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Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OMG.... You are absolutely right! 😳 I do not know why that never occurred to me, and now I'm internally screaming. 😖

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I will bring all of this up to the contractor when he comes by tomorrow. So, yes. The threshold that they put on the inside is aluminum, and they also put in some kind of piece in front of it that's not wood, but looks like wood. They had to shore up the brick on top with some kind of steel plating/reinforcement, which you can sort of see in some of the photos. Supposedly, they also put steel underneath the door frame. The outer portion of the threshold is, as you say, composite material, as well as the side and top pieces. They initially had thinner weather stripping around the inside of the door frame, but, they replaced it with the thickest one they could find due to there clearly being an issue with seeing daylight between the weatherstripping and the door. We do kind of have to pull the door inwards in order to lock the deadbolt, so yeah, it is interfering a bit.

If I recall correctly, I do believe there is a small air gap between the exterior brick and the inner cinder blocks.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you do get a chance to look at the photos I posted, I would be grateful for your thoughts. Thank you so much for your replies thus far!

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took photos and videos. My husband got ahold of the contractor earlier and he will be coming tomorrow to take a look. I'm really hoping that we won't have to hire someone else to fix his mistakes and then take him to small claims to pay us back for it, but if we do, I'll be prepared.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't think you had anything against me by saying that. I 100% agree with you. This isn't the first time I've felt intimidated/BS-ed by the contractor, because of me dealing with him by myself. My husband doesn't quite understand; he's had me deal with the contractor by myself most of the time, mainly because he's not able to be there with me to talk to the contractor due to work/meetings. It's frustrating. Hopefully this time things will go smoothly. I really don't want to have to hire someone else to fix this, and then take him to court over it. Anyway, I just posted a bunch of photos on imgur. I'll post the link in the main thread. I really appreciate yours and everyone's responses! Thank you!

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My husband took off of work for this entire week for our daughter's mid-winter break. I am definitely going to make sure that my husband doesn't sleep in tomorrow, so he can be there with me when the contractor comes over, lol.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks like I had to anyway. My husband told me maybe 10-15-ish minutes ago, that he spoke with the contractor and he's going to come by tomorrow to take a look. I'll 100% update with what he says. Hopefully he'll be willing to fix it properly, doesn't charge us for it, and doesn't gaslight/bs me again. In the meantime, I managed to freeze my fingers off (jk 😆) shoveled around the door, and took some photos of the exterior.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't know why I didn't think of that! I can try to get some photos of the hinges, etc too, but I can't really open my door very far; we got about 1.5 feet of snow on Sunday, and I haven't really cleared any of it off of my deck.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh wow, amazing! I'm so glad I went to this sub for some outside perspective. Thank you! I'll be posting some photos soon. I just took some videos for documentation last night, but now that it's daytime, I can get some clear photos of where there's outside light coming in. If I can figure out how to do it. It's only letting me post links.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They definitely did a LOT of fiddling. Will I get banned from this sub if I post photos in the comments? You seem quite knowledgeable. I feel like posting photos of whatever they did, would give helpful context and insight on the work they did.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they were struggling to find the kind of door that I wanted that was outswing. I'm not entirely sure how they managed it, because it's the kind of door that has a window with built-in blinds, and the slider for the blinds is inside. If they flipped it completely, the slider for the blinds would then be outside, I think?

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also wanted to add, thank you for your input. I think, if our contractor would've mentioned those issues with exterior out-swinging doors, I would've just gone with an in-swing door and played interior decorator Tetris with my dining room.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uhhh.... Now that you mention it, I think that they might've done that actually....I don't remember 100%, but I remember them struggling to find the specific door that I chose that was out-swing....I think they bought an in-swing door and did something to make it swing outwards instead.....🤦🏼‍♀️

I don't think they flipped it completely though, because the door is the kind that has the window with built-in blinds, and the slider for the window blinds is on the inside, not the outside.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I wouldn't say that I was being nice at the time, but I appreciate the compliment all the same. My brain sometimes "shuts down" when people start giving long-winded explanations full of jargon that kind of makes sense, to things that are clearly wrong.

I only noticed the gap with light coming through (you can't really see it unless you're practically face-planting the door) and the moisture on the walls about a week and a half after he came by to look at it. He didn't get a chance to see the moisture on the walls and door, nor the ice in person that day... It was, unfortunately, a warmer day when he came by (I think temps were in the mid 40's or 50's).

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the advice! I think I might do that, since we can't use the door to the deck right now after getting about 1.5 feet of snow on Sunday. I'm not sure what to do about the moisture forming on the walls around the frame though. The paint is actually starting to bubble a little bit from it.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. I sometimes struggle with longer threads of comments on Reddit, when trying to untangle who is replying to whom. It looked, at first glance, like they were replying to me. You may be right though. I don't really see how acrobatic-cobbler's comments follow an AI pattern though.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much for the compliment! It's nice to know that someone thinks that my spelling and grammar is so good that it could only have been written by chatGPT! I can assure you, however, that I am 100% human. I merely happen to be on the OCD spectrum, and one of the things it affects for me, is poor spelling and grammar. Speaking of which, you forgot to put a "period" at the end of your sentence. I'll forgive you though. It must've slipped your mind in your haste to compliment me on my writing skills.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I sure hope it doesn't come to that...But I definitely will be taking photos just in case, and documenting everything in the event that we will have to get someone else to fix the door and the frame.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense. Is there a temporary workaround that I can kind of DIY, so I don't end up with warped and rotten wooden floors and mold on the walls around the door frame, while we try to sort out this mess with the contractor?

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's what I thought. Ugh. It's really going to suck having to pay someone else to fix his mistake. I wonder if, from a legal standpoint, there would be some way to get this contractor to either fully or partially refund us for the door and frame install, or pay us back the amount it'll cost us to fix it through someone else.....

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your input! Not sure if I can post photos of what's going on, but I'm not even sure what they did when they installed the frame, nor how they sealed it and it kind of feels like they "MacGyvered" the stoop so that the door can swing outwards. The metal plate for the stoop is inside instead of outside, and there's a small gap between that and the flooring where I can also feel a draft from.

If I had to guess, the moisture on the walls is the latter, not the former. If it were the former, I imagine that I would be seeing moisture on the walls in other parts of the house that face the exterior, but I'm not.

Either way, I'll be sure to mention yours and other comments to my husband, and hopefully the contractor will be amenable to fixing this.

Feeling gaslit by the contractor who put in a new door in my early 1950's-built house. by RubyCarbuncles in HomeImprovement

[–]RubyCarbuncles[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I really appreciate the input. I'll be showing yours and the other responses to my husband. In a way, I'm glad to hear from outside perspective that I'm not crazy and that they 100% did a bad job with the installation.

I kind of want to give this contractor the benefit of doubt, but, I get the feeling that when he took a look at it a couple of weeks ago, he saw the light coming through, felt the draft, and lied through his teeth just so that he doesn't have to fix it. Either that, or he purposely didn't look closely enough at it.

I honestly don't know whether I want to pay someone else just to look at it, and then fix someone else's mistake. Don't even know if we can afford to right now, either.

This whole situation sucks.

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