The Whistling Door Saga

The drama with our front door continues with this morning's developments, first mentioned in my original blog post.

The guy from the Maintenance Team at Plantation Homes showed up (late) this morning to fix the following issues as agreed:

1. Front door (to stop it from whistling)
2. Front door - metal plate by the door handle
3. Seal the gap between the bent skirting board and the wall

Items 2 and 3 on the list have been fixed - although, with the sealing of the gap to stop air and small insects from coming inside - this was done but has not been restored to the wall/skirting board's original appearance (e.g. sanding, painting). Apparently, that falls outside of "fixing the issue" and into "cosmetics and to be fixed at 12-months" issue. Splitting hairs but sure, that is what we agreed on for cosmetic issues. In replacing item 2, they have also stripped the screws holding the lock component in, with one of the other screws no longer sitting flush - causing the door to catch every time you open or catch. A problem they will need to fix in subsequent maintenance visits.

The main issue is with the front door and the cause of the whistling. The Warranty Manager explained the cause of the whistling as "a mixture of where the house is positioned (near a noisy road), which creates acoustics such as whistling". He then went on to explain that it has nothing to do with the door and their workmanship, and attributes the issue to the position of the house and the environment surrounding the house. Their solution is to affix a permanent aluminium bar on the outside of our front door to further seal the door - a highly visible aluminium bar for all to see from the street or beyond.

Follow up call has suggested there is an alternative (2nd) solution to this acoustic issue. I have asked them to explore the less permanent rubber option first before contemplating the original aluminium fixture.

Chatting to other Plantation Home Owner (aka next door neighbours with very similar geographical positions to us and similar door constructs), they have no similar issues with whistling doors. This leads me to believe it is a door installation fault and not other issues they have mentioned, but hey, I am no acoustic expert!

More details of when they will follow up on these issues to come. Let's hope no new issues crop up while they are fixing existing issues!