Any practical people out there ? Advice required. Part deux

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pubrunner

Legendary Member
Hi All,

This query is about another fault that we had recently.

What I'd like to know is . . . . . . . why did this fault occur (it has been rectified).

About six weeks ago, I came home and opened our front door . . . whereupon, the entire door fell inwards. It didn't hit the floor, but only because I had hold of the handle and caught hold of the side. If my little boy had been behind it and I hadn't caught it, he could easily have been badly hurt.

The door 'fell', because the hinges had sheared along the face of the plate - the part connected to the door. (See pics) No screws were pulled out of either the door or the door frame.

In our earliest days, the door had to be re-fitted; a guy spent all day re-hanging it.
I've shown the hinges to some builders & joiners that I know and they all say that they've seen nothing like it - re. the hinges shearing.

Why did this happen ? Has my Missus been slamming the door too hard ?

(
Hinge 1.jpg


Hinge 2.jpg


(The pics are of two of the three hinges).
 

Mile195

Guru
Location
West Kent
Good god - someone's made a right hash of that.

It almost appears as if someone's seriously, seriously overtightened the screws and caused a weakness right along the centre of the hinge, but those hinges are presumably steel, and that simply wouldn't happen. You might expect it if they were made of plastic or something. And besides, the wooden frame would have taken damage before the hinges would have done.

Seems more likely that the door fitter has maybe done a bit of DIY modification on them in some way to weaken them, but lord only knows what that might have been...

My tip here would be not to get the same guy back to re-fit it!
 

benb

Evidence based cyclist
Location
Epsom
Possibly the opposite - not tightened enough, so the plate was moving and flexing every time the door was opened or closed causing metal fatigue.
 
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pubrunner

pubrunner

Legendary Member
Seems more likely that the door fitter has maybe done a bit of DIY modification on them in some way to weaken them, but lord only knows what that might have been...

I think that you are probably correct. Interestingly, the replacement hinges have 4 screw holes on each side; the hinges that failed, each had 5 screws fixed on each side - I think that he may have drilled extra holes to do this - thus weakening the hinge.

I'm still amazed, that a metal hinge can shear in such a fashion..
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
At best, without submitting the hinges to a metallurgist, all you can expect are speculative answers.

I have my theories but I am not a practising metalurgist or engineer so they'd count for nowt.
 

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
When you purchased this new build house did you get to see the builders paperwork? you know the stuff headed Bodgeit & Leggit

I feel for you clearly pricepoints have been hit whether that's been lack of experience/knowledge or quality of materials. We've just completed a major refurbishment and I have a long list of extras that I had to cough up for. These all fell into the realm of 'it should work like this but we won't know until we uncover what lies beneath'. Needless to say there had been some big corner cutting on the hidden stuff in the original build.
 

Andrew_Culture

Internet Marketing bod
Had you been eating a can of spinach just before opening your front door?
 
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pubrunner

pubrunner

Legendary Member
When you purchased this new build house did you get to see the builders paperwork ?

Yes, all jobs 'signed off'; but once they've had your money, they don't give a stuff.

. . . . . . . and I have a long list of extras that I had to cough up for. These all fell into the realm of 'it should work like this but we won't know until we uncover what lies beneath'.

Yes, I know that long list . . . we had one too !

Needless to say there had been some big corner cutting on the hidden stuff in the original build.

. . . . . . . that'll only be discovered years after any guarantee, or when the builder has gone bankrupt . . . 'Sod's Law', strikes again !
 
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pubrunner

pubrunner

Legendary Member
Is that a crack on the door frame just above the hinge in the first picture?

It may look that way, but it ain't . . . thank goodness !

Travel of the door and travel of the hinge not aligned...was it stiff to close the final bit at first?

It has never closed properly, even after their 'expert' repaired it.

With regard to the house, we've had this kind of situation before; something would break or fail, we'd contact the builder - who would carry out a 'repair'. The 'repair' would then fail, causing more damage than was done originally.
 
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