Is this acceptable for door frame installation by an experienced carpenter?

[Noggrann_husägare]

[atta

We had a carpenter at home who installed 2 door frames in 6 hours. This is the result.

He forced a spacer between the frame and the opening, causing the plaster to crack on both sides, and he damaged the lintel.
He gave up on one of the frame screws and didn't even install it.
One of the doors is crooked in relation to the wall, protruding differently on different sides of the door frame. It will be difficult to attach the door trim in a satisfactory and neat way.
The carpenter claims that functionality is the most important thing, that the door can be opened and closed.

Would you have paid 525kr/h for this job?

 

[SueCia]

That the door is skewed in relation to the wall is not unusual. The most important thing with a door is that it is level; no one wants a door that opens or closes by itself due to gravity.

The damage to the plaster doesn't look very serious either; it's almost completely concealed with trim, right?

The fact that he couldn't secure one of the frame screws might be because he got the door in place just the way he wanted it, but just one of the frame screw holes landed right in front of a knot or existing hole or some other problem, which makes using that particular hole impossible.

If the wall is level but not the door, then that's really bad.

 

[Autodidak1]

Are both the carpenter and you having a bad day? First the plastering and now this.

The damage on the plaster is covered by regular 70 mm trim. The same probably applies to the doorway header. The paint on these looks relatively undamaged, were they undamaged out of the package?

The frames can be crooked, but it's not unusual for the wall to be crooked. Sometimes compromises have to be made during installation. It's impossible to know from the pictures without checking with a level. The carpenter is right that functionality is most important. But it’s usually possible to combine with neat work (the trim hides quite a bit).

 

[Noggrann_husägare]

I would have been more understanding if it had taken him 30 minutes, but now he spent almost an entire day on this.

The door frame is flush with the drywall on the left side but sticks out beyond the drywall by at least 1 cm on the right side.

 

[Autodidak1]

Why do you let the carpenter continue if you are dissatisfied?

6 hours is a long time to fit 2 frames if everything was removed and the openings were okay.

 

[Noggrann_husägare]

Haha, no, of course he wasn't allowed to continue.
Now I'm trying to figure out what I should pay a reasonable price for and what cannot be accepted at all.

 

[sblixten]

I would have been more understanding if it took him 30 minutes, but he spent almost a whole day on this.

The door frame is flush with the plaster on the left side but sticks out beyond the plaster by at least 1 cm on the right side.

It's generally not okay, but what does the spirit level say?
Which one is straight, the door or the wall?

 

[Noggrann_husägare]

Difficult to take a picture from the side, but the frame sticks out beyond the wall.

 

[Autodidak1]

Looking straight out, is it indented 1 cm on the other side? In that case, just redo it (or subtract the time)

 

[SueCia]

Assuming it is not improperly installed, a reasonable price is the time the carpenter has spent on the project. A carpenter with a few years of experience changes the frame quite quickly, but it takes just a little bit of hassle for the time to run away.

 

[TheGame]

If the door frame is wider than the wall, it will stick out.
You can then cover it with molding or an L-molding.

 

[Noggrann_husägare]

So if I interpret your answers correctly - it is okay to be brutal and damage the surrounding material and frame as long as it is covered by moldings and casings in the end, and the door is level?

 

[Demmpa]

It took me and my dad five/six hours to tear down the existing door & sidelight and install the new ones, there was a stud between the door & sidelight, neither of us are carpenters.

Today, frame sleeves with external screws are often used instead of frame screws.
For example, Swedoor's exterior doors come with pre-installed frame sleeves and include various screws.

 

[oceanis]

So if I interpret your answers correctly - it's okay to be brutal and damage the surrounding materials and frame as long as it's covered with trim and casing in the end, and the door is level?

Again, exaggerations. You don't have to be brutal for a plasterboard to break at the edge. It's also clear that this isn't new construction, as the door frame has been installed in an "old" (or at least plastered and painted) wall, and it seems tight in the hole where the frame is supposed to fit. Where the frame has been trimmed, it looks very tight and it might not have been easy to remove more at the top of the wall, and if there's no space, you have to trim somewhere.

 

[bamyl]

If I am to be honest, the hole looks very tight. If it's even slightly crooked, you need to have good margins on all sides to get a good result. Was it you or the carpenter who bought the door/frame? Installing a door frame can easily take 3 hours if everything goes wrong. The reason he skipped an indu-prog or frame screw might be that there was nothing to attach to? That could also be the reason it took so long? Maybe he needed to reinforce studs and add new material for the door to stick at all? Many frames have holes that don't match the wall you're trying to fit them into. The frame screw can come right between the stud and the wall material. This is very common in '70s houses. I think you should agree on a good price. However, I believe it can easily take 5-6 hours, unfortunately. Regarding damage and the frame sticking out, it looks OK to me. He has cut the paper with a knife, so he probably knows that the trim will cover it. As I said, it looks very tight in the pictures you sent. Keep this in mind when you approach the carpenter. Merry Christmas!