Front Door Maintenance

To give your front door the longest lifespan possible, it requires maintaining. The level of maintenance required varies from front door to front door, depending on many factors.

High Maintenance Front Doors

In the high maintenance category are wooden front doors. These doors require a vast amount of attention on a yearly basis to keep them looking good and functioning well. Un-maintained wooden front doors will eventually rot or provide a poorer performance, so it is highly important that the maintenance is kept on top of. A wooden front door that is not maintained will have its lifespan cut in half.
The maintenance required includes a yearly oil of the hardware, which is standard for any door. The high maintenance aspect involves the door to be sanded and painted or varnished between every 1-5 years, to ensure the surface of the door is well protected. Wooden front doors which are located in full sun or near the coast will bear the brunt of weathering and may require maintaining on a more regular basis to keep the door looking smart.

Low Maintenance Front Doors

Two types of front door are included in the low maintenance category. The first, are uPVC front doors. These are most often the plastic white doors, common in modern homes. They also require the yearly oil of the hardware to ensure the hinges remain operating and do not wear away with friction. In addition to this, the doors only require cleaning when they get dirty. Because they are made from plastic, there is no risk of rotting. Most of the time you can wipe the doors clean with a damp cloth, but more stubborn dirt and stains could require a special PVC cleaner. Even with the cleaner, the doors will discolour over the years. An un-maintained uPVC front door only has its lifespan reduced by roughly 2 years in comparison to a maintained front door.
Second in the category of low maintenance front doors are composite doors. These doors require much the same maintenance as uPVC doors, with the exception that they are easier to clean so never require a special cleaner. Their special surface also has a higher level of resilience to weathering, so a composite front door won't fade or discolour over time.

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