As I said, I was at work on the final day of installation. That afternoon I received this text message:
I was both relieved that whatever was happening to my house was finally over, but also dreading seeing the final state of things. I anticipated that although the windows were a disaster, the back door replacement would be fine.
When I arrived home that evening I realized I was wrong.
This door cost $2435.05. Installation was $781.46.
After documenting those problems for Pella by the seven-day deadline I tried to not think about the disaster that is the door. But then I looked below the threshold from the outside. The original door had exposed wood below the threshold, suggesting that either it had never been finished or the finish board was removed when the deck was built many years ago. You can see boards at the bottom of this photo, below the previous flashing:
The new threshold is a rather thin piece of metal coated with plastic, installed by suspending it at each end by cut-outs in the trim and frame (?!?) and shims at the left and right ends. The shims on the left side do seem to contact the threshold. The shim board on the right side (shown here) does not, as verified by inserting a dinner knife:
The space below the suspended threshold is filled with yellow spray foam. Not surprisingly, it is unstable and springy:
I was sweeping the tile in the laundry room a couple weeks later when I moved the doormat and discovered that all that caulk smeared on the inside of the door threshold isn’t sealing anything.
I swear I am not making this up.
I will say that the door is level. And it opens very easily. No exterior door should open this easily.
The door installation was so bad that I immediately had another company come out to give me a quote for re-replacing it. So within two months I had a normal door again. But before it was replaced I had numerous contractors visiting for various projects. One who does door installations said this was one of the very worst installs he has seen in his twenty-year career.