA

Phil


=============================
It may be that the glass (assuming DG) is just too heavy for the whole door
structure - fixed frame / door frame. A double glazed unit of 5' 6" x 18" weighs
about 40lbs / 18kg. If this is the case then you probably need a complete
replacement or possibly stronger /additional hinges.

Cic.

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In article ,
TheScullster wrote:
urely once the door has been set up such that it will open and close
correctly, any further displacement must either be failing hinges or
movement of the outer door casing itself due to lack of fixings?

I fitted a UPV door set from Screwfix, and the instructions were very
clear about being careful the frame was square.

IIRC, it's the bed which is the most important as it supports the lot,
while the side and top fixings simply locate it - although these obviously
need to be sound.

I did take care, and mine has been fine for a number of years now.

So I'd check the bottom for level and the diagonals to look for distortion.

--
*What happens if you get scared half to death twice? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Regarding upvc doors. Upvc Doors have little resistance to slump, due
to lack of triangular compressive resistance in their design. When
fitting glazing to the frame you should think in reverse, your actually
fitting the frame to the glass. The glazing is the only true right
angle and is to be exploited. Assuming the external frame is securely
fixed and the hinges and internal frame swing , then any binding is due
to frame drop. Pop the beads off, even the gaps left and right with
plastic packers ,top and bottom. Place a 5-6mm packer in the gap on the
bottonm rail closest to the hinge side. Now lift the internal frame
manually and pack the top gap on the latch side until the gaps top and
bottom run parallel to the glazing. voila! frame squared to glazing.
Refit beads. The whole door unit now has dimensional rigidity due to
the "Gallows" aspect of heel and toe packing. Hope this helps.
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
TheScullster wrote:
urely once the door has been set up such that it will open and close
correctly, any further displacement must either be failing hinges or
movement of the outer door casing itself due to lack of fixings?

I fitted a UPV door set from Screwfix, and the instructions were very
clear about being careful the frame was square.

IIRC, it's the bed which is the most important as it supports the lot,
while the side and top fixings simply locate it - although these obviously
need to be sound.

I did take care, and mine has been fine for a number of years now.

So I'd check the bottom for level and the diagonals to look for distortion.

--
*What happens if you get scared half to death twice? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.