Composite Doors? No problem. Well, there are a few rules….Quickslide’s Ade explains more.
The front door of a house is the most important of the openings in a property – you may have other entrances into the house but the front door is the one that you invite your posh aunt Sally through when she comes for tea, your social climbing sister-in-law, or potential buyers when you decide to sell up. That simple rectangle has a disproportionate effect on the overall appearance of any property and is used by wily developers to add kerb appeal and distinguish homes on the 500 plus estates that they are building, with homeowners at the other end of the scale, realising that a brand new shiny composite door might be the best twelve hundred quid they could spend to give the place a very recognisable makeover.
But a door is a door is a door, right? Well, not quite. Just as with anything else in life, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly. And the old adage that you get what you pay for, works just as well when choosing doors too.
PVC pressed panel doors remain amazingly popular and still sell in their tens of thousands, not least because they are cheap as chips (or should be!) and fill a hole when (for example) budget is the ultimate criterion. But generally, when a decent finish, quality feel, high performance security and weatherproofing are required, a composite door is usually the ideal choice. But just like a book, you can’t judge it by its cover.
My preference is for doors with GRP skins on the outside, which most popularly can be made to look like grained timber, or increasingly with the smooth ‘engineered’ finish of aluminium. Colours are sprayed on in the factory and pretty much each and every hue can be applied. But whilst every colour of the rainbow might be available, it is best to choose lighter tones when the door is south and west facing, as the sun will soon take its toll and fade the colour, an effect that is less obvious with lighter tones. Steering your customers at this stage can save expensive call-outs later on.
And whilst on the subject of finishes and colours, it’s worth knowing that it’s almost impossible to get an exact match between the door and outer frame because they are produced from different materials and coloured using different processes. Most homeowners are fine with the slight differences but there is always one that won’t be: again, best warn them up front.
I also prefer a solid foam core for the door, perhaps even with steel reinforcement, over the timber cores preferred by some producers. My experience is that water ingress is always a threat and when it happens, a timber core door will warp whilst PU foam remains resistant to moisture. Beneath the skins and containing the cores, inevitably is a timber subframe, although some more expensive composite doors with have an aluminium frame to keep everything together. Outer frames should complement the window frames of the property, even if the door is fitted separately.
Hardware and door furniture is also so important to the overall ‘feel’ of a door, literally and metaphorically. Spending a bit more on the fixtures and fittings of a door – or at least persuading your customer to do so – will bring benefits to the homeowner way after the door has been fitted. Not only will well-made fittings keep their looks, but they will also retain that oh-so-important-expensive ‘feel’ for years. Front and rear entrance doors are operated many more times than any window in the house and the ‘touch’ of the door, how it opens and closes, locks into place, how the handle feels are all so very important. Spend a few quid more now and that feeling will go on throughout the life of the door.
And lastly, my old chestnut of carefully choosing your supplier rings true for resi-doors just as much as windows, perhaps even more so as they draw so much attention. After all, your future customers are likely to be drawn from your customers’ friends and neighbours. The choice of composite doors is quite enormous and therefore bewildering. A decent window and door supplier will already have done all of the legwork for you to offer the best that they believe is available. Choose your supplier as well as the front doors that you fit, carefully.
For further information on Quickslide visit https://www.quickslide.co.uk/
