So I just bought some of the companionway doors offered here from this site and I thought I would give some feedback on what I got and how the process worked. I ended up purchasing the craftsman doors vs the Zarcor doors which is important to note as this site offers two different types (my type is made by a craftsman in Seattle I believe). I also wanted to give feedback because I couldn't find much information about these doors but I liked the look of them better so I decided to take a chance. If you don't want to read the long post below here is the short version of my review: Don't do what I did, don't buy the craftsman doors. Purchase the Zarcor doors or get a local craftsman to build the doors for you and whatever you do don't work with this site on something like these doors. Zarcor has their own site so go there to get your doors you don't need to use this as an intermediary.
Now for the long version...
I've long wanted companionway doors for my boat but always knew it would be expensive and I have been putting it off for years. I've been looking for a new (to me) boat but if you have looked at the used boat market recently you probably know that it's like the housing market: Not a lot there and what is there is way more expensive than it used to be. So I decided that I would just make my boat nicer and be happy with what I have and new companionway doors would be help in that process. As I noted above I have looked at these doors on this site for a long time and full disclosure I have done a lot of business with this site over the years (they have the best selection of Hunter replacement parts hands down) and I have never had anything but the best experience with them. So I didn't hesitate (much) to look to them for the new doors. I was worried a bit about how the measuring would go as I had never bought anything custom from here but figured they had been offering this stuff for a long time so they must have the process down... I was wrong.
The initial purchase went well and their customer service representative reached out to me fairly quickly asking for my measurements. They also wanted pictures of my companionway. They sent me a diagram of the measurements that they wanted which wasn't very detailed at all and it was hard to tell what exact measurements they wanted (for example did they want how long the boards were or how wide the companionway was total which was different by about a quarter inch). I sent both measurements and let them know the difference with a bit of a question about if they wanted one of the other. They never got back to me about that which in hindsight should have been a warning sign. But I figured I had given them enough so they didn't comment because they had what they needed for this process. The ordering page said it would be three weeks from order to delivery so I began waiting thinking about how nice my new doors would be.
Fast forward three weeks and I hadn't heard anything so I reached out to this site and asked what happened and after a day or so they got back to me and said something along the lines of: "Uh... it's a busy time of the year. Should be soon." At that point I started getting worried. I had spent about $2100 for these doors including shipping and after three weeks I wasn't getting many answers. I pressed them for a more exact timeline and a few days later they said the craftsman was busy with a "big job" but they hoped he'd be starting them soon and would get back to me at the start of the next week with more exact timeline. Then the next week came with no answer and I was forced to reach out to them again and finally they told me that I would get my doors in... three weeks (but maybe hopefully a bit sooner).
I'll never know what happened there but I strongly suspect that they forgot to forward my order on to the craftsman after that initial back and forth on the measurements. But I was committed at that point and so I just waited. They also promised that they would forward shipping information when it was heading my way. Fast forward another three weeks and my doors did arrive but of course I never got shipping information. Also they arrived needing a signature but luckily my wife was home that particular day so she was able to sign for it but things would have been easier if I knew it was coming.
So finally after about two months I have the doors and I'm excited to put them in place but as I would discover I was about 10 hours of work (and the use of a table saw, dremel, sander and drill) from getting these things into place. Now given that these were made somewhere else there was always going to be some challenges to get them in place but this process was made much more difficult by the horrible directions that were sent with how to install these doors. This site just printed out a single piece of paper which looked like it was from some webpage (but it didn't say which one) which simply did not in any way explain what you were supposed to do to put this together. Also the piece of paper only had one image on it to help you but it did nicely have at the bottom written: "Click here for more images"... Sadly clicking that didn't bring up any more pictures despite my many attempts to make it work.
After all that I will say the doors generally look nice but I still think the Zarcor doors would be better. I bought the version of the craftsman doors with screens (a $500 option mind you) and if you still after all this want the doors I bought I would say skip that. Unlike the Zarcor doors the screens are permanently attached and the windows side in and out of place. However unlike the Zarcor doors (from what I see on their site) the windows are only held in place on three sides (the top is open) and I worry that in rough seas they could bounce out of place. Luckily like all of these type of doors you can remove them and put your hatchboards back in place so if I was in that situation I'm sure that is what I would do.
Anyway I've attached images if anyone wants to see (assuming anyone made it to the end of this post and is still reading). I hope this helps someone out there because I really wish someone had talked about these doors before I bought them (I searched the forum but didn't find anything about the... maybe that should have been a sign).
Take care,
-Levin
Now for the long version...
I've long wanted companionway doors for my boat but always knew it would be expensive and I have been putting it off for years. I've been looking for a new (to me) boat but if you have looked at the used boat market recently you probably know that it's like the housing market: Not a lot there and what is there is way more expensive than it used to be. So I decided that I would just make my boat nicer and be happy with what I have and new companionway doors would be help in that process. As I noted above I have looked at these doors on this site for a long time and full disclosure I have done a lot of business with this site over the years (they have the best selection of Hunter replacement parts hands down) and I have never had anything but the best experience with them. So I didn't hesitate (much) to look to them for the new doors. I was worried a bit about how the measuring would go as I had never bought anything custom from here but figured they had been offering this stuff for a long time so they must have the process down... I was wrong.
The initial purchase went well and their customer service representative reached out to me fairly quickly asking for my measurements. They also wanted pictures of my companionway. They sent me a diagram of the measurements that they wanted which wasn't very detailed at all and it was hard to tell what exact measurements they wanted (for example did they want how long the boards were or how wide the companionway was total which was different by about a quarter inch). I sent both measurements and let them know the difference with a bit of a question about if they wanted one of the other. They never got back to me about that which in hindsight should have been a warning sign. But I figured I had given them enough so they didn't comment because they had what they needed for this process. The ordering page said it would be three weeks from order to delivery so I began waiting thinking about how nice my new doors would be.
Fast forward three weeks and I hadn't heard anything so I reached out to this site and asked what happened and after a day or so they got back to me and said something along the lines of: "Uh... it's a busy time of the year. Should be soon." At that point I started getting worried. I had spent about $2100 for these doors including shipping and after three weeks I wasn't getting many answers. I pressed them for a more exact timeline and a few days later they said the craftsman was busy with a "big job" but they hoped he'd be starting them soon and would get back to me at the start of the next week with more exact timeline. Then the next week came with no answer and I was forced to reach out to them again and finally they told me that I would get my doors in... three weeks (but maybe hopefully a bit sooner).
I'll never know what happened there but I strongly suspect that they forgot to forward my order on to the craftsman after that initial back and forth on the measurements. But I was committed at that point and so I just waited. They also promised that they would forward shipping information when it was heading my way. Fast forward another three weeks and my doors did arrive but of course I never got shipping information. Also they arrived needing a signature but luckily my wife was home that particular day so she was able to sign for it but things would have been easier if I knew it was coming.
So finally after about two months I have the doors and I'm excited to put them in place but as I would discover I was about 10 hours of work (and the use of a table saw, dremel, sander and drill) from getting these things into place. Now given that these were made somewhere else there was always going to be some challenges to get them in place but this process was made much more difficult by the horrible directions that were sent with how to install these doors. This site just printed out a single piece of paper which looked like it was from some webpage (but it didn't say which one) which simply did not in any way explain what you were supposed to do to put this together. Also the piece of paper only had one image on it to help you but it did nicely have at the bottom written: "Click here for more images"... Sadly clicking that didn't bring up any more pictures despite my many attempts to make it work.
After all that I will say the doors generally look nice but I still think the Zarcor doors would be better. I bought the version of the craftsman doors with screens (a $500 option mind you) and if you still after all this want the doors I bought I would say skip that. Unlike the Zarcor doors the screens are permanently attached and the windows side in and out of place. However unlike the Zarcor doors (from what I see on their site) the windows are only held in place on three sides (the top is open) and I worry that in rough seas they could bounce out of place. Luckily like all of these type of doors you can remove them and put your hatchboards back in place so if I was in that situation I'm sure that is what I would do.
Anyway I've attached images if anyone wants to see (assuming anyone made it to the end of this post and is still reading). I hope this helps someone out there because I really wish someone had talked about these doors before I bought them (I searched the forum but didn't find anything about the... maybe that should have been a sign).
Take care,
-Levin
