What constitues a trip hazard?

We recently had a new kitchen door fitted. It came with a UPVC frame (it's an external door) that is roughly 50mm wide and the door, which opens outward, closes against it. I would guess that this is to reduce drafts and keep the insulation value high. However, this frame is also attached to the floor - where it sticks up, above the floor by 2 inches. Although it doesn't appear to be anything more than a piece of plastic I am firmly convinced that someone, sometime is going to come a cropper on this and end up face downwards in the back garden - having tripped over the thing.

Personally, I'm considering getting the power tools out and lopping a large chunk off this piece of frame. While that will probably give rise to a draft from under the door, that does seem preferable to a broken leg/hip/arm - not to mention the damage that could be caused to the garden.

Alternatively, "the opposition" wants to get the installers back in and have them remove the offending piece of plastic, or to do whatever else would reduce the risk of a head-arse inversion.

What sort of remedies have other people resorted to. Popular options could include looking where you're going, polishing the kitchen floor and taking out additional life insurance or training the dog to always be in the way - thus requiring potential trippers to tread carefully. The idea of installing a ramp up to the height of the doorframe has been vetoed: too much work and looks ugly.

Reply to
root
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Not a very clear description of yours, but if it is the 'standard construction' the frame supports the entire assembly.

That "piece of plastic on the floor is an integral part of the welded frame - and you will get used to it. My two grandsons (21/2 and 23 months old) navigate both my plastic doors and frame successfully to get to the garden to make a mess with the sand pit - and the external path is 8 inches lower than the top of the frame sill.

That will severly reduce the integrity of the frame and will not only let in draughts, but water as well - and probably cause a the door to misfunction.

It will also invalidate any warranty or guarantee that you have.

They will either refuse - or ask you to sign a disclaimer absolving them of all responsibilty for damage or injury.

Simply learning to live with it - or you could ask the installer to make another frame (at your expense) fitted with a narrower sill suitable for disabled persons (IIRC).

Could you post a photo of the door on

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and post the link here, so that the group can have a look? Seeing that, could lay rise to better suggestions to resolve your problem rather than ruining several hundred pounds of door. j

Cash

Reply to
Cash

Even the old wooden external door frames tended to have a threshold, not as high as modern uPVC. I have three external uPVC doors, front, rear and a 'french'door. All have highish thresholds but, so far, no one has fallen over them.

Reply to
Old Codger

Yes, that's true. The old wooden frame was about half an inch above the floor, with a small lip to act as draft excluder + rainwater dam. I know that HSE diktats are meant to be applied to workplace environments but I can't imagine anything like this design being allowed in an office or factory - so I am a little puzzled why suppliers think it's OK to design products like that for home use.

Reply to
root

Isn't that normal ? Our 3 external doors are similar - no problems.

Reply to
Hugh Jampton

A bit risky fixing those to a 'hollow' UPVc frame Owain (which they are not designed for [1]). You have to cut the frame to resolve the perceived problem that the OP has, and that will create three separate problems.

1 Cutting the frame to fix the low-threshold sill, yet maintain draughtproof and water integrity will leave nothing to fix the sill too because of the way the UPVc is moulded. 2 Cutting the frame to actually get a fixing will leave a huge gap under the door. That could possibly be resolved by gluing a suitable 'add-on' piece of UPVc. 3 Cutting the frame to that extent will ruin its structural integrity. [1] These are generally designed to fit onto a concrete floor, concrete step or a very low timber door frame sill.

Cash

Reply to
Cash

Low sills designed for the disabled may let water in if wind drives rain hard. We have such a sill on the side door into our garage which is great for wheeled tools. Daughter moved in to a house that had been set up for a disabled person and got rain into her lounge from the back door low sill.

Reply to
Hugh - Was Invisible

Small shops with ordinary doorways often have a highish threshold, usually an aluminium frame but you are right, in a factory/warehouse one would expect yellow/black markings and warning signs for anything similar. How far that is genuine H&S and how much management not wishing to be sued is difficult to guess.

Reply to
Old Codger

Personally I think they are ridiculous. Plastic windows I can just about tolerate, followed by the bang-bang-bang a few years down the road to get them open. Plastic doors are invariably ghastly noddy- housed overpriced junk compared to a proper door. If you want security a reinforced frame, steel plated wooden door, dog bolts & multiple locks will meet any requirement.

Give me a proper engineered hardwood door and windows, with separate secondary glazing and internal blind if you want the ultimate in insulation. Acacia and other woods work well re limited winter/summer expansion/contraction providing a good base for the top longest life Sikkens paints & stains.

Solutions I have seen are create a raised section in front of & behind the door frame lip, essentially creating a step which is more visually obvious than the stupid "bit of aluminium or plastic extrusion sticking out of the floor". Alternatively sink it into the floor so only 1/2" is visible above the floor.

Traditional solution with a wooden door is set a small angle-iron lip into the floor, which raises up just above carpet or finished floor height. The door itself then has a lip with rain shedding rebate, and a sloped approach to the door to direct water away. Some go for a fake porch or real porch, but prevailing wind etc may negate their effectiveness.

At times you wonder if the plastics industry would have us living in an IP66 enclosure, with according aesthetics, to give them an existence. Most plastic doors remind you Darwin is not allowed to work and the human race is screwed.

Reply to
js.b1

Hmmm, too bad you didn't ask here first. We got an external door a year ago, and because we use a decent DG company, were able to discuss the options with them beforehand:

1) Get a low-threshold version, which doesn't have the plastic at the bottom. There is then automatically no trip hazard. Downside is draught under the door. 2) Get a "normal" one, but have it installed 85mm or so lower. This means that the new floor level is just at the top of the plastic at the bottom. Result: no trip hazard and a proper seal all round.

We went for (2) but you do have to carefully calculate where the door is set height-wise. Ours got put in too low (our builder's miscalculation), but as SWMBO is clever, we were able to convert that into a matwell and put a mat in it.

I suggest you get the installers back and have it set lower.

Reply to
Tim Streater

No, mine is half an inch at the most. My dad's is 2 inches (that really sounded wrong) and every time I go there I fall over the blasted thing.

Reply to
Lieutenant Scott

That's the 'trade-off' Hugh with the disability option - put up with 'tripping' over the standard setup (until you get used to it) or clear up the water after its been raining. Personally, I prefer the first option - less hassle in the long-run.

Cash

Reply to
Cash

I know what the OP talks of. The conservatory in our last (rented) house had one and I found it a right PITA due to being about 2" high.

My inclination would be to get 2 bits of 3x2" wood (oak is nice, but anything fairly hard) and plane a slope into the top surface. Fix down either side (screw, glue or silicone down depending what teh floor surface is like).

Oil or varnish or paint the wood with something hardwaring and it will be much better.

Reply to
Tim Watts

I'm OK with the sills Tim, until around this time of the year when I get those bottles of Jack Daniel's off the family as Christmas pressies (they know what keeps me sweet to do their odd-jobs free of charge [1]) - and when I open those, I have been known to fall over the bloody sills a few hours later on the odd occasion, to everybodies delight. :-)

Cash

Reply to
Cash

The original front door in my Victorian house has a weather bar which sticks up by about 2 inches. And the door is set back from the outside by about a metre. Any outside door which hasn't got something like this will allow driving rain in.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Talking of which, is it possible to get PVC door locks where you lock them by, well, just locking them, not by having to drop all your shopping and use the other hand to turn the

**HANDLE** //BACKWARDS!!// and only /then/ turn the blasted key.

JGH

Reply to
jgharston

I have the same problem but as its only me here, I have trained myself now. I cannot understand why this one size fits all approach is used these days. At least wood was adaptable, with plastic or ally its just, well how it comes. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

I don't follow this take a normal door/frameset and "set lower". Surely you end up with a step at the door, down on the side it opens. So with a normal inward opening external door you have step up going out and the level of the ground outside is at the top of any seal against the door. Very little to stop splashing or standing water getting to that seal and running down into the building if it's not

100% perfect.

Personally I think most people are used to a raised cill and/or step of some sort at external doors and it's not a big a hazard as it may appear. All our external doors have some form of raised bit at the threshold, never tripped over one yet. Bit of a PITA if trying to wheel something heavy in, like a piano or woodburner though. Also a problem for those in wheel chairs but as no one is (yet) we'll cross that one if/when we come to it. Keeping the powder snow and driven rain out is a much higher consideration.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

No, if a "normal" UPVC door and its frame are set in the "normal" position, as the OP's was, then you get a 2" step. Move the whole thing

- door and frame - downwards and you end up with no step. Your floor as it meets the frame is at the same level as the top of the bottom plastic, the thing that the OP is afraid of tripping over. This was explained carefully to us by our DG supplier.

The alternative is to have a no-threshold door and frame. As I think harry said, instead of a plastic bar at the bottom of the same dimensions as the rest of the frame, you have a metal bar.

Hmmm, I realise I left out one factor which may be important here: our door opens outwards (it's for a side porch). I think if you want it to open inwards, you may be stuck with a low-threshold solution (if you want to avoid the trip hazard).

We went for the arrangement I've described *precisely* to avoid having a trip hazard.

Reply to
Tim Streater

If it's an outside door as you say, then put down a thick coconut-fibre mat in front of it. This will give something of a step up for someone exiting the house and reduce the risk of tripping, and at the same time allow incomers to wipe their feet, so reducing the amount of mud tramped into the house.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

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