Best front door for coping with direct sunlight?

rwj

I'm looking for a new front door for the house we've recently bought and am not sure whether to go for UPVC or composite, or what brands to look at.
The door is south facing without a porch so gets direct sunlight (even in Manchester!), and on the existing door the UPVC has buckled and split due to the heat / sun. We queried it when we were buying the house but the supplier had apparently fobbed off the person we were buying it off that it wasn't covered by the guarantee, and although I've now identified it should have been covered, the guarantee isn't transferable to us, grr!
I obviously don't want to have the same problem with a new door, but am hearing mixed reports over whether a composite door would be better or not. Is it just down to the quality of the door itself?
Any advice gratefully received!

wellused

We have a south facing house and we had a upvc door fitted about three years ago we enquired about a composite door but the double glazing company said that they had been having trouble with them on south facing properties and that upvc was the way to go.

robotrobo

wellused wrote: »

We have a south facing house and we had a upvc door fitted about three years ago we enquired about a composite door but the double glazing company said that they had been having trouble with them on south facing properties and that upvc was the way to go.

My son had a brown front door upvc, & would not open after the sun had been on it for a while.
Myself , i have a white upvc door ,which faces west, when the sun was dying down last summer the metal door lock & catch would expand & i could not lock the door !, yet the white upvc door was cool to the touch.

Furts

It is accepted and good building practice for all front doors to receive a porch. Back doors should receive protection as well! Hence the available budget should be directed at this, and there after consider the door. Cheap porches are available for DIY fit, typically pvcu or fibreglass. Look at the likes of Screwfix, Wickes etc so there is no excuse for not having one.

Better porches can be made in situ, and aesthetics on your home may preclude an off the shelf product.

Hope this helps.

rwj

Whilst a porch would seem a sensible approach, unfortunately that would then prevent us from being able to park on our drive, so not a practical option I'm afraid!

MisterBaxter

A good quality composite door with a white or very light finish should be ok. Some of the earlier composite doors and some the cheaper doors suffered severe differential thermal movement that resulted in delamination but newer doors of a good quality shouldn't.

White/light colours are less prone to thermal expansion. Brown PVC doors also suffer from thermal expansion.

The key is getting a good quality product.

casper_g

rwj wrote: »

Whilst a porch would seem a sensible approach, unfortunately that would then prevent us from being able to park on our drive, so not a practical option I'm afraid!

A cantilever canopy wouldn't eat into the parking space, but might still do something to keep off the worst of the midday sun.

wellused

robotrobo wrote: »

My son had a brown front door upvc, & would not open after the sun had been on it for a while.
Myself , i have a white upvc door ,which faces west, when the sun was dying down last summer the metal door lock & catch would expand & i could not lock the door !, yet the white upvc door was cool to the touch.

My south facing upvc door is red never had any trouble in the past two summers.

Horizon81

Furts wrote: »

It is accepted and good building practice for all front doors to receive a porch. Back doors should receive protection as well! Hence the available budget should be directed at this, and there after consider the door. Cheap porches are available for DIY fit, typically pvcu or fibreglass. Look at the likes of Screwfix, Wickes etc so there is no excuse for not having one.

Better porches can be made in situ, and aesthetics on your home may preclude an off the shelf product.

Hope this helps.

So what about 'french doors'? Mine point south so get the sun on them. The whole point is they open into the garden, you wouldn't want a porch on them. Unless you mean one of John Stalker's retractable canopies!

Gordon_Hose

Surely a porch would need a door too, and thus subject to the same question...

Furts

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

Surely a porch would need a door too, and thus subject to the same question...

Look at many 1930s houses and you will see the front door is located within an open porch. This has been replicated there after on many house styles by modern developers.

Countless homes have cantilever or gallows bracket porches - this is a real porch not the faux detail that people build onto houses and then mount a door on the outside.

For centuries back doors used to be sheltered by overhangs, coal houses, privvies and the like - there was a reason for this.