Exterior Door Leak around Weatherstrip/Frame not Plumb

woodardhsd

I bought a new-construction home in July 2010. Contractor installed a therma-tru front entry door. We had no problems with the door until about a month ago. We had a very heavy thunderstorm with gusty winds. The wind blew the rain up under the 4'-deep porch/covered entry. Water was pouring inside the house from where the bottom lock-side corner of the door was not contacting the weatherstripping tightly.

The next day I started looking at the door and found that the contractor had not installed the door properly. You could see daylight coming in around the bottom corner of the door. They had not installed the corner pads where the jamb meets the adjustable sill, among other things.(more later). I watched therma-tru's troubleshooting video and tried to address some of problem areas. I installed the corner pads, trimmed the bottom of the weatherstrip appropriately, and adjusted the threshold cap. I adjusted the lock/latch plates so the door would shut a little tighter. I thought I may have gotten the leak taken care of.

Last Friday, however, we had the same type of thunderstorm again. We still had water coming in the same spot. I called the builder, but he blew me off. He said the door will flex if it's windy and let rain in. He said to get a towel and put it up against the door if there's a storm. He said get a storm door, blah, blah, blah.

Now, I'm gonna see if I can take care of this myself. I pulled my level out and did some checking. The opening is square and level. Looking at the door from the front, the jambs are plumb left to tight. The lock side of the jamb is plumb front to back. The hinge side, however, is out of plumb front to back by slightly over 1/8" in 4'. Therefore, the door, when it meets the jamb on the lock side is almost 1/4" more loose at the bottom than the top.

How does one go about fixing this? Do I need to adjust the hinges where they meet the door frame, or where they attach to the door? Is there a better way that I 'm not thinking about?

Thanks in advance. BTW, this wouldn't be such a big deal if we didn't have a hurricane bearing down on us right now.

Marbledust

it's a cross site issue...the top of the jamb...hinge side needs to be pulled into the house.remove inside and outside casing,cut nails holding jamb and set jamb head,or kick bottom of jamb out and re-set.the framing does not cross site.

gregzoll

If it is a new home, then the contractor should fix it. Did they state any kind of warranty on their work for say five years? If you mess with it, and the contractor comes over to fix it, they could end up stating that you caused the problem, and not honor the warranty on the workmanship.

woodardhsd

That's more work than I would like to do. How do you make the casing/trim fit right when you do that? I can handle framing, but trim/finishing is out of my league

There was a 1-year warranty on the home, but it ran out July 1, 2011. I know for a fact that he has fixed issues on other homes that are a year or two older than mine. I guess he doesn't like me for some reason.

gregzoll

I would be talking to an attorney on this matter, due to poor craftsmanship. And the fact that the home is only 1 year, it should not matter, the house should not be falling apart this quickly. Now if the home was twenty, thirty years old, that would be a different story. Even at that age, homes should not show poor craftsmanship.

woodardhsd

Yeah, I'm not sure how to handle this if the builder won't cooperate, especially if the house is out of warranty.

But now we have other problems. We had Hurricane Irene come by on Saturday. We didn't have any problems with the front door due to the direction of the wind/rain. We did, however have large amounts of water coming in around the bottom of the rear door. It's the same kind of door as the front and actually installed much better. It was also running in through the door knob opening and at the bottom of the window (door has half window in it. We tried to soak up as much as possible with towels, but some got behind quarter-round and cause the laminate floor to swell ever-so-slightly.

We also had 4 windows that were leaking water from the top of the casing. It was hard to tell exactly where it was coming in due to the plantation blinds the are hung in the windows. We took pictures and will be contacting the builder shortly.

gregzoll

If you have pictures, and damage, first contact your home owner's insurance company, second contact an attorney.

analogmusicman

He said get a storm door


maybe the builder will get away with this because there is no "storm door"

tnx,

woodardhsd

He said get a storm door after the water had already been coming inside the house (at the front door). He didn't tell me when we bought the house that the doors may leak during storms and that I needed to get storm doors.

As far as the back door, that one appeared to fit much better in the opening than the front door. I didn't think we would have any issues with water coming in even with 40-50 mph winds. Maybe I should have known better, I'm not sure. I know plenty of people to don't have storm doors, who didn't have water inside their house during the storm. My next door neighbor didn't have any issues with water leaking in his windows, either.

Honestly, what's pissing me off the most, is that this builder has been building homes in my neighborhood for at least 3 years. All his homes cone with a "1 year warranty". He has been out to fix a roof leak in one of my neighbors homes that he bought 2.5 years ago. He's also been to another neighbor that moved in 2 weeks after I did (so his house is also 2 months out of warranty) to fix water leak issues as well.

kwikfishron

Give me a hose (low pressure) and I’ll make any Thema Tru entry door (and most others) leak where yours is.

Get a storm door.

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