I have a upvc back door and increasingly its not closing enough at the bottom corner away from the hinge. the sliding mechanism for the other locks still pulls in but not enough the squish the draught excluder to stop a nasty draught. Do doors bend, or frames twist after a few years, and if so can one reverse it?
Brian
Some come bent from new :-)
Stick a block of wood in the corner you want to push away from the frame and close the door tight on it. After a while (it took a few weeks for the pedestrian access door to my garage) it should correct the twist.
Colin Bignell
What happens, if the panels were not fitted correctly, is that the door droops, turning from a rectangle into a parallelagram due to its weight bending the plastic.
When the panels are fitted, plastic packing pieces should be inserted to make the bottom hinge side and the top catch side of each panel a tight fit, so the panels are providing diagonal bracing to the door to stop it from drooping. Check if it looks like the catch side has dropped, to confirm this is the problem. If you are sure the door was rectangular to start with, you could measure the two diagonals and see how much different they now are.
If it is, it can be fixed relatively easily. The panel trim/beads have to be removed to expose the panel and glass unit edges. Be careful the panels don't fall out if they're not held in by window tape. You need to force a wedge of something under the bottom corner of the door to lift the catch edge and push the door back into shape. It will probably be impossible to get it back as new, but even some restoration is usually enough. Now you need to fit new plastic packers as tightly as you can at two opposite corners of all the panels - lower corner on the hinge side, and upper corner on the catch side, packing out both the bottom and side of each of these corners. Then remove the wedge, and check the door now works. Finally pack out the other two opposite corners enough to stop the units rattling, but not tightly (as that would deform the door again). Refit panel trim/beads.
Interesting! You've so far received two different answers - one assuming that the door is twisted (not all in one plane) and the other assuming that it has lozenged. I'm going to try a third tack!
What is it like on the hinge side - is the side member of the door vertical in both planes? Many uPVC doors have hinges which are adjustable in 2 planes - side to side and in and out - by using Allen keys (often of 2 different sizes!). By adjusting the bottom hinge in a way that moves the door in or out a bit, you can sometimes make the opposite edge fit the frame a bit better.
There's something else which you *may* be able to do. Presumably the door has shoot bolts which engage with tapered attachments on the frame, in order to pull it against the seals? You can sometimes move those attachments a bit so that the bolts engage with them better.
That is not the way its bent. I think it still fits the frame, its just that the bottom corner is not closing as far as the rest, or I suppose the frame is slightly twisted. There was always a slight difference, but it always used to close enough to shut out the whining wind, but not any more. I had hoped there was some adjustment of the metal pieces the locks pull into, but they appear to be fixed directly into the sandwich of plastic and metal in the frame with self tapping screws. Brian
as I said in my last, the bottom slide will not adjust, its simply screwed into the frame. The hinge side seems pretty good. Its as if either the bottom corner has moved outward, or the bottom of the frame at that corner has moved in. I suspect the real reason is the fact that thelower catch has not been put quite far enough in toward the seal, and its just had enough creep room to do what its done over some years. I have also put some slightly thicker rubber into the door and frame but its not quite enough. I also, during the summer hold the door open with a hook on that bottom corner and I guess wind or whatever could have exerted some force on that corner cvia the hook. Bit inclined not to forcibly try to bend a tdoor with a large double glazed unit in it either... grin. Brian
My conservatory is like that, so that mine are not adjustable as such. But I did manage to move them to a better position by drilling some new pilot holes for the self-tapping screws, and screwing into the new holes.
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