Composite front door

Annie1960

Any thoughts on composite front doors" I'm thinking of a mid-priced one, it will be south-facing so needs to be able to withstand full sun.

Does the colour matter? Will it fade in the sun? I'm considering grey.

Also, what about locks?

Any suggestions on what I should look for/good brands/ones to avoid etc.

And what are the pros and cons of whether or not to have a letterbox? Some modern doors seem not to have these, but a separate box attached to the wall for letters. How convenient are these?

Chanes

Rockdoor or Solidor. I have Rockdoors fitted and have never had any trouble with them. But I hear Solidor are good too.

missprice

We have a rockdoor, fitted two years ago.
It warped, we don't know why, as soon as they were notified they organised a replacement door and it was fitted, in two days.
Now, my opinion only, is that sometimes things go wrong, but when a company sorts a fairly major problem like that in two days, it's good going.

They are checking/testing the old door and we may get to hear what was wrong with it.
It was a white door but another house had brown doors which faded after about 6years.

Hth

Annie1960

What about Rehau?

thebaldwindowfitter

seen many but still consider Rockdoor the best most others are made using Nhanya slabs from china .If south facing AVOID blue its the worst colour although most problems are caused when the sun is rising and setting due to no cloud cover

gamston

I fitted one about 4 yrs ago, got it from local company, its warpped top and bottom, it only gets the sun from 6-9 am
we only use to close door on the latch not the top and bottom locks

keith969

Annie1960 wrote: »

And what are the pros and cons of whether or not to have a letterbox? Some modern doors seem not to have these, but a separate box attached to the wall for letters. How convenient are these?

They tend to attract spiders and leaves so need regular cleaning. Personally I prefer a letterbox, with a flap both sides to eliminate draughts.

JP1978

We had two doorstop doors fitted by a local windows & doors company and had no issues (although we were only in that house two years after fitting) - Anyway, for locks, take a look at the Yale Keyfree range that fit onto composite doors - the operate by either PIN code, remote fob or RFI key (and a normal key for backup). Good bit of kit

Furts

DoorStop doors are diabolical, but they are much the same as loads of doors on the market.

Regarding colours, there is no definitive answer but the closer to white the safer you are likely to be. Taking my neighbourhood as an example there are faded brown, and red doors. There is also a defective blue door awaiting replacement and a defective brown one and a defective red one. All three are by different manufacturers.

Quality does not come as a given with composite doors, but you may be OK - there is an element of luck in this, coupled with how particular one is. Many consumers could not care less, so manufacturers and fitters play on this.

A letter box in the door means security of post, and ease of retrieving post. However it does not win favour with the passivhaus and air tightness people.

A low level letter box in a door is every ones no go area.

Annie1960

gamston wrote: »

I fitted one about 4 yrs ago, got it from local company, its warpped top and bottom, it only gets the sun from 6-9 am
we only use to close door on the latch not the top and bottom locks

What brand and colour did you have?

smudger1964

Had a composite rockdoor in black fitted by these people http://www.valuedoors.co.uk/composite-doors

A couple of years ago no problems with warping or colour loss still looks as good as when it was fitted