Options for front doors to a house? Most seem overpriced and flimsy

[SouthLondonDaddy]

Looking at options for the front door to a Victorian house, and I am absolutely shocked at the price of some doors – you’d be paying thousands of pounds for a door that can still basically be kicked down relatively easily!

What have you people gone for, what options did you consider?

Banham wants £3,000 - £3,300 for a not-too-thick door; when I asked if there was any kind of steel reinforcement, and if it was all timber or composite, the lady in the showroom had no clue.

Solidoor makes 46mm timber doors; I was quoted between £2,000 - £2,500 depending on bells and whistles.

Rockdoor can add, for an extra, a steel mesh, but the core remains foam.

Small joineries etc can cost even more than Banham.

What I find crazy is that for £3,000 – 3,600 you can get a CE level 3 certified European steel door, with wooden panels that make it look like an ordinary Victorian door from the outside. If you have ever been to Germany, Italy or Spain you will have noticed how ubiquitous they are there. This stuff is not a world but a galaxy apart from most of the junk missold as ‘secure’. I’m talking about something like this: www.corinthiandoors.co.uk/security-doors-gold.php Surely that kind of steel is infinitely more secure than a timber door or a mix of timber, foam and marshmallows!

Of course if the steel doors were 5 times more expensive it wouldn’t be worth it, but if the difference is so small it’s another matter: these other products don’t seem much better than a £300 door you can get at Selco.

So far the best compromise I have found is the German brand Hormann. Most of its styles are too modern for a Victorian house, but this might do: www.hormann.co.uk/fileadmin/_db/produkte/THP_100.png

They are not as secure as the practically bulletproof CE level 3 doors, but at least they’re solid metal and a door can cost about £2k, i.e. as much if not less than Solidoor.
www.hormann.co.uk/home-owners-and-renovators/doors/front-doors-thermo65-thermo-46/

It’s not just about security, but also about insulation – in a good 3/4 of the old houses I have seen the doors had been fitted quite poorly, letting lots of draught through.

Thoughts?

PS An explanation of the CE certification is here: www.americanmasterdoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/NORMA-1627-EN-US-Ver-Clean.pdf
The Horman doors can be level 2.

I went for panelled M&T hardwood doors, because I like wood. The back doors have two BS mortice locks each, all on the same key.

Banham aim at the money-no-object market.

If you buy a modern doorset (including frame) it should be weatherstripped and draughtproof.

Put the letterbox to one side if you can, rather than in the door. And on the hinge side, nowhere near the locks and internal handles.

M&T = mortice & tenon? Solid wood, with no foam inside?

Do you remember how much you paid for the door, and where you got it?

How about insulation - any draught at all?

The previous supplier no longer offers them to that spec. The similar looking door is now veneered on "engineered" wood, i.e. bits glued together. I would probably have to go to a joinery works to get one made. They were some £hundred each.

My PIL have something very much like the image on this page:

www.lambden.com/doors/steel-entry-doors/

ie. a steel door, clad to look more like painted wood, with a stained glass window in the top half.

It's very solid, and locks into the frame in multiple places when they raise the inside handle - I wouldn't want to try kicking it in!

And doesn't look out of place on their un-modified 70s bungalow.

But a Victorian house would originally have been built with a painted softwood door, probably Baltic pine. It will last better if protected from the rain by at least an open porch, because most householders and decorators fail to paint the top and bottom of a door, where water and insects are most likely to enter. My previous house has a 110 year old pine door in fine condition. Nobody will be saying that about a plastic or composite door. It is 48 inches wide and 2 thick, and would have been expensive when new.

In my area there are quite a lot of joiners because a local college trains them. They can all make a M&T panelled door, if necessary using nothing but saws, planes and chisels.

I have a solid iroko door, made to measure due to non standard size of frame (much larger than off the peg) on my Edwardian house. It is 50mm thick (so about 2in). I had it made and fitted last summer by a local joinery company, it was about £3k all in. I’m in the SW though. I think you’ll pay a London premium.

Buy a cheaper door and a dog - no chance of anything getting kicked in then!

We've got three Rock Doors, absolutely love them. Solid as hell and I like how the sound simply stops when you close them, like a spaceship airlock. House became loads warmer, too, despite iffy windows.

May I ask how much you paid for your Rockdoors? Is it true that they have a foam core? Good insulation, then?

How about locks? Does it lock automatically when you close the door? Does it have one or two cylinders? Can you open from the inside without a key (safer in an emergency but dangerous with little kids)?

Ours was from the London Door Company. Stupidly expensive (£3K ish?) but I do think that there is some amount of metal panelling inside the wood (vaguely remember them saying that)

It is a solid door, and we get lots of compliments on it. No issues 3 years on. Not that there should be for that price.......

For that kind of money I can almost get an Italian security steel door, with CE certification, and wooden panels that make it look like a traditional Victorian door from the outside. It would be bombproof compared to the most solid wooden door!