ST1978

I've spotted a pile of issues with the patio doors this afternoon too. The bottom of the bottom or top of the frame aren't fixed into the brickwork, the sill is wobbly with gaps as per the windows, the frame sits forward on the sill so the upstand is 7-8mm back, no sealant used again between the sill and frame, but it doesn't sit on the sill properly anyway. It's well screwed at the sides, but there are no packers in place which I guess there should be. If they need to come out to correct the job then they need to come out. The fitters (2 brothers) aren't going to accept this easily though and are defending their work saying they've never had any complaints before. To be fair, once trimmed up the windows look tidy. It's only when you start to poke, wobble and look closely...especially at the partially finished windows, that the problems start to reveal themselves. Cheers for all your comments. Any advice on finding an independent assessor to take a look? Stew EU00370_Is1_Syncro Installation Guide_Web_Mar20 (2).pdf Logik Windows Installation Guide Feb 21 (2).pdf

It's virtually the same as this photo. Screwing up from underneath into the frame is clearly the way it's intended to be done. Water can run along the top face of the sill, so there needs to be good sealing between the 2 things if I understand it correctly. I've read a few fitting guides from different manufacturers and they all mention this step. Should they first offer up, cut and level the sill with packers. Then remove the sill, and apply silicone or mortar to the top of the wall. Then fix and seal the sill to the window frame, then sit the whole lot onto the silicone/mortar? Is this something that can be recovered without the windows coming out?

Exactly...in fact it has just rained and snowed here and you can see how easily moisture gets into the gap. The thing is, it can run along the top of the sill and because the ends aren't sealed to the window, it'll just run off and land on expanded foam, or brick, or find its way into the cavity.

Cheers for the response. They've used expanding foam round the top and sides, and in a couple of cases at the bottom too! I challenged them on the foam under the sill and they said they were going to scrape it out and push mortar in the gap. They've also done the sliding patio door in a similar way. The sill has definitely not been bedded on fresh mortar. The sill has similar gaps as above and so the door cannot be securely sitting on it. It's a bit of a mess.

Hi all. I'm in the process of having some new windows and sills fitted by some local fitters after deciding it was too much to take on myself. Most of the windows are in now but quite a few of them have gaps between the top of the sill and the underside of the window frame. This isn't the drainage gap...this area is fine. Most guides I've seen suggest that the sill should be sealed to the underside of the windows especially at the ends to prevent water finding a path to the wall. The fitters haven't used any sealant between them, but they say this is fine and normal in the trade. The hasn't been attached to the frame by screwing it up from underneath, but by screwing down through the frame into the top of the sill, which clearly hasn't worked very well. They're proposing to put longer screws in to catch the bottom of the sill too and pull it tighter. This doesn't sound right. FENSA seems to suggest that the window and sill should be well sealed together, as does the Eurocell (manufacturer) fitting guide. These guys are CERTASS registered, which I assume have similar standards? What do you all suggest? Is this normal? Or good enough? Will water be able to get to my house? Can they rectify without taking the windows out? The images are from a 1.8m wide window, but there are similar gaps on some 2.4m wide ones and also narrower ones. There are also some windows with 15mm is gaps underneath them which are foam packed, which they intend to back-fill with mortar. Any advice is greatly appreciated.