Timber French / patio doors

j_yorks

Looking for recommendations for patio doors. Also, are softwood doors a false economy? There seem to be so many options online and I'm finding it hard it know what would be good quality without costing a fortune.

Private_Church

j_yorks wrote: »

Looking for recommendations for patio doors. Also, are softwood doors a false economy? There seem to be so many options online and I'm finding it hard it know what would be good quality without costing a fortune.

Depends on what species of softwood is used as to whether or not its a false economy. If they were cosntructed from Scandanavian Redwood Pine then they won't last and will also be quite unstable (twist,warp,shrink and expand) but if they were constructed from Accoya (Radiata Pine impregnated with a form of acetic acid) they will be very stable and not shrink,twist,expand etc but its hugely expensive and costs as much as European Oak. If this is out of your budget and you are having them made specially then I would recommend Sapele which is an African Mahogony so its more stable and resistant to rot than redwood pine.

The vast majority of the cost of a pair of doors is the labour so specifying a decent hardwood over Redwood pine would add little to the overall cost. In my opinion avoid Meranti hardwood because its only marginally better than Redwood Pine.