A difficult joinery project

[Adsibob]

So we are nearing the end of a very difficult joinery saga. We are now dealing with a fourth joinery. This last one, apart from being the most expensive, has on the whole been excellent to deal with, incredibly professional, and they even accept credit card.

However, we have had an issue with an aspect of their installation. It relates to part of a giant bookcase (308cm tall and over 5m wide. The bookcase is made up of several columns and the final column has doors on it which were meant to be quite seamless, and include a concealed bureau style desk. Where the arrow is pointing on the photo, there was meant to be a 3mm gap (this is clearly labelled on the agreed final drawings) between the top door and the bottom door. The bottom door drops down to make a desk. But the gap has ended up being 8mm or 9mm thick.

 

 

 

And as the edges of the desk are rounded off, this accentuates the black shadow behind (when it’s closed), and so it’s quite noticeable. It’s just quite a high contrast between the black shadow and the light coloured oak.

 

There are a few other issues, but this is the only one which I think might be very expensive to fix. The grain pattern of the oak veneered doors is continuous as it’s been cut from one jumbo sheet of veneer (as specified in my drawing). So to fix it properly they would probably need to redo all 5 doors. A cheaper alternative, which I’m hoping is feasible, is to get them to redo the small door above the 8mm gap, and just make that door 5mm taller. The challenge will be to try and find some oak veneered that has a similar grain pattern so that they can edge match it to the shorter piece they would be replacing. The door which is 5mm too short is only 19cm tall, so a small proportion of the overall height of 305cm, so maybe a mismatched grain would be terrible for just that piece.

 

But part of me thinks that this was an incredibly expensive bookcase, the most expensive thing in our whole house, and so I had pretty high expectations and worked on the drawings for MANY days and it has caused me some sleepless nights, so a bit disappointed. But also don’t want to fall out with these guys as they still have quite a bit of joinery to do for us and they have on the whole been really decent.

 

@Big Jimbo I think you might be a joiner (?) so curious as to your thoughts on this sort of mistake, as well as everyone else‘s thoughts of course.

 

SWMBO is also upset that four small brass hinges are visible above the short door, which neither of us were expecting.

 

[bassanclan]

Would you be able to move the lower door up 4mm and leave a 4mm gap nearer the floor?

[Big Jimbo]

You will have to have a gap between the bottom door, and the drop down desk. Ask them to move the drop down desk up, and the bottom door up. See what you think of the result. if you are not happy, it will be a full 5 piece new front re-make.

[Temp]

Can you fit a strip of wood on the inside to change the gap from black to wood colour? Then it will match the other gaps.

[Russdl]

So the hinged bit opens open and the desk bit comes down by the looks of things, a strip of veneer (with something behind it for strength) attached to the bottom of the hinged bit would mask the gap. 
 

Kinda agree with the boss, those hinges shouldn’t be visible. 

[Adsibob]

3 hours ago, Temp said:

Can you fit a strip of wood on the inside to change the gap from black to wood colour? Then it will match the other gaps.

I could do this, but it’s sub optimal. The small door that is too short which is above the drop down desk actually flips upwards, so that one can have a large monitor behind the two  doors, with the top of the monitor at eye level. 

 

4 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

You will have to have a gap between the bottom door, and the drop down desk.

Yes, we were aware of this when we signed off on the drawings. It’s not too bad.

 

4 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

move the drop down desk up, and the bottom door up. See what you think of the result.

It’s not so easy. The design of the bookcase is both bottomless and plinthless. It’sa design feature because we didn’t want to cover up the floor, and so this way the uprights of the bookcase look like they come out of the floor, very contemporary. That means that all the horizontal bits are fixed as they are needed for structure. They have been fixed with some particular fixings which means any adjustments in shelf or table height would result in significant surgery and scarring to the uprights. I guess they could raise it somehow, maybe by making the shelf that the desk attaches to thicker and then attach the desk from that raised part. This would leave a gap at the bottom of about 6mm, which would like like a mistake, but perhaps a less noticeable one.

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Adsibob

[Adsibob]

2 hours ago, Russdl said:

Kinda agree with the boss, those hinges shouldn’t be visible. 

Yeah, no idea why they chose these hinges. I feel like they got lazy and stopped thinking about it when finalising the project. Slightly odd that these hinges and their visibility wasn’t run past me.

[MikeSharp01]

9 hours ago, Temp said:

Can you fit a strip of wood on the inside to change the gap from black to wood colour? Then it will match the other gaps.

If you don't want to remake the whole front and cannot accept any other of the above this will be your only option. You could make it removeable if it offends when both parts are hinged out. I also note that the shelf adjacent to the gap with the hinges does not align with it well. I hesitate to suggest this but like so many challenges of this sort it might be worth contemplating fixing this in your heads rather than in the physical world. 

[joe90]

11 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Where the arrow is pointing on the photo, there was meant to be a 3mm gap (this is clearly labelled on the agreed final drawings)

I would suggest you politely point this out and let the chippy come up with an answer as this is not what was agreed, also the fact the visible hinges were not mentioned. when he gives you his answers toss up which is best for you. As you said this was not cheap and fir that amount you deserve to get what you asked for / was agreed.

[TonyT]

I would point out the ‘defects’ and let the joiner come back with a reply,  no different from any part of the snagging process when sometimes builders don’t follow drawings and it make decisions based on time/ effort.

hopefully you have issued all drawings electronically and his quote has no omissions stated.

 

 

[Temp]

9 hours ago, Adsibob said:

I could do this, but it’s sub optimal. The small door that is too short which is above the drop down desk actually flips upwards, so that one can have a large monitor behind the two  doors, with the top of the monitor at eye level. 

 

Fix the bit of wood to the back of the small door so it hinges up with it? 

[Dave Jones]

if its not built to the agreed spec just reject it.

 

Not like its a cheap ikea job you can hack around to make work.

[dpmiller]

It's a bit of a 1st World problem really, but I'd agree with @Dave Jones on this, else you'll see it every day.

[Jilly]

I think it looks nice...those details don't pip my OCD in the greater scheme of things.

When we have little quirks I kind of like them, as they remind me of the build process and the hands that made them. 

[Thorfun]

3 hours ago, Jilly said:

I think it looks nice...those details don't pip my OCD in the greater scheme of things.

When we have little quirks I kind of like them, as they remind me of the build process and the hands that made them. 

+1. I don't see those things pointed out as issues at all. I think it looks really nice.

[eandg]

4 hours ago, Thorfun said:

+1. I don't see those things pointed out as issues at all. I think it looks really nice.

Agreed - it's don't sweat the small stuff territory. 

[Adsibob]

Thanks all. I’m going to ask them to redo one of the doors so that we have a standard 3mm gap as per the drawings. They will have to do some edge matching with the veneer; I’m sure it’s possible.