PVC or Wood Front Door

O

OkeyDokey

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We are replacing our front door. Our terraced house has an old wooden door with glass panels. In front of that is a tiny porch with an aluminium sliding door. The sliding door has been excellent at keeping out drafts but my wife hates the look of it.

We want to replace both doors with one new door. We want a door that does not allow drafts, doesn't swell and get stuck during the winter and requires low maintenance. It also has to look nice.

Is it true that engineered wood front doors are as good as PVC?
 
GO FOR PVC.nO MAINTENANCE,NO DRAUGHTS,NO STICKING.hAD THE OTHERS IN THE PAST ,NOTHING BUT TROUBLE,MAKE SURE YOU GO TO SOMEONE GOOD
 
We did the same, We took out the aluminium sliding door and the old wooden door, We put in an pvc door and tiled the small porch area, It looks a lot more spacious now, We have the pvc door 9 years now with no trouble, Also easy to keep clean.
 
We recently went through this dilemma. We went for the pvc in the end due to the low maintenance issue. Our front door is faces the side of our house so it is not so obvious and we felt we could get away with it.

There are some fairly horrible pvc doors out there. We live in the city so it is easy to drive around and see what you like or dont like. Give it a month and have a good look. You probably will change your mind over the month. If you are confident enough knock on the door you like and ask them where they got it. There is a huge difference between suppliers.

An insulation expert told us that the modern wooden doors are as good as the pvc ones in terms of heat retention. Consider keeping your porch for insulation purposes.
 
Hi OkeyDokey,

We have a wooden door which has been a pain in the past with swelling and therefore sticking so IMHO these type of doors would appeal to me. You could have a look at the key post in H&G and you may get some advice from that.

We presently have the wooden door but it is protected by the uPVC sliding porch door which works out ok.
 
I've just replaced my wooden door (about 15 yrs old) with a PVC door & frame. The wooden door faced the sun for the afternoon/evening, so it was awkward to maintain, and as there isn't a porch, it was open to all weathers too.

New PVC door is dark green - there are some nice colours out there now, you're not just stuck with white anymore!
 
If you are concerned about security I would go for a wooden door. Its is very difficult to add any extra security latches or locks to PVC, they usually are fairly ineffective.

But you can add mortice deadlocks etc to wooden doors that are much more secure.
 
composite door

As regards security with a composite door- it has 5 points of locking 3 of which are a hook type mechanism that is extremely secure. Also, the seal is excellent for keepin gout draughts and noise. Composite doors can be made with triple grazed glass panels and come in many designs.
 
Unless I am mistaken then composite doors have a single cylinder lock (the part you put the key into) in the same way as PVC doors have. This cylinder is secured into the door via a single screw. It is easy to break the screw or cylinder with force and once done all the other points of locking are useless.

It is much more difficult to compromise a mortice deadlock. You would be better off trying to break the whole door or frame than trying to force a mortice deadlock. With a wooden door you can easily add extra locks but you can't with PVC.
 
aristotle, if someone is going to go to the trouble of putting in a composite door they can (as most suppliers do), fit an "anti snap anti pick etc" cylinder.

If a timber door has a night latch a 1/3 down from the top and a 3g mortice lock 1/2 way up from the bottom, a good kick would split the frame or the door between the two locks.

A composite door is secured by hinge restrictors (on the hinge side) and a multi locking system with tightfitting anti snap cylinder (on locking side).

The type of multi locking system depends on the manufacturer of the door.
My own preference is shot bolts with mortice.

It should also be stated that there are timber doors with multilocking systems. Usually when these doors are kicked in the rebate on the door rips right up most of the length of the door.
A job that is nearly impossible to repair successfully.
 
If someone wants to break into a house they will find a way no matter what.

Even with those anti-snap, anti-pick cylinders the cylinder itself is held into the door with a single screw. Its the weakest point of the door security and once broken makes all the other security mechanisms uselss (correct me if I am wrong).

It would really take a superman kick to split a hardwood frame or door.
 
Actrually you would be surprised at how easy it is to get through a timber door. regardless of the locking system in situe.

In any event most windows fitted in Ireland have the slips on the outside, pop the slips with a screwdriver remove the glass ..................
 
i recently went through this dilemna and was initially looky for a pvc door to avoid air drafts on the front door.
I finally went for one composite door as they were looking much nicer and closer from a wood door.
I definitely recommend!
 
karibou57 said:
i recently went through this dilemna and was initially looky for a pvc door to avoid air drafts on the front door.
I finally went for one composite door as they were looking much nicer and closer from a wood door.
I definitely recommend!
Click to expand...

Hi Karibou, Just wondering who you went with for your composite door, and how much ball park it cost you?
 
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