Solidor vs wooden front door?

[Missnearlyvintage]

Hi everyone,

We are in the market for a new outer front door (we have an outer and an inner front door as we have a porch), and our trusted window and door fitter has recommended a Solidor front door, and said out of the all the brands he's fitted, he thinks they are the best.

The online reviews for Solidor seem to contradict this though with issues like;
warping causing problems with opening/closing/locking,
fading door colour
bubbling of skin
poor quality door furniture etc.
There seems to be quite a long list of issues!

We have a painted wooden door at the moment which I think is around 15 - 20 years old. It is flimsy, and I don't imagine it was that expensive to begin with, but it is only just reaching the point where it is not economically viable to repair it. I would imagine it is probably only made from soft wood.

It hasn't been looked after ever so well so in it's life, but it makes me think that maybe as security isn't really an issue, (inner front door is secure) we might be better off just getting cheap-ish (compared to a solidor) wooden front door again, and then at least we can adjust it if it does have warping issues, and re-paint it in a different colour if we like etc.

Our house is a 1970s fairly ugly house, with a flat roofed porch and attached garage - hardly a pretty victorian terraced house or a cottage... It doesn't seem to suit the Solidor door ranges very much either which is adding to my cold feet about getting one I think.

All opinions welcome please!

I prefer a solid hardwood door, but they are rare now. You say yours is exposed to the weather. That needs they need frequent painting, especially the top and the bottom edges, which are usually neglected, and are the points where water is most likely to get in and damage the door. A weather bar also helps shed water.

However a composite door is much more expensive, so if you're contemplating that, you might consider a good-quality timber door. With reasonable care, it should last about a hundred years. A new hardwood door frame should preferably be fitted at the same time. I've had my external doors fitted on stainless lift-off hinges so they are easy to take off for maintenance.

If your door fitter is a carpenter, and not just a Solidor saleman, he will know the local suppliers by quality and price.

Thanks PigletJohn, you've helped me make up my mind and I think we will go for a wooden door.

The lift off hinges are a fantastic idea as well. I hadn't thought of that but it would certainly make maintenance easier.

Thanks again!

I had a Solidoor door fitted earlier this year and love it. Everyone who has been to our house has commented on how nice it looks.

Twobluefish - thanks for replying. There are lots of Solidors installed in the Town near us, and they look super smart on those houses, I'm just not sure one would look the part on our house. I did lots of google searches and superimposed pretty much all the Solidor styles on our house. I think if there was a style that looked great I'd just trust that the installer would rectify any issues...

I'm glad there are happy Solidor customers around as well!