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Which type of front door: composite or solid wood?

S

Schnitger

pfm Member
Given the wealth of experience on PFM, I though it might be worth sounding out Fishies on their experience of fitting front doors. It's not the most exciting of topics, but I need a new front door (the current mahogany door is badly warped) and don't know whether to go for solid wood or a composite design. As I understand it, the latter are more durable, offer better acoustic and heat insulation, and don't need painting/staining etc. On the other hand, nothing can compete with the appearance of wood. That said, I don't like the wood grain effect of composite doors and would prefer to have a flat finish.

I'm inclined to go for composite: a door that holds its shape and offers the best insulation etc seems sensible. If anyone has experience of this and can offer some insights, I'd be grateful for their comments.
 
Solid wood will take a certain amount of neglect/water ingress around paint/cracks in paint etc.. Composite absolutely will not.

Insulation property differences are irrelevant. Both should hold their shape if made properly and painted/treated as required.
 
Depends on the style of the house and existing windows really. Just go for the type that looks the best.

I have a 70’s house and have a composite door on order to match the Teckentrup garage door installed a coupe of years back. Modern design.
 
Vinny said:
Solid wood will take a certain amount of neglect/water ingress around paint/cracks in paint etc.. Composite absolutely will not.

Insulation property differences are irrelevant. Both should hold their shape if made properly and painted/treated as required.
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Interesting. Do composite doors have a tendency to develop cracks that can allow water ingress? Presumably they don't like this as they are coated with a plastic material and do not allow the door to dry out.
 
Rug Doc said:
Depends on the style of the house and existing windows really. Just go for the type that looks the best.

I have a 70’s house and have a composite door on order to match the Teckentrup garage door installed a coupe of years back. Modern design.
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I'm thinking about the design. The house is a typical 1930s semi: a modern design would look out of place, as would too traditional a design. Quite a few contractors offer the ability to upload house photos to their website and visualise the house with their doors.
 
Schnitger said:
Interesting. Do composite doors have a tendency to develop cracks that can allow water ingress? Presumably they don't like this as they are coated with a plastic material and do not allow the door to dry out.
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At some stage any door will let water into the fabric of the door.
Composites - chip or fibre boards, will swell and never go back. Solid wood will move, but mostly go back to where it started.
 
Not sure what your budget is but you could look at bespoke doors made from Accoya, little or no movement and a genuine wood grain. Not especially cheap though, but not mad money either.
 
Vinny said:
Interesting - never heard of accoya - chemically modified (rather than chemically treated) timber (if my skim reading of their their spiel is correct and to be believed).

To be borne in mind for future reference. Thanks

Accoya Wood: modified wood, long life treated wood, sustainable wood,
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Yes it's chemically modified via a technology called acetylation.

From the Accoya information sheet:

"Acetylation effectively changes the free hydroxyls within the wood into acetyl groups. This is done by reacting the wood with acetic anhydride, which comes from acetic acid. When the free hydroxyl group is transformed to an acetyl group, the ability of the wood to absorb water is greatly reduced, rendering the wood more dimensionally stable and, because it is no longer digestible, extremely durable. This process is forced throughout the body of the wood, so when Accoya wood is cut or jointed there are no exposed non-acetylated surfaces in any dimension. This completely negates the need to apply additional chemical preservatives on-site, as is necessary with unmodified or envelope-treated woods."

I hadn't come across it until a few years ago and at first I thought it too good to be true so I bought some test cladding for my future renovation and made up a board of it (about 2 square metres) and left it out in the middle of my paddock so it gets all weathers.. hot sun... pouring rain... frost... everything. 13 months later and it was still dead straight and measured to the millimetre how it did when I made it up. And that was with no treatment whatsoever. Now have windows and doors made from it and they are absolutely stable and it looks the part too. It's not quite the same looks wise as genuine oak or the likes, but the lack of rot and dimensional stability swing it for me.
 
tiggers said:
Yes it's chemically modified via a technology called acetylation.
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They have been doing that since Noah was a lad - cellulose acetate. Get as far as triacetate and add some plasticiser and you get something that can be and is, made into film (especially camera film). :)

I like the new adaptation though - very clever lateral thinking. Like so many bloody clever ideas, no need for totally novel things, invention from scratch.
 
We had a wood door for about 20 years, it was fine but wasn’t amazing in terms of installation. Our recent composite door looks very smart but is a little temperamental re the lock.
 
Composite doors are good but had several situations where they started catching on the frame for some reason and because of metal frame they are hard to trim to size

Many fit composite doors now , saw a beauty today

I still like wood as it can be adjusted though if needed
 
There's not necessarily any wood in a composite door. Foam core, steel frame, grp reinforced upvc skins witj plastic beauty sheets on ours. Aztec windows, coventry.
 
composite here, been in 10 years and not an issue. 1930s terrace.

Thinking of changing, purely for aesthetic reasons, will be another composite.
 
I recently replaced doors and windows on my garage, during negotiations was informed that long long waiting lists for composite as they're not made in the UK
 
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