When choosing your new front door, you will have the choice whether to complement the style of the property or create a contrast. Materials, door design, fixtures, fittings, glazing and finish all play their part in your decision and design.
Our advice is to complement the existing property style. If you are looking for a Victorian style front door, if it is finished in a bold colour, it might look great in a nineteenth or early twentieth-century property but the same door would probably not look as good if fitted to a property built in the nineteen sixties or seventies.
Choosing to contrast rather than complement is harder but when given some thought, it can look amazing and add value to your home.
Warm welcome
Replacing a front door is a good time to consider related home improvements. If the front entrance has a porch, there may be the opportunity for an inner and an outer door, giving you a space to store coats, umbrellas or shoes and separating the living area from the entrance – this can not only be a great storage addition to the home, it is likely to further enhance security and energy saving too.
Where a front door is recessed, moving it forward, flush with the front of the house can create a bigger hallway space and the opportunity to plan flooring, levels and the front door step. Consider whether the way that the door opens left or right is best for you, do you need to swap to a left-handed or right-handed door?
Replacing a front door doesn’t need planning permission unless your home is a listed building or in a conservation area. If your property is leasehold, you may need to check with the freeholder or management company before making the upgrade.
Materials
There is a huge variety of choices of colours available for UPVC and composite doors. Composite doors can offer remarkably authentic looking wooden finishes which need hardly any maintenance and will never need painting. Composite doors combine advantages of both solid wood and UPVC and are highly customisable in all aspects of their design. They have become an established choice offering a strong structure achieved by combining different materials. A composite door is very durable, will not warp or rot and is very resistant to forced entry.
Solid wooden doors are traditional. However, they do not give the same security or insulation which composites and uPVC offer. Older varnished wooden doors may no longer be the best choice if the door is facing south with exposure to the sun. Traditional wood doors can be painted or varnished however they are susceptible to warping letting in draughts and sticking in wet weather. You should expect timber doors appearance to deteriorate over time and you will need to maintain them.
Rain, sunshine, prevailing wind are considerations when you are thinking about a replacement front door; the weather affects choice of material, maintenance and likely serviceable life of the door. If the property faces the direction from which heavy rain is driven, choose a high-quality front door and frame with excellent door seals.
Glass
If your front door includes glass, your glazing choice can completely change the whole look and feel of the front entrance. There are a huge variety of clear, tinted, frosted and patterned glass available in single, double-glazed and triple-glazed formats.
Here at G&L Windows, we ensure that all front doors meet the latest minimum British Standards in respect of all aspects of glass including the security, the thermal ability, the safety qualities such as the characteristics of the force required to break the glass and the nature of how it breaks.
Glazing can add a whole new feel to the entrance of your home and it is worth taking some time to think about what you want.
We have years of experience when it comes to front doors. We offer a free design service that will help you achieve the perfect balance. For more information, get in touch.
