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nadia_hamade

Andersen Doors Look Horrible

8 years ago
I ordered 8 Andersen series 100 sliding doors from Home Depot and got them delivered today and am beyond livid with the quality. I ordered all black to go modern with the new trend and they shipped the doors out with the bottom trim and threshold taupe instead of black. It looks terrible! Nobody ever advised me prior to purchasing that these would be two different colors and it says nowhere online or in any of their brochures that these products come 2 colors. On top of that, the quality of the frame itself is defective with blisters all over the frames of 8 different sliding doors. To make things worse, Home Depot and Andersen won't do anything about this defective deceptive product. Andersen offered to sell me black paint. I'm not sure how you could paint the track of a door that it rolls on??? Has anyone else ran into this issue?

Comments (7)

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    The paint finish on that frame leave a bit to be desired and I am not sure why they would just give you paint there. The thresholds issue is somewhat normal as they are usually different materials and only available in a couple of colors. I agree that you should have been advised of it, but you can still paint the front facing surfaces of them as the rollers do not track on that part.

  • 4 years ago

    We also have an Andersen peoblem Review of Andersen Windows and Doors’ “Big DoorArchitectural Collection” (https://www.andersenwindows.com/windows-and-doors/doors/big-doors).

    We bought two Andersen “Big Doors” at a price of $24,000 in June 2021. The doors finally arrived at the end of November. They are now installed and span most of the wall of our living room. They come with very narrow stiles, and we ordered ours with brushed-nickel hardware and maple wood finish. If you want a modern, minimalist look it’s hard beat these doors!

    Alas, they are not good doors. The most serious issue is that they leak. When it rains the water runs across the sill and underneath the doors to an inside channel, where we use a sponge to keep the water from reaching our new hardwood floors. The doors are actually designed this way. They sit on rollers that are raised from the floor, and water can flow to the inside. Andersen uses an aluminum threshold, called a “nose”, to essentially cover up the water. The water supposedly runs off through weep holes, although on ours it stays for days at a time.

    What do you do if water rises above the edge of the inside channel? Andersen’s solution is a threshold with a 1.5” high edge or “lip” that literally functions as a dam. The lip of the nose protrudes about an inch above the bottom of the doors, so if water ever reached that level, the wood frame would get soaked and ruined. The rail is also a serious trip hazard because it sits right across the opening where you walk.

    Needless to say, if water can run to the inside, the door is also not airtight. We live in Boston, and we can feel the draft of cold air coming through the bottom of the doors whenever there’s a wind is against the doors. That’s not quite as upsetting as the water, but it is also not exactly what you expect from a door at this price point.

    Build quality is also surprisingly poor. Our doors came with a poly finish (which we paid extra for), but after two months it is already beginning to peel around the glass (we think from condensation water). We have asked Andersen to fix it under their “best in business” warranty (supposedly including 20 years on the finish), but our request has been ignored despite repeated tries.

    This gets to the most frustrating part of the Andersen experience: it is almost impossible to communicate directly with Andersen. From deciding specs to handling installation issues,you can only deal with Andersen indirectly through the dealer, which in our case is National Lumber. Our point person in NLwas nice enough, but he had no experience with these doors(very few do as we have discovered), and the technical support we needed from Andersen was never there. A local Andersen sales rep shared an installation video (it’s actually a recorded webinar), but you can’t talk to any Andersen person with technical knowledge. Attempts to contact them by us or by our contractor were resolutely ignored.

    Long after the doors were installed a rep from Andersen showedup, but he essentially just confirmed that the doors are indeedleaky (“I didn’t design them”), and he refused to answer any direct questions, including the one about fixing the peeling finish under warranty.

    Andersen is marketing their Big Door Architectural Series as a high-end product, with prices to boot, but their service isdecidedly bottom-end. The design of the doors, while aesthetically pleasing, is problematic. But the lack of support is infuriating. Perhaps Andersen’s makes decent budget doors and windows that big-box outlets like Home Depot and Lowes canreadily service; but Andersen is entirely unprepared to operate inthe upscale market. We made a bad choice.

    [Taglines: Andersen Windows and Doors complaint; Multiglide; Leaking and drafty doors; lack of Andersen service; tripping hazard; water problem; ignoring customer pleas for help; noservice; will not honor warranty].

  • 4 years ago

    Some companies put a thick plastic film on their products, designed to be peeled off when installed. It protects the surface from dings before the sale/installation. It's possible that what your bubbles are. Hard to tell from the pic, just a guess.

  • 4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Looks like some loose debris. Wash & then post new photos.

    Doors will look fine after installed. If you look around, you will see that the thresholds often do not match doors. My white patio door has a bronze color threshold. Front door is painted teal; the threshold is aluminum colored.

    I think that after the doors are installed, you will quit noticing the threshold.

  • 4 years ago



    Black Anderson patio door installations

  • last year

    omg same. 8 years later and they still have the same crappy two-tone and the sales rep made the same stupid suggestion to paint the track. Really, Andersen?