I know there are a couple of professional fitters on here so could you have a look at this please?

I have had a new Hormann sectional door fitted yesterday but I have some concerns about the way it’s been done. After the fitters turned up and tore out the old door, they discovered that the supplied uprights were too tall to fit in the opening. If they hadn’t already destroyed the original door and timber subframe I would probably have told them to take the new door away and come back when they had the correct size. But with a gaping hole in the front of my house I had to let them get on with making it fit. In order to allow these side uprights to fit in the opening, the fitters chiselled small pits into the floor and sat the uprights in these pits. Then faired in with cement.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/B2f3LG]DSCF4271[/url] by Biscuit Powered Biker, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/BwCbm9]DSCF4270[/url] by Biscuit Powered Biker, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/BwC9WL]DSCF4273[/url] by Biscuit Powered Biker, on Flickr

In the photos, you can see that this means that the black plastic foot is embedded in the cement. Additionally, the door seems to struggle to close.

I have some concerns about this:

1 – I believe that in driving rain, any water that makes it past the floor seal might collect in the ‘pits’ and sit there permanently as pools. I will test this with a hose when the cement has cured.

2 – The door struggles to close because the floor that it is closing against is effectively about 25mm (or whatever the height of the black plastic feet is) higher than the door is designed for, therefore in order to close fully it has to compress the rubber seal at the bottom by an extra 25mm. I’m concerned about the long term durability of this arrangement, both for the drivetrain and the rubber seal.

3 – Corrosion. My understanding is that one of the functions of the feet is to prevent the steel part of the frame contacting the ground or sitting in water or damp leaves etc. With the plastic foot fully buried the metal upright is now more vulnerable to corrosion?

On both points 3 and 4 I’m worried that by the time any issue appears somewhere down the line the fitting company will tell me it’s out of their warranty period and Hormann will say they won’t cover it because it wasn’t fitted correctly.

Would the fitters here consider this an acceptable way to fit a hormann door? This was a 2125mm high door, I think the next size down is 2000mm, so quite a bit lower. Which size would you spec for this job? I looks to me like if one could be bothered, it would be possible to remove the black plastic foot from the upright, trim a bit off the bottom of the upright, then refit the plastic foot? OK, you’d have to also trim the spring mount bracket thing and redrill a hole for the bolt that secures it, but no big deal?

Would I be unreasonable to reject this (I still have some leverage because I haven’t fully paid for it yet) and demand they come back, refill the pits with concrete to make the areas flat again and fit the correct height uprights sat on top of the flat floor?

No idea but that looks like a bodge to me

I had a hormann sectional fitted last year. The fitter had to remove about a cm of the floor in the same area as in your pics but did a good job.

re: the door closing, I thought that as part of the install the fitter had to program the opener as to when the door should stop. The door slows down during the closing motion as it approaches the end point and if calibrated correctly then should just compress the rubber seal a bit. Sounds like your fitters screwed up the calibration.

Is it on an electric closer or manual?

It’s on electric.

I’ll take a piccy of my setup tonight if I remember.

ask Hormann what they think of the installation Contact us

The lower limit is set by the mechanics of the electrification of the door. If it’s manual there’s a handle lock that looks like a fat horseshoe that locks on to a keep.

wrightyson – Member

The lower limit is set by the mechanics of the electrification of the door.

Sort of, there’s a fixed relationship between the position of the bottom edge of the door, and the position of the top roller, which rolls along a sort of ramped bit in the runner at the end of its travel just before the top edge of the door contacts the frame, to compress the lower seal, if that makes sense.

With the water issue it would be worth ensuring there is a drainage channel fitted in front of the garage door, an Aco drain or similar.

I’ve NEVER fitted an electric (or other) door without an Aco drain in front of it.
Actually – I did once but thats because the outside was on a 45 degree slope so the chance of any form of pooling was akin to the Pope being on Redtube helicoptering his knob whilst chasing a dozen strippers….

That however is a bodge and I’d have them back with the correct runners and putting right the floor.

With the water issue it would be worth ensuring there is a drainage channel fitted in front of the garage door, an Aco drain or similar.

Yep, if the garage was built properly, there ‘should*’ be a rise from the ground level outside to the door so the water runs away from the doorway.

* Obviously this does not mean that there ‘is’

Here’s mine

I’ve NEVER fitted an electric (or other) door without an Aco drain in front of it.

Erm from a true ground works point of view you certainly don’t need an Aco or similar in front of the door. In fact of the 5 I’ve just had fitted there’s only 1 that has it. Sheer waste of money just putting one in!

After getting sick of sweeping water out of the garage on more than one occasion – I always fit them.
Not a waste of money by a long way Wrightyson – less than £80 for a standard door is a lot less than the damage strong wind pushing rain under the seal does.
Purely for that reason any of my houses have one fitted.