Would you expect french doors to open out max 90 degrees over your patio, or fold back near to the walls?

I specified cabin hooks to hold the doors back and discussed how the door would open back without hitting the adjacent garage wall, but they have not been fitted flush to the brickwork so are unlikely to open more than 135 degrees as the hinges will hit the brick work. Currently they have restrictors fitted to prevent them going more than 90 degrees and I think it looks a bit stupid and takes up half the patio.

Fitter has just gone to get rid of his rubbish so have the opportunity to discuss shortly…

If you want them to fold back (which I think is eminently sensible), then he better clean the wax out of his ears and re-do it properly!

Mine came with the house with destructors

30s after getting the keys they were off

Frame needs to be moved outwards to edge of wall outside, or fit Parliment hinges, but theyre not very secure so youll need added hinge bolts,

Feel a bit for the guy as he’s just finished and his paperwork didn’t state to fit flush with brickwork…hows it work with moving them out 15mm and then re-fixing the frame, can they make fixing points anywhere in the frame or will they have to re-use the existing points and have the fixings really close to the holes he drilled three hours ago?!

fit Parliment hinges

Seeing as the frame is in then this is the way to go. Didn’t know they’re less secure though.

Because the wings stick out consireably from the frame, it exposes the knuckle of the hinge to remove the hing pin, or to be cut off with a hacksaw.

Also parliment hinges can be come inadvertantly bent out of shape, and themn the door want close properley.

Is at a upvc or timber french door set.

UPVC (yuk I know but it matches the rest of the windows) and I don’t see Parliament hinges for UPVC?

I’m going to get him to take the restrictors off when he gets back to see where they open to, but I suspect not far as I can see one of the hinges is already marked where it has opened against the brickwork.

cant fit parliment hinges to upvc, the restrictors are there to stop doors flying back and smashing into wall edge, seen it happen. remove frame and move flush with wall front.

Absolutely nothing wrong with upvc, usually quite secure, easy maintance, /clean and dont need painting.

Thanks project. I agree re.PVC by the way, but I had always envisaged some nice hardwood doors but they’d have stuck out like a sore thumb!

I would never fit patios flush with the brickwork. Looks shit and you can’t achieve a proper seal!

Is it possible to chamfer the brickwork? No idea if it would work, just an idea.

chamfering the brickwork wioth a patio set in place if you had the skill to do job, would only allow doors to open 45 degrees or slightly more.

Sidelights but a bit late now…

I did suggest chamfering the brickwork but wasn’t sure if it would look crap and how much it would get me.

Taking the restricter off, the doors would open past 90 to around 120 degrees so a bit off the bricks would improve things.

However, the patio is not very deep plus I’ve got a big set of steps that rise to the garden and already protrude a metre into the patio so with the doors stuck halfway open opposite and the same width as the steps, they effectively cut off the usable bit where the table.

The guy is co-operative but talking about it being bad practise to flush mount due to fixings being in the outer brick and issues with damp proof being bridged if the door is moved further out than where the window was (is there normally a damp membrane between the outer skin and the blocked in area where the window reveal bridges the cavity?)

The silly thing is they new what I wanted as the more expensive option that they steered me away from was tri-fold doors that protrude into the room a bit as I didn’t want them over the patio.

And the biggest issue, the door being halfway open hinders access to the garage 😉

Anyway, he’s taken the issue back to the office and my preferred option is they move the frame out…

Did my comment fall on deaf ears then?

No it didn’t, but from what I can see they need moving out about 15mm which means they will still be 10 to 15mm in from the face of the brick, it just means they can lose the 15mm beading or change it for something slimmer.

Believe me they look shit just hovering about in the middle of no-where!