Does your composite door warp/swell?

[missbunnyrabbit]

Looking into getting a composite door and already had a few quotes. Today I had a man who said their company only sell the 70mm doors because the 44mm standard ones aren't good. He says they can warp or swell, particularly if they are in the sun.

One of the main reasons I wanted a composite door was because my current wooden door warps when it's wet outside and becomes really hard to open or shut or lock.

So, I just want to know if anyone here with a standard 44mm composite door has had any problems with warping?

Thanks!

I will try to remember to measure mine tomorrow.

this is year 7 and no warping, but we do have a keyhole porch so maybe it’s a bit more sheltered?

There's no real reason why a 44mm door should be any worse than a 70mm door. Water should have little or no effect unless the door is damaged and the core exposed to moisture ingress. Sunlight can absolutely heat and shrink the composite skin on the outside while the inside remains ambient. This would cause the door to bow and distort and possibly for a core to disbond from the skin.

If you are considering a composite door that is exposed to harsh sunlight for extended periods I would strongly recommend a light colour.

Composite materials will shrink within 24hrs at say 60C so this could well be the case for a dark door, south facing, over the course of a hot week in summer.

Either way make sure you have a decent warranty.

Had ours for about eight years and not had any trouble. We do have a car port if that makes a difference. Prefer this to previous wooden doors.

Sadly I wasn’t given any advice on colour for my composite door, or heard about the possibility of swelling, and chose black. It was fitted in a warm spell and within a week it had expanded and wouldn’t open. 2 years on I have to open windows over it and have had extra internal door with a lock for security installed, yet still have to cross my fingers every time the temperature rises. I now walk with the keys to my back door and have climbed over my fence a number of times to get in.

Idk about warping or swelling, but according to my LL's carpenter, ours has dropped and there is nothing he can do about it.

This means we have to slam the handle up with brut force to be able to lock it, and there's a hecking big gap around the top right hand side.

It's quite annoying.

The same seems to have happened with the garage door, and the front door drags open across the floor.

That said, my LL is excellent of getting everything on the cheap, so quality of doors and carpenter are questionable.

I also think the house is moving, and they just aren't addressing it.

Kiev ours dropped, DH made an adjustment and tightened the hinges iirc and it’s been fine ever since. I wouldn’t ask a carpenter to look at a composite door.

Rebelling that is shocking! Ours is dark blue, no issues. Had no clue this could ever be a problem and TBH, the company/fitters were crap and we have had no end of issues with the patio door but front door is fine.

Wow Daft had no clue any of this could happen. We are looking at moving & I would have chosen a composite door again, I will def think carefully before making any choices.

Personally

Try again.

We are slowly replacing our doors and windows with thermally broken aluminum.

Thanks everyone. The door is straight onto the road and faces east, so does get morning sun. It will be a cream door -will that help it not to swell?

I find my white rear composite door on the garage gets a bit sticky in summer it faces east so gets a lot of sun in the morning. This may be because I don't use it much though.

The front grey composite door never had any issues with it.

I bought this bungalow in 2021 and I think the door is plastic/composite - it is white, and faces east, and does stick when it's very sunny. I had a locksmith round to look at it, he said it's par for the course with this type.

Your post has reminded me of my grandparents, they had a multicoloured strip plastic affair hanging outside their front door. I always thought it was to stop flies, buht must have been to stop sun bleaching.

Hmm, it does seem to be a thing then. How frustrating. Not sure i want to pay 1300 for a door that will stick!

We have a cream composite door which is east facing. Had it for 2 years now and not had issue with it at all

We’ve had ours for about 8 years now, it’s dropped (is that because they’re heavy?! No idea 😂 maybe not, I just can’t think why this would be a specific composite door issue 😂) and it sticks. Takes a hard shove to open or close it. Dark grey and totally exposed with no porch etc.
hard to say if I regret it, our last door was an ugly UPVC one, this one looks much more modern and fits in better with what we’ve done to the house. It was crazy expensive though, which I suppose makes the stickiness more annoying!

We have a Solidor front and side in dark greyish blue sorry forgot name
It does swell sticks occasionally and the long bar handle is going rusty
As are the keys and the lock
Expensive and not worth the money

That's absolutely shocking. That's no time at all for a door to last. How disappointing. Thought composite were supposed to be the bees knees!

I have a navy blue composite door and I’ve had to replace it twice (for free, under guarantee) in 10 years! It warps and sticks…wouldn’t get another one…

No. I put a composite door on the garage as the pvc one did warp and wouldn’t shut as it was in full sun. The composite one is a perfect fit and doesn’t have any issues.

We’ve got the size you’re asking about in dark blue that faces into the sun from mid day onwards regularly goes above 50 degrees in the summer

our first one was replaced as it was faulty and bubbled in the centre after 6 months but the present one has been there for 5 years

This one’s been fine but I found it had faded and lost it’s shine recently due to the direct sun, I used a product called door restore on it this week and it looks brand new