New front door advice please

[Mandy2003]

OK, following my earlier post about my swollen sticky front door I've had a quote.

For a solid unglazed composite door made to order, supplied and fitted with steel reinforced frame, all the furniture and VAT I got them down to £700 from £799. I got my friend to ask the guy who did her DG windows if he could do it cheaper and he said no he'd have to pay £700 for the door alone.

I've just told my Dad and he went ballistic saying I was being ripped off! It's what I'd expected to pay really so I wasn't surprised. He thought because the wooden door he uses as a back door (it's an interior door really) cost £50 10 years ago that that's what I should be paying!

Anyone who's in the business or has had one fitted recently, please can you advise re price?

I had a composite door fitted in a house I was renovating last year and its was 1k. That included the top fanlight aswell and frosted glass. 700 is cheap.

Yes sounds about right for a secure composite door. Ours was a bit more in fact but does make a very satisfying secure sounding clunk when you shut it

Why dont you see if you can find a reclaimed door and get a good chippy to alter and fit it for you?
This would be cheaper than £700 but of course it depends on what sort of door you are after.
There are some reasonably priced doors here but cant vouch for the quality
www.woodendoors.co.uk/products.asp?ID=165

Thanks Pannacotta but I can't have a wooden door again - very exposed position of house means it gets all the weather going so replacing wood with wood is going to be a false economy.

Please keep your prices coming

I paid £1300 some years ago and £700 is a good price. I doubt you can get it much cheaper now..maybe a few years down the line!

Even a cheaper wooden door fitted with furniture would be close to £500.

If you are the person that lives in the flat please be aware that you might need planning permission to replace the door in a different material as flats don't have permitted development rights in the same way as houses do. Please check with planning!

A top quality hardwood door should cost you less than half that.

Ask a few friends and neighbours "have you ever had trouble with your front door?" and if they say yes, ask if it is a plastic or composite one.

It almost always will be....

Don't understand why a wooden door won't withstand the weather... Most UK houses have wooden doors after all....
Just keep it well decorated and it should be fine. Will cost you less than composite and look much nicer!

Btw we have 4 external doors in our house, the only one we have problems with is the uPVC one, the wooden ones are all fine whatever the direction/weather they face!

I do live in a flat, the far end one in the row of 3 on the balcony. 2 of the flats have cheap half glazed UPVC doors in white which are falling apart and look disgraceful! They said they had replaced their wooden doors with the UPVC due to problems with the swelling and shrinking of the wood.

Mine is the only one that has a wooden door and it is brown, stained in "rosewood" colour. So I do not think there will be any planning issues, no. The contractor says he will replace it so it looks exactly the same as what I have now, but I think I would prefer the oak effect finish.

Obviously if I lived in the middle of the row I'd have to have the same as my neighbours but being at the end it seems not to have mattered over the years before I moved in.