Kitchen nightmares

[chriselevate]

Hi guys,

I've had a new kitchen fitted at the same time as buying a brand new built in fridge freezer. The fridgefreezer is the type where the doors screw on the appliance door and don't require hinges (http://www.euronics.co.uk/refrigeration/fridge-freezers/blomberg-knm1551i-blomberg-bi-fridge-freezer/1097)

Looking at the photo here I was not happy AT ALL with the left hand side of the job (the right isn't much better) and the doors pivot forward too and aren't aligned.

The fitter has said "that's the best that could be done especially as the left hand side of the door would be binding onto the end panel if he hadn't hadn't used packer to push it away".

surely this is not the case for all built in fridgefreezers?!

Thanks for any help/advice you can give.

 

[chirpychippy]

Stick a spirit level on the front and side of the end panel it looks out of plum. Your fitters is talking out of his posterior, I fitted one of these on the Monday just past and whilst they can be a bit of a sod I wouldn't leave it until it was spot on. Who is the fitter was he supplied by the people you bought the kitchen from, have you paid him/her yet. Its a cr#p finish and a cr#p reason get him/her back.

 

[foxhole]

They don't usually hang doors on appliance but have their own hinges and are connected to the applaince with a plastic clip slider, if the door do fit to appliance then manufacturer usually provides a special hinge as the door hinges scribe a different arc and would bind with simple hinges.

 

[RogerBoyle]

The amount of times I've had to fix this LOL

Whats happened is the Fitter has fitted the unit slightly out of plumb or its been knocked out of plumb when he has fitted the wall and base units to the right of it ...

This wouldn't have came to lite until he fitted the Fridge/Freezer and fitted the doors .

Instead of re-levelling the unit what he's done is Packed down the side of the Fridge/Freezer to stop the doors catching on the side of the unit
It also looks like by doing this he has damaged the unit as if you look at the point where the top of the Panel and the cornice meet on the right it is
different to the panel on the left...

Get him back

 

[chriselevate]

I though something was wrong. The unit and ones next to it seem ok and tbh the fridge seems to be in pretty square. I guess the idea is that the hinges (attached to the fridgefreezer) should hinge out of the way of the end panel so it doesn't catch - that's the point if the design isn't it? I can't imaging for one minute that it should look like that.

Tbh I'm really annoyed with the kitchen as it just looks a mess on the finishing touches. For example... the cornice you spotted all look ok and fit but on closer inspection some jut out past the fronts of the doors and some short if the doors. It can't of been that hard to get then all flush and perfect? With this situation he's stuck the cornice to the top and bottom of the units so I guess there no turning back now! Or is there?!?!

Thanks for your help... so fed up with it.

 

[Porque223]

In the US the contractor license phrases are

done in a "workmanlike manner"
or
has shown "due diligence"
or
has a "duty of care".

Your guy probably didn't do at least one of these.
They do function so the "implied warranty of merchantability" is satisfied but appearance is important in this case.

 

[RogerBoyle]

It's just wrong
I'd Complain and get them back to put it right,
Ref the Cornice If its wrong and If it is stuck down then it needs replacing to correct it

On Your particular model you favour the fridge to the side that has the hinges
There should be some packers/Spacers that clip over the hinge and then screws through the hinge and the Packer/Spacer and into the unit
This should be the same on all 4 hinges
This ensures that when the doors are fitted properly there should be the same amount of clearance all around the doors

HTH

Roger

 

[chriselevate]

Thanks for your replies guys.

Here's what the fridge freezer looks like on the outside at the front:

Back:

Packers under the panel:

and further down:

Inside shots:

and

(notice how the screws aren't hidden and the brand new fridge has been scratch by his drill/driver)

There's a pull out unit that fits at the bottom but at the top looks like this:

There's then about 8 photos I've taken of where the cornice has been over or undercut like this:

(I won't bore you with the other 7 or so photos!!!)

Such a mess in the kitchen at the moment

 

[RogerBoyle]

In the photo of the inside shot where you show the hinge
There should have been a piece of white plastic between the hinge and the side of the unit
The fitter has left this out hence the reason that you cannot line the doors up
Get the buggers back to fix it

 

[chriselevate]

There's a flexible rubber strip on the right hand side see here (I've lifted it up in the photo so you can see behind it):

I've also noticed that there are lots of caps missing to fill in those hole where the door has been swapped - surely this shouldn't be the case?!

And I've also noticed that the fridge door bangs when shut but the freezer one close quietly with a thud as it hits the fridge sea before the wood work.

Thanks for your help on this.

 

[RogerBoyle]

The Banging is because the Gloss door is fitted to close to the metal door and is banging on the side of the unit and stopping the fridge/Freezer making a proper seal when in the closed position

It could also be a case of the top/bottom of the doors are rubbing against each other

The white strip is purely cosmetic and to stop crap from getting down the side

I agree the caps should have been fitted

 

[chriselevate]

Cool, thanks for that.

Will there be adjustment to bring the gloss door AWAY from the metal door to stop this from happening? It is just about making a seal but you're right it's not making the seal a good/tight seal as it's hitting the unit before sealing.

So in your opinion there was NO reason why the end panel had to have all those packers fitted as in the first photo here:

I honestly don't know to do here as this is the situation:

I had builders in to do work in my hallway and it was the builder who has managed the whole project. The build got a carpenter of his to do the kitchen (as you can see a bad job) towards the end of the job.

The builder is very reasonable and will come and look at stuff etc but tbh I'm so fed up with the situation I really don't want HIS carpenter to come back to the job because all I can see is him making things worse. At the end of the day the cornice needs redoing and I guess that'll make a mess getting them off and I'll have to put for new length to be delivered for this to be redone.

I'm just so fed up with the whole things as what I expect to be done and sorted is just a mess of screws everywhere and items either not fitting or items having been cut too short/too long.

What are your thoughts?

 

[RogerBoyle]

There is plenty of adjustment on the fittings to stop the door banging

THe reason he has used the packers is simply because he didn't read or understand the fitting instructions for the fridge/freezer and missed the step about fitting the plastic bits to the hinges

If memory serves,,, your instructions have very clear pictures of how to fit it properly

Tell the builder
He will know more than one Carpenter

You may need to contact the supplier for a fitting kit though as I'd almost guarantee that the bits you are missing will have been binned by now

 

[chriselevate]

Brilliant. Thanks for your advice.

So with a bit of time and effort spent on it (and reading the instructions) you think he could got that fridge in perfect?

Would you say I'm now within my right to say I don't want that fitter back?

What would you say/do about all the other bodges? Surely there'll quite a lot of money's worth of replacing to be done with buying new cornice and getting old stuff off? Getting the old off will badly damage the carcuses don't you think?

Thanks.

 

[RogerBoyle]

No Its a relativly simple fix the glue that he will have used will be Mitre bond and if you give the Cornice a good sharp thump with the heel of your hand that is usually eough to break the glue joint between the cornice and on the cabinet if its glued (not on the corners though LOL)
Its quite possible and much more likely that your cornice is screwed down to the top of the cabinet so replacement/repair should be very straight forward

There is no reason why he couldnt have got the fridge in correctly
As already posted by another they are a bit of a faff to fit at times, but thats no excuse for the bodge that's been carried out

You can ask the builder not to re-use the same fitter but thats going to be his call but you can demand that he is not there on his Own
I.E, the builder has to be present while he is carrying out the works