This is a real job, written up the week after we finished it. A four bedroom terrace in Sevenoaks, nine leaves, two of them FD30, with the family living in the house throughout.
Monday: delivery and set out
Two of us arrive at eight with the doors already finished. They go into the room they are destined for, on edge, on battens, away from radiators. Doors left flat on a floor for three days will cup, and there is nothing to be done about it afterwards.
The rest of the morning is spent checking every opening against the survey and marking hinge positions. Occasionally something has changed since the survey, usually because a floor has gone down. Better to find that on Monday than on Thursday.
Tuesday and Wednesday: hanging
Roughly four leaves a day, ground floor first so the family can keep using the bedrooms. Each door is offered up, scribed if the lining needs it, hung on three hinges, then eased until it closes with the same effort at the top and the bottom.
The two fire doors take longer. Strips go in, gaps get measured rather than eyeballed, and the certification labels stay on the top edge where an inspector can find them.
Thursday: ironmongery and making good
Handles, latches and stops, then the parts nobody photographs: filling the old hinge rebates, touching in the linings, and adjusting the two doors that have moved half a millimetre overnight because the heating came on.
The old doors go on the van. Anything sound gets taken to a reclamation yard rather than a skip, which is slower and better.
Friday: walk round
We open and close every door with the client, in every room, and write down anything either party is not happy with. On this job it was one latch that needed easing and a bedroom door the client wanted to swing the other way, which we changed there and then.
Then we come back after six weeks, once the house has been through a heating cycle, and adjust anything that has moved. That visit is included and we book it before we leave.
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