Composite Door Shop Blog

If you live in a coastal area, choosing a new front door involves the consideration of several more factors than it would if you lived inland. If you have noticed that your existing front door is looking a little worse for wear and you live in a coastal area, it’s definitely time to invest in a new one.

Coastal areas are a whole different ball game when it comes to front door weathering, due to the increased likelihood of strong eroding winds and the impact of the salty air which sweeps round the UK coast. Wooden front doors bear the brunt of coastal erosion, compromising the safety of your home and shortening the life of the front door.

Wooden front doors look attractive, however they can be severely affected by the salty elements of weather in coastal regions. Wooden front doors often warp, split and swell in coastal conditions, meaning that your home is more vulnerable to crime and burglary.

Benefits of Composite Doors

So you now know to steer clear of wooden front doors if you are concerned about coastal weathering, but what other options are there?

Composite front doors, made with high quality, weather resistant materials and with a wood look finish are the best bet for a long lasting front door in coastal regions.

Made from tough materials, the finish on composite front doors are designed to look like wood, but perform like uPVC, delivering a front door that is impervious to the erosion experienced by many on the coast.

Combat coastal erosion with a composite front door, choose from many different designs and finishes to complement your home.

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.’

If you are selling your home, you will know how vital it is for your house to make the right first impression. It is well known that we make swift judgements on those all important first moments and potential buyers can know within several seconds whether a home is right for them.

All those hours keeping your home spotless in preparation for house viewings may be wasted if the first impression of your home is not right. A new front door can make the difference between a positive or negative first impression, so investing in a quality composite front door to improve the look of your home is a great idea if you wish to attract viewers and sell your home quickly.

Ensure good ‘kerb appeal’ with a new composite front door

Kerb appeal is the term for the attractiveness of a house exterior, often marred by such things as rubbish in the garden, peeling paintwork or a grotty front door. If your existing front door is old or unsightly it will significantly decrease the kerb appeal of your property, so install an attractive new composite front door to improve the exterior of your house before you put your property on the market.

Choose an appropriate composite front door for your house

It’s important for your house to complement the surrounding properties, and this includes your front door. Avoid choosing a front door that doesn’t fit in with the neighbourhood. Heavy victorian style composite front doors look odd on a new build home, and more modern composite front doors can look misplaced on a period style property.

The Composite Door Shop

With 14 basic door designs to choose from and with an automatic 10 year guarantee, the composite door shop can help you every step of the way when buying a new front door.

If you are selling your house and want to improve the kerb appeal of your home with a new composite door, visit our online front door designer to create a new front door that fits your unique requirements exactly.