New front door - where to start and costs?

[Impossiblepossibilities]

1930’s semi, front door is the original, but needs replacing and also badly fitted so you could practically drive a bus through the gaps around it.

We want to replace it before next winter, as the hall/stairs/landing get really cold and are already hard enough to heat because it has a vaulted ceiling over the stairs. (Hard to explain, but basically there’s a lot of air-space above the stairs, so all the heat goes straight up - terrible design.)

Started to have a look, but there are so many options these days and I have no idea of potential costs for the different types.

Basically, we want something in keeping with the style/age of the house, with good insulating properties and will need the frame/threshold replaced as well. Doesn’t have to be high-end, but would like it to be decent quality and we don’t want to do a budget job that will need to be done again fairly soon.

Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer some advice please?

I did exactly this with my last house! I asked for local recommendations and went with a really good local firm.

Mine was a 1930s. I bought a duck egg blue composite door with the side windows and top for about £2k. It was fitted in a day and they took away the old door. The hallway was so much lighter and warmer after it was fitted. Much as I loathe that house I loved that door!

Just had ours done, for much the same reason. We have a very old house (circa 1850) and the front door was rumoured to be the original, which I can well believe. It was solid oak, but had warped and bent over the years to the point it no longer fitted in the frame. The gap at the bottom was so big a gust of wind would blow leaves and grit all over the hall floor.

Anyway, we had the whole lot re-done: New solid wood door, flag windows each side, frame and doorstep. We went to a local window company - they did new double glazing for us a year before which we were very pleased with. It cost us over £5k.
If it had been just the door it would have been about £3k. Less if we'd gone for composite.

I'd recommend going to window/door places that have showrooms. I find it hard to choose from options on a website but seeing them in "real life" gives me a better idea of what I want.

Thank you both.

I am undecided on whether to go for wood or composite. Do you think there is a big difference in thermal retention?

I think what puts me off composite is not being able to change the door furniture myself in the future, as the options I’ve seen online seem pretty limited.

We don’t have side windows, so it would just be the door and frame.

We're just waiting for a price from our local builder. 60s semi so going for composite rather than wood as don't need to match an older property's character, and helpfully the brochure shows how energy efficient each door is. I've actually been walking round the neighbourhood to look for doors I like and used that to inform our shortlist.

Also, offer or sell your original door to an architectural restorer. We have a local guy who buys, gets gifted, or finds original doors and restores them then sells and refits them. Keep the heritage.

Mum has a 1030s house, she had This fitted last year with a new frame etc by a local joiner and then painted Chiltern Green. It looks so lovely and in keeping.

i have composite doors, great colours, warm, clean etc but my house is a 1990s house so it isn’t as pretty as mums.

That’s one of the doors I was looking at last night. Our house is quite cottagey in style and I think that one would suit it without being too try-hard quaint, iyswim. It’s similar to the original style too, but just a little bit more interesting.

Can’t help with costs. But our composite front door is brilliant on thermal retention/prevention. In the hit blast we’ve just had, it was lovely and cold on the inside whilst baking hot on the outside. The reverse is true in cold weather, warm inside whilst air temperature on the outside. I think they are also considered more secure than a wooden door.