Did the standards on exterior doors change? Every exterior door I ever installed had a small angle on the outer edge of the door (lockside) to make it easy to close it and maintain a tight fit. Yesterday I was installing two vinyl clad French doors. They were pre-hung. But the fit was terrible. When I checked with my square, the edge of both doors were angled in the opposite direction.
The fit is very tight. Lowes measured the doors for fit, not me (homeowner purchased). They required a hammer and block to get them in. Above the door is about 3″, no problem but the sides were extremely tight, no room for shims. The bottom line is I cannot get the doors to close without leaning against them.
The brand seems to be Weld Jen, at least they made the hinges.
john
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As for Jeld wen french doors I have a few issues with them as well.
1... They staple the weather stripping onto the bottom of the doors with wire staples, these staples are not always driven flush. Pull the door off the hinges and make sure these are not grinding against the threshhold of the door.
2.. The center strip (can't remember the right name) is installed to where you have to open both doors instead of one. The fit sucks I agree.
3... Last one I had an issue with took a few hours to get right. I had to wax the oak threshold to make it operate easier. Not fine homebuilding but the HO bought the door and was happy to wax once in a while to make life easier.
I had your exact expierence, only it was a friend. I rarely get involved with stuff like this but this guy has done me several favors. He had a patio door that was done for. Jambs rotted out and had already been repaired once. He went and got a hindged vinyl patio door from Lowes. I can't remember the brand name. It didn't fit in the hole too well so I had to do some sugery on the opening. Once the door was installed, I tried everything to get it adjusted right. Never could get it to where it shut to my satisfaction. I even ended up planing the vinyl door a bit. I think the main problem was that the all vinyls jamb just didn't have the ragidity to respond properly to my screws, etc that I used to "pull" the frame around in the hole. It was rather embarasing, but in the end I had to tell the friend: "Look this is the best I can get it. The door just doesn't seem to fit in the frame properly." It was the kind of double patio door where one door was fixed and the operable door was hindged in the center of the unit. It seemed like the center post - whatever you call that - just didn't have the ragidity to hold the door up.
Just reminded me why I don't do remodeling, and how hard it is to deal with HOs sometimes - I mean the guy was really cool about it, but I don't think that he ever fully understood that the door he got sucked. I think he got the vinyl door just because of the previous expierence with the rotted jambs.
This (your posts) seems to mirror all of my issues with these doors. The center post is not heavy enough to work on these doors (one side is fixed). I have this same set-up in my home but it it all wood. I cannot use heavier scews w/o going into the fixed door, but that may be what I end up doing.
I told the HO I would check with Lowes and the manufacturer. Quality control sucked big time. The hinges were poorly installed, one door did not have the relief for the strike plate on the cut...the router bit only touched part of the vinyl, so I had to chisel that out (no way to use a router since it was prehung).
The HO is cool with what I told him...I showed him on his other doors how the angle should be to allow the door to close tightly. But he waited an extra two weeks (shortage at the factory) and does not want to send the door back. Can you plane the door edge of a vinyl door to the proper angle?
john