Help improving front door

silvercar

I have a wood front door with 3 vertical panes of glass running nearly the whole length of the door.

Want to reduce the amount of glasss, is it possible to get wood panels instead of glass panels? The wood would need to be thicker than the glass for heat retention is this possible.

The other thing I don't like is the letter box this is vertical and too small. It is attached to the lock surround. For security I can't have a bigger letterbox here (or someone could put their hand in and open the yale). Is it possible to block that letter box and get another one put near the base of the door?

ic

You can probably block up these holes, but by the sound of it you just want a new door. I doubt you'll ever get it looking right filling holes and removing glass.

ormus

you can cetainly replace the glass panels with plywood. when stained or painted to match it wont look too bad.
i wouldnt replace the letterbox though. if you really need to do that, i would suggest replacing the whole door.
wickes do new exterior doors from about 80 quid.

silvercar

Am I restricted in the size of plywood? Does it have to be the thickness of the glass (6mm?). I really would like it to be the same thickness as the door to keep the heat in.

MX5huggy

Hows the glass held in? Putty or wooden beeding? is it on the inside or out?.

silvercar

wooden beading on the inside.

evilgoose

I'm no expert, but I'd suggest using two "thin'ish" pieces of ply and sandwich some rockwool in between if you are concerned with heat loss. Get your 1st piece of ply screw in some battons around the edge, put some insulation in the void then attached the 2nd piece plywood and fix in place.

It's just a thought - whether its a very good idea is a different matter! lol


*oh - missed it only 6mm - it not going work as would be to thick.

Peartree

I've thought about doing the same with my 'inner' front door. However, it is very large door, an unusual size and original to the house - otherwise I would just buy a new one. If yours is a standard, modern door, it may not be worth the time and effort. As other poster say, you can get new doors very cheaply from Wickes or a local timber merchant - by the time you buy the ply and battons it may not work out that much different.

ormus

you could loose the battens and then insert thicker plywood. just bond the plywood in, with say epoxy resin for a strong job.

MX5huggy

silvercar wrote: »

wooden beading on the inside.

OK so this is what I did so that I could fit a 16mm thick double glazed unit in a frount door, by the way DGU's are quite cheep really if you order them from a glass merchants.

Took out the old putty and glass. Then this left a rebate of approx 16mm so not deep enough. I put a frame of 5mm x 8mm round the hole on the surface of the door so now I had a 21mm rebate put the DGU in (using low modus silcone, get it from the glass supplier) then used more 5x8mm as beading to hold the glass.

Ofcourse there is no reasion not to use 16mm ply instead of the DGU or use bigger beading like 15mm x 15mm so you can use thicker ply.

You can just see what I did in this small photo

ixwood

An easier option is to bubble glaze it:-

http://mtbest.net/bubble-glazing.pdf

Some pics at the end. I think it looks a lot better than you'd expect.