Noisy composite front door - anyone had this problem?

NoisyDoor

I have a GRP composite front door that was installed about 18 months ago. I'm generally pleased with it but it does make loud cracking sounds throughout the latter part of the day and night - it's quite intermittent, but can be up to once a minute; the noise is loud enough to wake me during the night as the door is quite near the bedroom. The noise doesn't occur on all days - it tends to be on days where the sun has heated up the (west-facing) door from mid-afternoon onwards. It therefore looks as if the materials used in the door are expanding and contracting at different rates and causing the creaking/cracking sounds.

My question is whether anyone else has experienced this and, if they have, can it be resolved? I've tried getting the supplier to fix the problem but they claim that this is normal for composite doors and that I'll have to live with it (the salesman didn't mention this before I signed the contract, so I'm not happy...). I've also discussed this with some neighbours who had composite doors fitted by the same company and they haven't experienced any issues even though their doors are south-facing and west-facing (and a darker colour than my door, which is golden oak). One neighbour did say that the supplier fitted the wrong model of door originally and that did make cracking noises during the night, but the second (correct model) replacement door doesn't make any noise at all. This makes me wonder whether a manufacturing fault could be causing the issue with my door. None of the neighbours have precisely the same front door as mine, but several are very similar in design i.e. different shaped window panels, but broadly the same amount of glass.

Any advice or shared stories of noisy doors much appreciated!

TheCyclingProgrammer

Yes, we have a composite door that suffers from occasional creaks and expansion noises. As you say this happens as it heats up and cools down and the greater variance in temperature the more it will happen. It tends to be around parts like glazing trims etc. with ours.

It seems to have settled down a little bit of late (the door is about 15 months old). It was annoying at first but it doesn't happen enough any more to bother me. I'm not sure there's really anything you can do about it. Some of our uPVC windows also make similar popping noises as they expand and contract.

Chanes

Not noticed our door making any odd noises and it's in the sun for most of the day.

Hoploz

I had a composite door fitted at my old house. Dark blue, south facing. It did creak. More annoying was the difficulty locking it when hot. Really struggled at times.

New house has aluminium bifold doors facing south. Whole length of pvc guttering creaks and cracks on the back of the house - it can be quite noisy! Again, really hard to lock the doors when hot.

Just seems plastic + heat do not mix well. I think that is the problem. My neighbour had UPVC cladding put on the south face of his house to replace the timber and found it bent all over the place and looked awful after only a few months

Wassa123

Ours is 7 years old, and also makes these cracking noises.

Sometimes I think it's someone trying the door handle hoping we haven't locked it!

NoisyDoor

Yes, that's exactly what I thought at first - it did sound as if someone was trying to break in. Either that, or someone was throwing stones at the door...

Thanks to everyone for the replies so far - it really helps to know I'm not the only one with this problem. And it's good to see that not everyone is affected, although it does seem to be down to luck whether you get a noisy door or not.

pickledonionspaceraider

Hoploz wrote: »

. Whole length of pvc guttering creaks and cracks on the back of the house - it can be quite noisy!

We have the same issue

JamesN

I'm in a new build and I got the snaggers round to sort my front door as there was a big gap at the top between the door and the frame. They refitted the door and I noticed you could still move it slightly when it was locked. They said it needs that little bit of movement to allow for the expansion.

Based on that I would think the frame is too tight on the door and so the door may need to be adjusted.

Furts

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

We have the same issue

We were getting loud cracks occurring around 6.00 -7.00 in the morning and this could have been the door heating up as the morning sun was hitting it. We never pinned down the reason, because the door did fail. The door was a likely culprit.

I have said before and will say again - I believe countless composite doors are absolute dross. Give fashion a number of years and there will be a new "must have" door and people will be desperate to get rid of them.

A general broad brush approach is the quality of most is abysmal. An anecdotal example is the local authority up the road from me. They have replaced thousands of constantly failing composite doors from various manufacturers. It is thought they have now found a decent one, but time will tell.

Amongst those rejected and condemned are big names in the retail market like DoorStop. Back to OP - whose door have you got, and it it a decent quality one, as far as composite doors go?

NoisyDoor

Back to OP - whose door have you got, and it it a decent quality one, as far as composite doors go?

Thanks for your reply - the door was supplied by Anglian; it's the Exeter design in golden oak colour. I don't know whether it's better or worse than other makes but I'm happy with the appearance; it also seems nice and solid and there are no draughts. It's interesting what the previous poster (JamesN) said about the frame being too tight on the door as I did ask the local Anglian supervisor to check this and he said he couldn't find anything wrong; not that I have a lot of faith in that opinion as fobbing people off seems par for the course with this company, in my experience anyway. I'll see if I can get them to come out again to have yet another look.

A number of my neighbours have had Anglian doors fitted recently and I think I'm the only one who has a persistent noise problem - someone else had a Canterbury design door fitted in error and that made similar cracking noises to my door, but their correct replacement door (Chichester design) makes no noise at all. That door was also west-facing like mine, but was in a dark woodgrain finish.

Chanes

We have had Rockdoor Ultimate fitted in properties and haven't noticed any problems with them and they are A++ rated too. I believe Solidor are also good doors though I know nothing about them. I really like composite doors and I don't know why some of them cause problems. I have been told they can be trickier to fit and that is a source of problems.