Bottom of door is rubbing

[jacko555]

Good chance he got the job done and moved on.

Paging @Keitai . Requesting photos of the finished job and an honest review of how it went.

it was fortunate for the customer the OP's services are available

This is obviously some new use of the word "fortunate" I am unaware of.

customer would not have lost more than the loss of buying something that could not be used.

Customer did lose. They paid for his services and materials.

You probably don't do DIY. One major drawback DIYers have is we lack precision tools

He is marketing himself and taking money as a "professional".

I do a lot of DIY, I am not a tradesman It's not the lack of tools that makes a shoddy job, DIY or not. It's the person. You need attention to detail and ideally take pride in your work and to understand the scope of a task, not "bodge it"

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My belief is that if you help them, they will help you back. Nobody is completely useless at all times.

Oh, I don't know..

 

[DiyNutJob]

You need attention to detail and ideally take pride in your work and to understand the scope of a task, not "bodge it"

Being unduly and overly critical would suggest lack of experience. With experience comes mistakes, or is it the other way round? You have a long road ahead, padded-one.

 

[big-all]

the trouble we now have is the op will now feel fully ridiculed and unwelcome so will be deprived off the help available and will find solutions somewhere else this may be from a place where the blind lead the blind and standards drop further and practices become more dangerous
give someone 100% good information and they cut corners it will be more visual they now go to a sounding chamber where the information is perhaps 60% right then cut corners can only be worse

 

[Deleted member 174758]

How do you know it was a fiasco? He did not provide any after-photos. Good chance he got the job done and moved on.

You obviously don't have a scooby about how the job should be done to say that. That or it's a reflection of your own standards

Imagine you were the customer and you bought a wardrobe too tall and no way to return it, what would you have done with it? No one else would have wanted these odd jobs and it was fortunate for the customer the OP's services are available. No matter what the OP did with it, the customer would not have lost more than the loss of buying something that could not be used.

OK, point taken, albeit that most clients I have worked for have had far higher standards than (in any case without a top the wardrobe carcase will in all probability prematurely self destruct, but I'd lay odds the doors will go first). The plain fact is that the wardrobe has doors made with a mitred frame (clearly visible in the photo). That means it is quite possibly a mitred construction, in which case the way to attempt this would have been to cut the top rails off, recut the mitres on the end of them, trimmed the stiles to length, shortened the upper panels to fit the top rails (which in all probability are grooved), mitred the ends of the stiles and reassembled the doors. A proper job.

Even if this weren't done, the original top rail might have been cut down to fit and planted on. Not as good, but still respectable if executed neatly

Or possibly a couple of plain MDF doors could have been produced, stained and lacquered or alternatively just gloss paintef then fitted. A simple, adequate fix.

As to the missing top the original could have been refitted using 2 x 1in softwood cleats around the inside.

It ain't rocket science and I've seen it done. The problem is as much down to lack of pride in workmanship as anything, or it could just be that the OP is trying to wind people up on this forum.

A decent handyman doesn't need to be brilliant, but they should be competent in a few areas, e.g. basic plumbing, changing locks, basic painting and.decorating, etc. They also need to know their limitations, know when to walk away from stuff, and to take pride in what they do. I'm sure many competent DIYers could do a handyman's job and do it well; in fact some of the projects I've seen tackled by forum.members who aren't trade have been very impressive

 

[johnny2007]

Doesn't matter. He was buying front panel wood to cover that up. He even bought the moulding. He cared about the details.

You probably don't do DIY. One major drawback DIYers have is we lack precision tools. Being wonky is not unusual even for pro's. I spent a lot of time fixing up "pro" jobs. I recent bought a new kitchen. When the units arrived, it was 30cm shorter. Explain that!

Mine was a tongue in cheek comment.
The cut was not very slightly out, it was a foot out.
I can't see units being 30cm shorter.
Do you mean 30mm?
Someone trimmed them?

 

[opps]

Being unduly and overly critical would suggest lack of experience. With experience comes mistakes, or is it the other way round? You have a long road ahead, padded-one.

I for one am glad that he comes here to ask questions. I would however prefer that when taking on jobs that he is uncomfortable with, he ask before taking on the job and before assuring the customer that he is competent to do the job to an acceptable standard.

Often , but not always, he posts when things have gone pair shaped. If he is charging by the hour, the home owner may well be paying above the odds whilst he tries to rectify things.

My bread and butter is decorating, I like to think that I provide a high quality of finish. I will however allow myself to trouble shoot other "issues" for customers. An example that springs to mind is an occasion where I got to work, turned on the master switch on a grid of light switches and it tripped the MCB. I mentioned it to the customer. He retorted that it happens every morning. I told him I would seek advice (from here).

I didn't say "yeah, I can definitely do it but I need to pull the whole grid of switches out". I suspected that it may be the initial surge. A fellow DIYNOTer recommended using a C- class MCB. I went to the internet to find a new but discontinued C class. I fitted it, and all was good.

We all have holes in our knowledge base but asking first should be paramount, especially when you are charging people.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Often , but not always, he posts when things have gone pair shaped. If he is charging by the hour, the home owner may well be paying above the odds whilst he tries to rectify things.

What, you mean like a month and a half, to hang a gate?

The questions are often none technical or technique questions, more often than not they are just basic common sense ones. Things most people will grasp, even if they lack any DIY skills.

 

[Keitai]

Take the screws out of the top hinge on by one, pack the holes with match sticks, retighten the screws. If that doesn't do the trick, then door off, onto the trestles and plane it in - just remember to mark where it is rubbing with a pencil before you take it off.

And to answe your question, no, there isn't an easy way to shorten the bottom of a door in situ without making a hash of it (and anyone who want to say use a jamb saw, please don't go there)

Is it worth just cutting 5mm off bottom with circular saw?

 

[big-all]

as drop can be caused by loose hinge /loose frame or sagging door through buggered joints through dipping you need to cure the cause /causes otherwise it can drop further and give you a very trimmed door that after solving the problem and pulling back to correct position can leave an incurable mess off gaps where they need not be

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Is it worth just cutting 5mm off bottom with circular saw?

It can be, bearing in mind what @big-all wrote (that you need to ensure that the top hinge isn't pulling out and possibly correct same first), but you'll still need to mark the trim line off relative to the floor, take the door off and get it on the trestles to make the cut. And because the bottoms of old doors tend to be rather uneven you'll need to run the saw against some sort of straight edge. Before refitting, seal the freshly cut wood at the bottom of the door with something like boiled linseed oil or a bit of gloss paint - this will counter the tendency for rot to start there. Same goes for the top of the door if it isn't painted.

BTW, don't go too mad and cut too much off - it's a front door and the draught.will be tremendous. Also consider fitting some form of threshold or drop seal to prevent draughts (obviously you need to get the client to agree to.pay for this and in the case of the threshold you'll need to have it before starting)

 

[blup]

You can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink. The OP has difficulty locating the water, but at least he asks, a true cowboy would bodge, take the money and run.

Blup

 

[DiyNutJob]

Do you mean 30mm?

No, the feckers cut with great industrial precision to be exactly 300mm smaller. When it was received, the builder was confused, the plumber was confused, the kitchen installer was confused, and I was confused. When it comes to pro's, you literally have to micro manage them or you will get kicked in the place you don't want kicked.

 

[DiyNutJob]

You obviously don't have a scooby about how the job should be done

I don't. But anything is better than throwing it out unused. If you got 6 moths of use out of it, it's still 6 months of value. I am sure the handy man would have given a couple of years of use especially if the customer is careful.

 

[johnny2007]

No, the feckers cut with great industrial precision to be exactly 300mm smaller. When it was received, the builder was confused, the plumber was confused, the kitchen installer was confused, and I was confused. When it comes to pro's, you literally have to micro manage them or you will get kicked in the place you don't want kicked.

Whatever was cut 300mm short would've gone back.
You're right when you say that most tradesmen don't give a monkey about precision.
In a few decades I have seen some horrific jobs where they'd gone by the inch exact instead of millimitre.
Then I was blamed for being too picky.
And nowadays is just nearly impossible to find someone who works to high standards.
They're all rushing to the next job with their pockets lined.
After being in the game all my life, I can only trust one electrician, a gas safe engineer and a plasterer.
3 people out of hundreds I worked with.