New Front Door — Advice Needed

bpk101

I'm looking at having a new front door installed. Small mid-terrace Victorian house in Walthamstow, East London. We've had a pretty rubbish front door since we bought the house 3 years ago (with no issues) but decided we'd wait to replace it until all our renovation work had finished.

Wife would like a super hi-spec secure door... a Banham door can cost upwards of £4k. I think this is ridiculous given she often goes out and accidentally leaves a bedroom window open :rotfl:

I'm thinking a door from somewhere like Todds with a Banham lock adding possibly.

Any advice? I don't want this to cost the earth but i want some level of security.

Thanks.

longwalks1

We had a composite front door fitted with Yale locks (special key that needs registering etc and proof to get it copied), multi lock and a thumbscrew to open inside rather than traditional handle, it’s solid and cost up about £800 4 years ago. The make is DoorStop (we had front and back doors fitted for £1,600) we are based in Essex

May bot be as secure as you are after but it gives us enough confidence we need
Similar to the RockDoor brand but after reading saw quite a few issues with RockDoor and couldn’t justify the extra cost

trailingspouse

Watching this thread with interest as a new front door is next on my wish list.



I've never liked it (UPVC with a naff 'flowers in a vase' design) - what I want is a wooden door that is in-keeping with the house (Edwardian town house).


So, excuse me while I sit here and count my pennies...

d0nkeyk0ng

Solidor is supposed to be better than Rockdoor. If cost not an issue, look at Hormann steel doors.

Carrot007

britishboy wrote: »

special key that needs registering etc and proof to get it copied

Just would like to add that is if the (usually these days) minimum wage employee of the place you go to actually understands this (or indeed cares), or notices in their attenpt to get rid of you ASAP.



There is nothing special about the key. (I could be wrong here as I have not looked into such scheme's for years, but unless you door is powered I soubt it).


All I am saying is don't put too much trust in it.

bpk101

Pretty sure you can't get a Banham key copied in just any locksmiths?

Doozergirl

bpk101 wrote: »

Pretty sure you can't get a Banham key copied in just any locksmiths?

You're absolutely right that you can't.

Banham locks tend to be a London thing, no one outside seems to use them as they are apparently overly expensive for what they are, but no one is getting a key copied without giving blood to the people there.

What you don't want to do is buy expensive Banham locks but have a cheaper wood door with panels that people can simply smash through. That's what happened on the road behind where we've been working in Chelsea.

We're building our own house and I've fallen in love with the doors made by these people:
http://www.grabex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/TIMBER-DOORS.pdf

I just have to have wood. But I also would like a proper multi-point lock with the lift up handle inside. I got our current door from eBay new, unwanted for £250 but it must have been worth 10 times that. Shame I can't take it ☺️

VfM4meplse

Doozergirl wrote: »

We're building our own house and I've fallen in love with the doors made by these people:
http://www.grabex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/TIMBER-DOORS.pdf

I know from past threads that you're a source of good advice....by why these doors? What is so aesthetically pleasing about them?