Door Warranties

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Author Message Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 356 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 10:13 am:    Appears that warranties for doors are spotty wherein many doors carry none, while others go to 5 years or more [some automatic systems to 20 yrs]. Is there a pattern to this that you use? Do you include a warranty for every type of door? Do you use the manufacturers' standard warranties or do you set your own time frame? David Axt, AIA, CCS, CSI Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 650 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:57 pm:    Warranties are a marketing gimmick. When was the last time you heard of a building product being replaced under warranty? That said, I specify the manufacturer's standard warranty as a way of giving an Owner piece of mind....even though I know the warranty will rarely be acted upon. Currently I specify: Flush wood doors interior: Lifetime. Flush wood doors exterior: 1 year (most manufacturers won't warrant them.) Steel doors: 1 year. Aluminum entrance doors: 5 years. Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 357 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 01:11 pm:    Thanks much-- I'm with you. Would you per chance have anything on the more quirky doors like coiling, sliding, overhead, rapid-rolls, bi-folds, bi-parting, traffic, cold storage, etc.? Seems warranties, such as they are, show up more on these than any other. William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 576 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 01:14 pm:    I agree with David on this, think of tire warranties on your car. But what I use them for is a control over installation of the product and other products they interface with. In those cases where a manufacturer's warranty is offered, there are, at least for the better manufacturers and products, limitations to installation methods and limitations to the way the installed product is permitted to interface with other systems. Typically, these limitations are what you would actually want limited - but are often not the way the installers want to put it up. Take Tyvek as an example. Around here it is very difficult to get the product installed correctly. Staple it up, don't tape anything. Regardless of what you specify. If you have no warranty, they just say, 'that's the way everyone does it'. Put in the standard warranty requirment and doing it their way voids the warranty by specific installation limitation requirements. That's not necessary for everything out there, but there are some materials that are simply abused by installers, and in those cases this can be a tool to keep them straight. Wood doors, interior, Flush and stile and rail types, Lifetime or 5 year, depending on what the owner wants. Wood doors, exterior, flush, 2 years. Steel doors, none Aluminum entrance doors - no warranty on the door itself, 20 year warranty on 70% and 100% Fluoropolymer coating. On the various overhead doors and grilles, 2 years. I don't do some of the other kinds of doors you note. But I would use only the manufacturer's standard warranty. William John Guill AIA, CCS, SCIPa Senior Member Username: johng Post Number: 14 Registered: 07-2005 Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 09:17 pm:    Take care when specifying warranties not to include provisions that manufacturers do not support. As with other product attributes, you cannot specify something that cannot be provided. On the other hand, a warranty of given length and properties is a product attribute like any other and may be legitimately used to distinguish similar products for substitution evaluation. As above, warranties serve primarily as "peace of mind" and as a general benchmark of comparison between similar product type. A general axiom, in the spirit of "caveat emptor": Do not rely on a warranty to confer any greater benefit than the sale of the product. That said, there are a number of manufacturers who will stand behind (or under) their products. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 506 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 11:19 am:    Both David and William state that they are requiring warranties on exterior flush wood doors. Are you actually getting them? No manufacturer I've talked to will do this, except two who will do it only for sound mitigation work near airports (which happens to be our practice) and even then, only if there's an overhang or storm door to protect it. William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 579 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 11:25 am:    The condition of exposure has to be minimal (protected), the application of hardware exactly the way they want it, does not cover the finish and is extremely limited in time (2 years). But the last one I did was 5 years ago, so that may have changed as well. It may also be regional/climate as well, I don't know, but I would not be surprised. William John Guill AIA, CCS, SCIPa Senior Member Username: johng Post Number: 21 Registered: 07-2005 Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 12:46 pm:    No luck here for exterior wood door warranties for the last several (3+) years. David Axt, AIA, CCS, CSI Senior Member Username: david_axt Post Number: 654 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 12:52 pm:    I don't know if I get exterior wood door warranties..... because I don't specify them.