Front Doors

[loafer]

My first post, although I have been a lurker....

Does anyone know where I might source a good quality front door for my Gerogian tearraced house.

I would like the panels beaded rather than recessed (i.e. not Victorian style).

Any and all help much appreciated.

Regards,

Loafer

 

[L1zzy]

You need to go to a salvage yard and scout the various sites such as Retrouvius ,Lassco,Salvo ,Walcott Reclamation etc it might take awhile but you may find something suitable in these. Good Luck - hold out for the one you're after don't 'make do' front doors are so improtant - I wish my cottage had its original one.

 

[Nemesis]

I hesitate to mention this, as I need a new front door (hope to get one made - not a great fan of salvage, it encourages the flogging off of original features) but I gather that you may require it to have thermal insulation values which only uPVC can provide...

Not a nice thought really :horrorstrickenlookemoticon:

 

[biffvernon]

you may require it to have thermal insulation values which only uPVC can provide...

No.

 

[Nemesis]

Well that's a relief, as I need a new one.

Tell us more then...

 

[Penners]

Does anyone know where I might source a good quality front door for my Gerogian tearraced house.

You could ask Biff Vernon to make you one.

 

[loafer]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'd rather go new than salvo, as I have looked in salvo yards, and they very rarely come up - those that do haven't been the right size so far.

I think the idea of getting one made is probably right - any suggestions (in addition to Biff, who is a fair way from here...!).

Regards,

Loafer

 

[biffvernon]

...and he's quite busy.

It's tricky stuff about doors. The Government, in a cunning plan to save the species (it turns out that the planet doesn't need saving since it can manage quite well without us) known as Buildings Regulation Part-L, has lumped windows and doors into the same paragraph, implying that new ones ought to have a U-value of less than 2. And then complicates things with SAP. This has little to do with what rises but is a devilish bit of arithmetic that adds loft insulation, double glazing and woodstoves into the same sum. If you get the sum wrong you are forced to have a plastic door as punishment so it's a good idea to get the sum right.

 

[middi]

...........a 12 inch thick front door to accomodate the rock wool :roll:

 

[thiambal]

A deep sense of dread and panic has just set in.

I have a ghastly wood front door, totally our of keeping with the house and put on in the last 15-20 years by a moron. At some point I want to replace it.

However, from what Biff says, once you factor in that we have single glazed windows (original sashes lovingly resotored) - even allowing the loft insulation and modern condensing boiler - our U-value is not going to be good.

Does this mean we are going to be punished by having to a) keep current horrid door or b) having a UPVC one?

 

[Nemesis]

Is it very likely that anyone would notice, let alone take action?

I don't think that there have been any prosecutions since Part L began...

 

[citizensmith]

Fit it yourself and dont tell anyone - if asked say "a couple of years ago".
What a lot of nonsense such legislation creates. At present our new "old" unlisted regencyish farmhouse has no loft insulation, no double glazing, big gaps under the doors, a cold cellar and open flues. Does that mean i would be required to fit a 2ft thick polystyrene front door or should i use the hardwood one i am keeping in the boilerhouse and not tell a soul i have done it?

 

[biffvernon]

Is it very likely that anyone would notice

And with six billion people on the planet taking a similar attitude, global warming will set in and our species' brief emergence will come to an abrupt end.

Of course you could be the odd one out, do your bit and perhaps set an example for others. Get your joiner to make a door out of oak, two inches thick, panelled but with the panels made of two layers of half inch wood, allowing a one inch space inside to be filled with Thermafleece. Every little helps.

If well made the door may remain an item of function and beauty for half a millennium, but not if humankind has gone extinct sooner.

 

[Penners]

Does this mean we are going to be punished by having to a) keep current horrid door or b) having a UPVC one?

For (b) the punishment will be eternal damnation! :wink:

 

[thiambal]

You are probably right there Nemisis

But what a shame we are reduced to breaking the law in order to install an in-keeping hardwood door rather than a nasty white plastic one made from un-sustainable, environment damaging source material.

Two streets away, the same houses, built at the same time, probably by the same men, are in a conservation area - presumably they would be breaking the law by having a Upvc door.

 

[Nemesis]

I'm afraid they may not be - it depends on what permitted development rights the local authority has removed. Conservation Area status is really eroded now.

In my local town nasty plastic is all pervading, even sadly on some listed buildings.

if you can propose to demolish Smithfield General Market

and build this in its place in a Conservation Area then what hope is there...

http://buildingforlife.org/default.aspx?contentitemid=1305&refid=0&sl=&field=drr_sectionsearchterm&term=Smithfield&type=7&addparams=%26refid%3d0%26sl%3

 

[biffvernon]

The trouble with government is that it has to take a rather broad brush approach. Some people in government, to their credit, have recognised that we are facing a problem that could result in the end of our species. But they have a big problem persuading the electorate that they are right and not stark staring mad and therefore not to be elected next time round. So they do their best by tinkering round the edges of building regulations. We've just got to face up to the fact that our first priority should be to stop adding yet more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Oh, and there's an immediate crisis in that our electricity supply industry may not be able to meet demand this and next winter.

So we are just going to have to do our little bits when it comes to fixing the thermal leakage of our houses. UPVC doors are not necessarily much better, insulation-wise, than timber. UPVC is not much better as an insulator than wood. They are both pretty poor. The warmest doors on the market are steel faced foam filled. The steel is needed to be strong enough to make up for the weakness of the foam. But these materials have a big embodied energy and a dreadful impact on the environment in other ways. And they don't look pretty.

Hence my suggestion for Thermafleece filled oak panels. We've got to admit and face the problems and solve them in a truly sustainable way, whilst remembering that there's not a lot of point to life if all is ugliness.

 

[Nemesis]

We could of course do something about the aviation industry...
ansd save all those buildings ...

http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.org

 

[Penners]

Good grief! You're in a bleak mood today, Biff.

Do you think that government really believes that having us all install uPVC windows and doors is helping to reduce carbon emissions? From what I've read, the embodied energy in them is just about the worst of any building material - cement included.

 

[Nemesis]

I think in general the government hasn't any idea and cares less and the industry is about unstoppable now...

...and round here houses like mine with timber are a rarity now. uPVC is becoming the norm, and it's vey depressing to see daily more beautiful windows being junked and crap put in their place.

I will get out with the camera ...