Composite Door Shop Blog

A new front door can transform the outside of a home, and there has never been a better time to get a fashionable new look for your house. It’s now possible to find the right front door online quickly and easily.

The Composite Door Shop offer a huge range of front door options so you can tailor your new front door to your precise requirements. Fancy a cottage style front door or a modern panelled front door? Take a look at the front door styles page for 22 different door designs.

Fashions in front doors change from year to year, however if you take the time to choose a front door that suits your property, you will always have a fashionable front door! Right now solid colours are definitely ‘in’, and all of our front door options come in a range of attractive wood grain colours (see individual door styles for details) which include green, black, red, white, blue, light oak and dark wood.

As a finishing touch on a fashionable front door, choose some hardware from the Composite Door Shop in a chrome, brass or black finish. From door handle, knocker, letterbox, house numbers or peephole, we’ve got every front door accessory you could wish for. Click here for the full range of composite door options. For the outer frame of the front door, we offer a range of uPVC frames with five finishes, including a wood finish to complement the front door completely.

The Composite Door Shop also offers a range of front door side panels to suit any combination, providing that all important finishing touch off your porch perfectly. Side panels are custom made to your specification.

So for a fashionable front door, take a look at the online door designer at the Composite Door Shop and choose a front door that is right for you.

How to measure and fit a front door

Although The Composite Door Shop offers a full UK front door installation service, we know that sometimes a competent DIYer might find it quicker to measure their own front door for a fitting.

Measuring a front door requires care and attention, as the wrong measurements can lead to your door fitting incorrectly, meaning that your new front door will be less secure and difficult to use.

When measuring for a new front door, the areas you need to measure are the width, height and diagonals. Be sure to include the complete door, frame and cill in these measurements.

Measure the width of the front door at 3 points, the top, middle and bottom. Take the smallest measurement of each and deduct 10mm.

To measure the height, measure at left, centre and right and again take the smallest measurement and deduct 10mm.

For the diagonals, measure from top left corner to bottom right corner and vice versa, to ensure that the opening is square (less than 5mm difference in both measurements).

When measuring for a new front door:

- Use a new, metric tape measure
- Don’t use a linen or paper dressmakers tape measure
- Ensure enough clearance around the edge for the door to open properly

We provide detailed instructions on how to correctly measure a front door, including a free downloadable front door Measuring Guide PDF.

You can also see our online measuring guide for more help.

If your house has been on the market for a while and isn’t selling, it is time to rethink your selling tactics. Try to see your property as a potential buyer would. In the current economic climate, house buyers are not looking for properties that require a lot of work, as the cost of buying a house is so high that they do not want to shell out for additional costly improvements. These improvements could be a new kitchen or bathroom, new windows or a new front door. With this in mind, you should look at the things that are not up to scratch and can be replaced. Spending hundreds of pounds on a quality front door is not a poor investment when it could save you knocking thousands of pounds off the asking price of the house.

Buying a quality front door

It is important when making home improvements, such as replacing the front door, that you do not cut corners just to save money. A brand new but cheap, ugly-looking uPVC door can put off potential buyers as much as a rotten old wooden door. Nowadays, you can buy smart, attractive composite front doors that have a price range between expensive wooden doors and cheap uPVC doors. Not only do composite doors look good, but they offer many benefits such as excellent thermal ratings, a long lifespan, low maintenance and high security. Another advantage of buying a new composite door for the property you are trying to sell is that it gives you a long list of bonuses you can recite to viewers. As composite doors are quite modern, many people do not know what they are, so the information is bound to make a good impression.

High quality, composite front doors, with free UK delivery or nationwide installation are available from the Composite Door Shop. Free quotes and online ordering is available through the unique online door designer – allowing you to design and price your new front door without having to sign up.

Traditional wooden front doors look fantastic on period houses like Edwardian, Georgian and Victorian properties as well as adding a touch of style to more modern homes.

However, if you are looking to buy a wooden front door, you may be surprised to learn that there are some drawbacks to all-wood front doors when compared to the more modern front doors.

Drawbacks to wooden front doors include:

• poor heat insulation compared with more modern front doors,
• a tendency to bend and warp more than doors strengthened with modern materials on the inside of the door (these are called composite front doors),
• a shorter lifespan compared with hardier composite doors as wooden front doors weather and rot over time, particularly in the a wet climate of the UK.

Modern composite doors offer a middle ground between uPVC doors and old style wooden front doors, combining high quality state of the art materials and attractive wood grain finishes to provide a door that excels in both function and look.

You can easily get the look and feel of a wooden front door that has all the benefits of uPVC front doors by choosing a composite front door.

Benefits of Composite Door with a ‘wood grain’ finish

• Composite front doors have attractive wood grain fronts, and with a huge range of varnishes from light wood to dark oak, you can have the look of a wooden front door with the security and function of a modern uPVC door.
• Composite front doors mimic the look of wooden front doors. The difference is minimal and with high quality wood grain, such as the grain used in our composite front doors, you won’t be able to tell the difference.
• Composite doors have up to six times the heat insulation properties of timber front doors.

The Composite Door Shop has an online door designer where you can design and order a front door to meet your exact requirements. The Composite Door Shop fits anywhere in mainland UK, so take a look at our front door options and buy a ‘wooden’ front door with all the benefits of a modern door.

If you are looking for a quality new front door, then look no further than The Composite Door Shop. Providing high quality, low maintenance doors made from composite materials, bridging the gap between traditional wooden doors and modern uPVC doors, all our front doors come with a ten year guarantee offering you peace of mind as well as a great product.

Not only that, our doors have 6 times the heat insulation qualities of timber doors, reducing your carbon footprint and saving you money on heating costs. Our new composite doors have a maintained lifespan of up to 35 years, so invest in a new front door and take a look at our unique front door designer.

Buying a new front door is a big purchase so it’s comforting to know that the Composite Door Shop offers a ten year guarantee for every one of our composite doors fitted in the UK.

Our ten year guarantee on all composite front doors ensures that you can purchase from The Composite Door Shop safe in the knowledge that you are buying a quality front door. If your front door does not meet the conditions of the guarantee, you will receive a new front door, absolutely free of charge.

We guarantee that:

• our composite front doors will not crack, peel, chip, dent or flake with normal use

• the hardware supplied with the composite doors will retain standard functionality with normal use
• double glazing supplied with the composite front door will remain with seals intact and good visibility

• the uPVC outer frames will retain colour, strength and shape

As stated on our Composite Door 10 Year Customer Guarantee page: ‘This guarantee is subject to the door being treated in full accordance with any guidelines issued by the Composite Door Shop on the handling, storage, maintenance and usage of the door.’