April 11, 20242 yr During the storm that passed through on Monday night we had a great deal of water come in through the back door. On opening it the door threshold was covered in water (see pic). Any thoughts about what might be causing this? The door and frame are aluclad timber frame from Rationel.
April 11, 20242 yr We have 1 set of inward opening Alitherm Heritage french doors which leak like this when the rain is being blown by the wind in the right direction. The doors drainage system gets overwhelmed. I used a hose pipe to test my theory. It is on my todo list to sort out. Luckily the rain usually comes from a different direction. I am hoping I can beef up the seals with a larger gasket. I might also drill two more drain holes.
April 11, 20242 yr Author In this case the rain came from the most usual direction: south west. It visits @SteamyTea first and then heads over to us. The back door is West facing, and the back of the house is a bit of a wind tunnel unfortunately, so I suspect this is going to happen a lot unless we find a solution.
April 11, 20242 yr Looks like the rain runs down and is directed into the channel here and cannot escape. Can it follow the route of my arrows to any external drainage holes? Are they blocked?
April 11, 20242 yr Author Thanks Iceverge. There are wide drainage slots in that channel and I don’t think they are blocked, but I will check tomorrow. Looking at an earlier thread on this topic, it is an issue several people have had with Rationel doors due to improperly fitting door not compressing the rubber seal. I will test the drainage channel tomorrow.
April 11, 20242 yr It may be a case of fiddling with the door to get it snuggly fitting soby adjusting the hinges and latches. I wish wish wish someone made doors with fridge door style magnetic seals. Then the cheapest crappiest buckled door would still seal perfectly everytime .
March 11, 20251 yr Hi Omnibuswoman - coming to this late but we’ve just experienced the same problem with our Rationel sliding doors during a fierce westerly storm in Scotland. Did you get a resolution? Reason I ask is that I have found the manufacturer less than helpful on another quality issue. I’m very much regretting that we spent £20k+ on 17 frames & doors from Rationel, especially as we are now up to 3 serious quality issues in the 3 years since installation. I’m afraid there will be some expensive post warranty problems to come. Thanks.
October 29, 2025Oct 29 Hi Omnibuswoman did you resolve the issue? i have exactly the same door doing exaclty the same thing.
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