Andersen Patio Door Thresholds — Brown?!?

2 years ago

Hello All,

We have just (finally) received our new Anderson sliding patio doors after almost 5 months of backorders. Our builder didn't say anything about their condition and had them unpacked and waiting inside our house, ready to install. When I went to look at them, I immediately noticed that the thresholds and several trim/seal components appear to be BROWN!

We ordered 2 sliding doors and 2 matching side windows in black/black (interior/exterior) 100 series originally, but after months of waiting they said those doors were no longer available and that they were "upgrading" us to the 200 series. I wasn't thrilled about this, as it meant we would have a painted interior finish that would never perfectly match the rest of our windows, but I was will to accept it to keep the project moving forward. Now Andersen is saying that they made a mistake and applied "Bronze" or "Sandstone" thresholds to our doors and is giving us the following options:

1/ Wait 16-18 weeks for complete new doors/windows. (not a real option)

2/ Wait 6 weeks for an Andersen tech to come change the parts* onsite

3/ Wait 2 weeks for the parts* to come in and have our builder install them (allegedly maintaining the full warranty)

4/ Just deal with the wrong color and install them and live with it

*Note: Andersen is saying that even though we ordered Black doors the threshold parts will still be Gray (?)

We're already months past our original deadline for completion on this major renovation project (13 months total and counting) and really don't want to either wait for new doors or install them and have to uninstall/reinstall the doors/trim/siding/etc later when new doors come in. So, that leaves us with option 2 or 3 above. Option 2 still slows us down and we can't get our "house wrap" inspection until the new doors are in, which further delays our siding, etc...Option 3 has us worried about how easy it will be for our builder to disassemble the doors and reassemble with the new parts without creating reliability issues. Option 4 might be our only option....

Open to any advice or feedback if anyone has experience with changing thresholds on Andersen 200 doors/windows. Has anyone seen the "Gray" thresholds that Andersen is talking about on the 200s? Can you share a picture??

Thanks in advance for any help/tips/advice!

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Comments (5)

PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
2 years ago
Paint it. There are certainly parts that are only available in some colors. As black becomes more of the norm, these parts will be more available. If its a non-rolling surface, paint it. If its a rolling surface, leave it.
Farm Houser
Original Author
2 years ago
Hello All -

I have had a number of back-and-forths with our builder, the supplier that sold us the windows as well as Andersen over the past week regarding this issue and I wanted to share this info to help any others avoid the same headaches. TLDR: Andersen says the colors shown are correct and the only color options available for Anderson 100/200 black doors! Buyer beware!

Here is the feedback directly from Andersen:

The 100 Series gliding patio door's sill has one color option available. The 200 Series doors have a gray or aluminum sill option. This may be the gray which can show up a bit more brown in specific lighting. These parts can not be changed to black. Andersen will use a gray or white weatherstripping for these parts.

I finally got this information myself, directly from Andersen. This was after the building supply vendor first told our builder that Andersen had made an error on our doors and that they were sending new parts....then a few days later they said that actually they were correct and that they had no obligation to do anything. Aargh! I have no idea how this took them a week to figure out and we lost another week on our job as a result. This is also very frustrating, because the product imagery on the Andersen site, in their "door designer" tool shows this door as being all black and makes no mention of these gray (brown!) parts.

Hopefully others will find this info helpful!
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akd01
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What did you ever end up doing? I’m in a similar situation but with a different color brown. Turns out our salesman selected a bronze sill for our black door. But our inside tracks as well as some horizontal pieces on the bottoms molding are also bronze. This wasn’t cleared with us before ordering. Still not sure what our options are yet.
Farm Houser
Original Author
last year
After a ton of back and forth and finger pointing with the supplier saying it was wrong…then going back on that statement and saying it was correct…we just accepted it. The lead time for anything different was so long there really was no option. I can say that we moved in a few months ago and after painting the wood parts of the door black, it’s not as noticeable and it doesn’t drive me too crazy.
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
last year
Thanks for the follow up. It's never more visually obtrusive than it is when first installed.

Andersen Patio Door Thresholds — Brown?!?

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Andersen Patio Door Thresholds — Brown?!?

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Farm HouserOriginal Author

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