How upgrading your composite front door for a steel one could save you thousands

How upgrading your composite front door for a steel one could save you thousands

A relatively low entry price and wide variety of styles and colours have meant that composite doors have grown in popularity over the years. However, any savings made on the initial installation price is soon absorbed due to the thermal inefficiency and general performance of the door over a longer period of time.

Generally, GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) composite doors are prone to warping, fading, bowing and twisting. Within months of fitting, homeowners will often experience doors that no longer shut properly, develop draughty gaps around the edges, and start to look tired and worn despite their relative newness.

For just a few hundred pounds more, all those issues and more can be eliminated by choosing an aluminium and steel entrance door over and above a composite door. Not only could that mean significant savings simply because you won’t need to replace your front door sooner than anticipated, but it will also mean better thermal insulation to both retain warmth in the winter, and keep your home cool in the summer.

“Imagine having to change the doors on your car every few years simply because they no longer open or shut properly,” commented Danny Williams of Gerda Doors, a door brand that is renown for its engineering precision and superior thermal insulation properties. “You’d be concerned for its security every time you parked it up, and during the cold, wet days you’d lose any kind of fuel efficiencies trying to keep yourself warm and dry. We don’t expect that from car manufacturers, so there is no way we should expect that from door manufacturers.”

Gerda Doors, which are manufactured to withstand the more extreme hot and cold East European temperatures in Poland, which makes their navigation of the UK’s more temperate climate an absolute breeze! The design and engineering of the metal components guarantees a consistency in performance that is unachievable by the more modular make up of most composite doors.

UK building regulations set a minimum U-value for entrance doors of 1.4 W/m2k. It is vital for homeowners to double and triple check the veracity of any claims around U-values and composite doors, and there are stories of ‘fudging’ compliance according. Often compliance will only relate to the more expensive premium products.

That thermal efficiency is usually achieved through a combination of:

• The thickness of the door itself.
• The core of the door slab
• The material used on the outer slab
• Whether or not the door is glazed

You need to check if:

• The door is a minimum of 60mm.
• That the overall construction of the door is designed for ultimate thermal insulations.
• That any glass used is triple glazed.

Once you are assured that these fundamental requirements are met, you can then move on to the more enjoyable decisions such as style and colour.

“Composite doors have long been a popular choice for entrance doors across the UK, but with regulations around energy performance ratings tightening up homeowners need to balance out style with performance,” continued Danny Williams. “Luckily our Gerda Doors combine both, without placing excessive financial demands on the homeowner.”