FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. Do hinges come with my café door order?

Yes.  Premium grade top mount gravity pivot hinges in polished brass finish with double acting swing and a hold open feature come with all café door orders.  Only exception is larger custom café doors which typically require side mount spring hinges.

2. Can I get hinges in a finish other than polished brass?

We offer heavy duty side mount spring hinges in the following finishes:  brass, satin nickel, oil rubbed bronze and black.  You can view these hinges by clicking on the “café door hinges” link along the left hand side of our website.

3. Will I receive one or two doors with my café door order?

Each café door order is sold and shipped as a pair of doors as photographed.  Single café doors are available as a custom order.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ORDER PLACEMENT

1. How do I know what café door size to order?

We offer the three most common standard café door width sizes of 24, 30, 32 or 36 inches.   However, we also custom build café doors of all styles for nearly any size opening or desired height.

All of our café doors are prefit and sized for finished (not rough) openings.   This means the café doors are made with the required space allowances needed for hinges and center gap.  Therefore, if your finished door width measures 32 inches, then you would order a 32 inch café door set and it will actually measure about 31 inches if measured with both doors butte together.

To measure your opening, simply pull a tape measure across the width of your desired installation location.

2. My door opening is slightly smaller than the door sizes you offer. What are my options?

It is best to contact us with your specific finished door opening width measurement so we can discuss your options with you. However, in general, you have the following options:

Nearly all café doors can be custom built to fit your opening for a small charge ranging from $35-55 depending on the café door style.  However, in most cases, if the difference is within a ½ inch, a slight adjustment to installing the top mount gravity hinges to your café door is all that is required. 

3. My door opening is slightly larger than the door sizes you offer. What are my options?

It is best to contact us with your specific finished door opening width measurement so we can discuss your options with you. However, in general, you have the following options:

Decorative wood trim pieces, corbels or spacers can be installed to the necessary thickness under each hinge to take up the extra space. For example, if your finished door opening is 37 inches, you would install ½ inch thick spacers under each hinge and install the 36 inch door set to the spacers.

4. My door opening is quite a bit larger or smaller than the door sizes you offer. What are my options?

First, please contact us with your specific finished door opening measurement so we can discuss the options with you. However, in general, you have the following option:

We can custom build a café door for any size opening. 

Custom sized louver café doors are available in oak, pine or primed white.  They are commercial grade café doors that are 46 inches tall and 1-3/8” thick.  Sizes range from 42-72” wide.

Custom sized flush (smooth on both sides) and flat paneled (flush on one side and paneled on the opposite) are also available.  These café door sets can be made for any sized opening, to any height and out of any wood species.   You can use our convenient blue “Custom Café Door” tab found at the top of our website to request a quote; or feel free to call or email us.

For extra small door opening we can build a 2-door café door set if desired but you may want to also consider a single door instead.  This minimizes the space taken up by the door when passing through.  This style door can be made louvered, flush or flat-paneled.  In addition, the craftsman can design the top edge contour of the café door to appear just like a traditional 2-door set, but without the center gap.  Contact us for more details f;por a quote.

QUESTIONS ABOUT INSTALLATION

1. My door opening is not framed in wood.  How do I install my café door?

You will need to locate the wood stud behind your walls and mount your café doors at that location.  In addition, you will need to replace the screws that come with your hinge set for mounting the brackets to the door jamb with screws that are at least ¾” longer so the screw goes through the drywall or sheetrock and well into the wood stud.  Mounting your café door into drywall or sheetrock using metal anchors in lieu of locating a wood stud is not recommended.  If you are unsure if you have located a wood stud behind the drywall, it is best to consult with a carpenter.

2. Do the side mount spring hinges need to be mortised to the door?

No, they are flush mount which means you install them right on the surface of the door.

3. I have small wood trim pieces in my door jamb where I want to install a café door. How do I install a café door here and how do I measure the opening?

In order for the café doors to work properly and open to 90 degrees to take advantage of the gravity hinge hold-open feature, you will need to use a wood chisel to remove the trim pieces at the location where the café door will be mounted.  The trim pieces can remain in place above and below the café door.  Once the trim pieces are removed, measure the width of the cleaned opening from jamb to jamb.

QUESTIONS ABOUT PAYMENT

1. I don’t have and don’t want to open a PayPal account. Can I still pay by credit card?

Absolutely, 2 ways!  You can call us to place your order by phone or you can order and pay through our website using our PayPal processor without a PayPal account.  Here how:

Once you have finished adding items to your cart and are ready to make your payment, click on the “Proceed to Checkout” button. On this page PayPal users can log into their account to proceed with their payments or you can make a non-PayPal payment with your credit card.

Look for the credit card logos located at the lower left corner of this page. You will see the statement, “Don’t have a PayPal account? Use your credit card or bank account (where available).”  Click on the blue “Continue” button adjacent to this statement.

Along the left side of this page you can proceed with your credit card payment by filling in all the required fields (again you will see on the right hand side a log-in section for PayPal users, simply ignore). When all fields are complete, click on “Review Order and Continue”.

Please note, even though you are using a credit card to make your payment, we are using PayPal as our credit card merchant server.

2.   I don’t like making credit card payments through websites. Can I pay over the phone?

We purposefully chose PayPal as our payment processor due to its well-known privacy and security on the web.  However, we understand that sometimes a human voice is the comfort one needs to place an order.   Should you prefer, we will be glad to take your order by phone #630-355-1145.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SHIPPING

1. When will I receive my order?
Lead times are stated on the description page of each café door.  In general, all “standard” louvered café door sets typically ship within 3 business days of receiving payment. Most other café door orders typically ship within 10-14 business days of payment. Some custom sized louvered or specialty café doors can take up to 4-8 weeks to ship.  Business days are Monday-Friday.

All US orders are shipped using UPS ground service or USPS (Post Office) priority mail service with an unguaranteed delivery time of 2-4 business days.  If you need an order sooner, we typically can meet most requests.  Please call to inquire about expedited service to rush your order.

If you do not receive USPS (Post Office) mail delivery to your location and use a PO Box, please provide your PO Box number along with your physical address.  This will allow us to ship using the cheapest method possible.

International orders are shipped via UPS or USPS with an unguaranteed delivery time of 10-14 business days.  Any customs or duty charges you may incur are additional and not our responsibility to pay.  Please note:  customs may require you pick your package up rather than it being delivered directly to your address - this occurrence is rare and not by our doing.

2. Will I be able to track my shipment?
Yes. A day or two before your order ships, you will receive an email from us through PayPal notifying you of shipment. This email will also contain a UPS or USPS tracking number for  your use.  

We do not require a signature upon delivery unless the value of your order is $250.00 or greater.  However, the USPS will not leave the package at your door if they feel it is not being left in a safe place.  This is not by our request.  If this happens, they will leave a postcard in your mailbox notifying you of the delivery attempt.  You can call the number on the postcard to arrange re-delivery or go to your local post office to retrieve your shipment.  If you do not want to sign for your shipment at delivery or do not want to worry about your accessibility at the time of delivery, please request a “signature waiver” by calling or emailing us with the request before your order ships.

QUESTIONS ABOUT RETURNS OR EXCHANGES

1. How do I return or exchange my order?

Your business and complete satisfaction is extremely important to us. If for any reason you are not satisfied with your order you may return your order for a full refund on the purchase price of your item or request an exchange to your order within 14 days of receipt of your order. Please read our policy below for more details and requirements for processing returns and exchanges:

Without exception, our café doors can only be returned for a refund or exchange if they are in their original, unfinished, uninstalled, unmarked and undamaged condition. If for any reason you wish to return your order within 14 days of its receipt, please contact us by phone or email immediately to discuss your return or exchange. Your order must be returned with any and all related parts also in their original, undamaged condition and in their original and unopened packaging when applicable. You MUST ship our café doors back to us fully insured as we WILL NOT process refunds or exchanges if we receive our café door back in a condition damaged from by your shipping carrier.

All shipping charges and transaction fees associated with a return or exchange remains your responsibility, unless we made an error to your order. If payment was made through a PayPal account (that was logged into), refund will made to the same PayPal account less any fees associated with transaction and shipping charges. If payment was made by credit card (through our PayPal server), money order refund will be mailed less any fees associated with transaction and shipping fees.


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