Entry Door Frustration

JLTrim

Why is it that the more expensive and nice looking a door is, the harder it is to install properly? When a door costs thousands of dollars, shouldn't it be PERFECT?!

The one I'm working on now is a 7'x10' double arched door, mahogany, shipped from Honduras I guess. Not sure of the name of the company. Reveals are nice, but with a perfectly plumb jamb, alignment of the two doors is 3/4" off. Had the same problem with my last big entry door.

So I fixed that, and the 4-point lock won't operate. The doors came pre-mortised and they're almost 1/4" off from where they should be.

Just wondering if anybody else has experienced the same problems, and maybe some of you can recommend a better supplier of custom entry doors that I can pass along to the builder.

Chris Johnson

Need we say more?

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neolitic

Where would you propose that one get Honduran Mahogany?

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dougchips

China or Wal-Mart

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Chris Johnson

I was refering to the frame hanging and hardware application, not the species of wood

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neolitic

They send the trees to China, or the Hondurans?

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neolitic

AAAAh, that I get. You're right, these days you kinda come to expect anything but what's right. They get all those nifty computerize tools and a shop to work in, we get to re-build it in the field

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Trimwerx

I really don't like fancy doors that come premortised.... They seem to ALWAYS be jacked up. I used to have a boss who'd get all his custon made doors mortised by the local door company. Every door had the hinge mortises cracked or at different depths and the latch holes were always out of alignment... and really... if you're a door company, shouldn't you know that the deadbolt and latch don't use the same strikeplates?

Teetorbilt

I've dealt with this since the '70's. The 'fine tuning' is up to you. I've never had one that was 3/4" off - 3/8" maybe.

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dougchips

They are smart, they only import raw materials.

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A W Smith

The larger the door is the more it weighs and the more critical it is to get solid backing behind the jamb hinges. also its not hard to be 3/8 of an inch out in seven feet. 3/16 in from the wall surface and 3/16 out from the wall surface in a twin door with both hinge jambs will result in the doors not aligning by 3/4 inch at the astrigal. It is also expected that a custom raised panel door slab could potentially be tweaked out of flat. It is not difficult to spot potential issues as you check and recheck during the entire process of hanging a very large and very heavy twin door. I use a level to find my starting point. After that I pretty much put the level aside and make the rest of the door assembly match lock mortises and open and close correctly with even reveals. A properly hung solid door should sound like a car door closing.

barreled

yea the cheap doors do seem to go in easy, with perfect reveals.

neolitic

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JLTrim

It's true though! A run-of-the-mill 8'x6' double from anywhere usually lines right up, shim it, fasten it and voila! Now add a few thousand dollars to the price tag and it's a day-long project...

Anyway today I showed the builder, didn't want to touch it till I get the OK... He's gonna call the supplier, but I'm willing to bet customer service from Honduras will be nonexistent. It really ticks me off, it's a beautiful door, and it's set perfectly, but the damn thing just won't lock...

So can anybody recommend a GOOD supplier of high-end entry doors? I'm tired of fighting these things.

Amber

IWP Doors. They are a division of Jeld-Wen. You can find a supplier local on the website. www.jeld-wen.com.......very high end. I did a double entry door with sidelites and transom for 18K material only. They are produced in Mexico.

neolitic

And they were the real deal? I've gotten some pretty spendy jeld-wens that were just veneered.

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Amber

They own% of the door market world wide. They fabricate veneered and the real deal. The Aurora doors through IWP are the composite doors, but they also carry real wood.

woodmagman

If you are considering promoting them, be aware that they suck at service.....I and many others have waited for months for them to get their collective crap together...on many a occation I waited months for screens or seal units....they promised to get the product to me in two weeks and they did. It took forever to get the parts that were shipped either wrong from the beginning or scewed up on the way. They spend a ton of money promoting thier product in Edmonton, and I know a dozen contractors that are of the same opinion....I don"t know if they have gotten better, but they are never going to prove different to most tradesman now....they suck....

JLTrim

Thanks for the suggestion, I will pass it along...

JLTrim

Ok, well so much for that lead ... I don't believe I've installed any of their doors before, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, I found the company that supplied the ones I'm griping about, they're called Borano. Here's a picture of it, it's the first one, "Provence"
http://www.borano.com/mahogany_exterior_doors.htm