Patio doors

[jane1511]

Hello, looking for some advice or thoughts on patio doors. We are having a garage conversion and would like patio doors which will open out onto our front drive. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the options there are. We have timber windows and all other doors are timber in the rest of the house and would probably therefore like painted timber doors. Is softwood a complete false economy? Can anyone recommend anywhere we can get good quality doors without spending a fortune? Thanks.

Don't the security and privacy issues worry you?

In what way? There seem to be lots of French doors with proper locks on them and we live in a quiet area with basically no crime.

It used to be the case that a spade or similar implement could be used quite easily to prise the doors upwards and pop the lock. Of course, they are probably better made now. If you live in a quiet area, well fair enough.

you ought to have some kind of canopy to keep the worst of the rain off, it is very bad for softwood.

For security you might have laminated glass panels rather than ordinary safety glass which is very easily broken with a simple pocket tool.