About a month ago I ordered Anderson 3000 Series Fullview storm doors with clear glass and screen inserts in wineberry with brushed nickel hardware from The Home Depot for my front and back doors. I elected to have The Home Depot install them. I am perfectly capable of installing storm doors, but I decided to treat myself to the convenience of not having to do-it-myself.
The scheduled install was for the 24th. While the contractor was installing the doors I was busy with another contractor getting an estimate for a retaining wall and therefore was not watching him hawkishly as I normally would. Upon completion he showed me the installation, mentioned briefly that he had to install a shim between the brick mold and the storm door frame on the front door “to make it work” and beat a hasty retreat. By this time it was dark and stormy and I wasn’t going to go out and get wet to inspect the work too closely.
Well, it didn’t take me long to figure out that if the storm door on the back door was closed the back house door wouldn’t close and vice versa. The storm door handle and the deadbolt lock were trying unsuccessfully to defy the laws of physics. This led me to inspect the front door more closely. Apparently, upon realizing his screw-up (back door was installed first) the contractor decided to rig the front door with a shim in order to not repeat the unfortunate hardware incident at the back door. This, however, left the storm door at the front door sitting at an angle to the door itself.
That weekend I went back to The Home Depot and asked the folks at the help desk for some help resolving this issue. Between the help desk manager, the fellow from the doors department that helped me when I purchased the doors, and the boss of the contractor it was decided that Anderson 2000 Series locksets (lower profile) would be installed on the doors and that the shim business would be corrected. I was okay with that.
However, when the contractor rang me back to schedule the appointment he was decidedly annoyed that I felt his job was sub-standard. He informed me that the front door was proper and he would rig the back door in the same manner and was not going to install any hardware that he would have to purchase. Furthermore, he said should have charged me extra for the shim on the front door and he was rather put out by the whole business and was not looking forward do losing more money on this install. I told him not to bother coming out.
This was Tuesday. I was furious. I fumed about it for the rest of the work-week. I could order low-profile hardware for the storm doors, but it would be a special order item and take several weeks to arrive. Besides, I hate the ugly brass locksets on the exterior doors and had made up my mind to change them out someday. Though not just yet and not for this reason.
If you’ve looked at low-profile deadbolts you know they’re expensive. So, rather than just replace the two offending deadbolts with matching ugly brass ones I decided to go ahead and get them in brushed nickel and replace the keyed knobs as well so the set would match. And since the garage door is keyed to the same key, I might as well replace that keyed knob too. Yikes, now we’re talking several hundred dollars worth of hardware just to make my storm doors work. Yes, I know much of the hardware was my choosing, but still.
Friday evening after work I went to Lowe’s (I was not about to spend another penny at The Home Depot at this point) to purchase low-profile deadbolts with matching keyed knobs for the doors. I chose the Baldwin Image Series low profile deadbolts and wave lever keyed locksets in satin nickel.
I got my plunder home, un-installed then re-installed the front storm door sans wonky shim assembly, then installed the new deadbolts. Everything worked as it should. No more ugly hardware conflicts. Now, to install the handles. Uh-oh, I have three right-side paddle handles but only one right-side hinged door. The boys at Lowe’s pulled the wrong knobs off the shelf. Well, I installed the one that was right and gave up for the night. Lowe’s was closed and I couldn’t do anything else.
The next morning I went back to Lowe’s and got the two right-side paddles exchanged for the correct left-side paddles and headed back home to install them. These items are not just door hardware or even door jewelry; they are engineering marvels. Solid. Heavy. Precision fit. Absolutely amazing construction and operation, not to mention beautiful. The Kwikset hardware they replaced absolutely pales in comparison. The Kwikset was made of cheap, light metal, already showing significant wear after only a year of use. The Baldwin hardware was easier to install than the Kwikset was to un-install. If you need new door hardware, I can heartily recommend Baldwin. It makes me smile just to look at them and absolutely grin when I hear the solid click they make when shut.
By the way, I forgot to mention the storm doors. I love them. They are solidly built, have beautiful mortised hardware, dual closers, and a plethora of other nice features, the best of which are the interchangeable glass/screen panels. Easy to do, once you get the hang of it, though the glass panels are a bit on the heavy side.
Here is the fruit of my efforts:
I decided with the time and expense I had endured to correct the bad install I should not have had to pay for it in the first place. I returned to The Home Depot, spoke with the very helpful assistant manager, pointed out in the Andersen installation guide that accompanied the doors where the installer had completely disregarded the directions to avoid hardware conflicts and pled my case. He agreed and refunded my installation charge. Back to feeling warm fuzzies for The Home Depot and wanting to demonstrate my good will, I wandered over to hardware and picked up 34 lovely stainless steel sweep cabinet handles for my kitchen.
Maybe I’ll install them next weekend. I want to do some knitting with what I have left of this one.
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