Insulating a redundant external door in a cottage

[BarumMike]

My daughter and son in law live in a house assembled from two small brick built cottages plus add-ons. One room is the ground floor of one of the cottages complete with front door. This is no longer in use but contributes to making the room perishingly cold. It is amodern but low spec door with a pair of glazed panels. How to insulate this while preserving the external appearance of the property in its pretty Chilterns village? And ideally also preserving the contribution to the natural light in this relatively dark room. They are planning to internally insulate the solid external wall with a wood fibre plaster system.

They are not keen on the nuclear option of bricking up the doorway. So
1. leave the current door in place and seal it off internally with some form of insulated internal wall (and window)?
2. replace the current door with a custom made false fixed door with appropriate insulation spec?
3. replace the door with an off the shelf high spec door, triple glazed etc?
4. put in an internal second ?double glazed door
5. or just accept its too difficult and use sealant between door and frame and put a thick curtain in the recess

anyone faced a similar problem?

 

[LadyArowana]

Is there a budget constraint? Because there's going to be a huge difference in cost between cheapest and most expensive.

 

[BarumMike]

True. Cost is relevant but not the sole criterion. I haven't discussed it with them but I would guess over £1k would pushing it..

 

[Cubist]

Aside from any budgetary constraints my first concern would be associated with escape routes in the event of fire. Is there provision for alternate safe paths that do not include the room concerned?

My second concern is whether the intention is to remedy the problem this year. It's getting a little late to be tackling what may be a less than easy job with tradesmen in short supply at this time of year. Bluntly I would recommend putting the work off until the warmer/drier weather next year and implement a temporary solution to cover the coming winter.

 

[LadyArowana]

True. Cost is relevant but not the sole criterion. I haven't discussed it with them but I would guess over £1k would pushing it..

If that's the likely budget then I don't feel they'll get a really nice new door + fitting ++ . Which would personally be my first choice. So I would opt for cheap stick on draught proofing, plus a nice brass portiere rod and thick curtain. That way when funds were available to do the new door I could still use the rod and curtain and wouldn't feel I had "wasted" them. I hate waste, extravagance is fine, but those middling things you buy because you can't afford the one you really want nooooooooo, it's always been money wasted for me and I don't do it now

 

[noj]

Is the current door wood or plastic?

If wood and there's sufficient wall recess on the inside you could (relatively cheaply) screw a 2x1 frame onto the back face, fill with your insulation of choice, clad with an appropriate sheet material and secondary glaze the windows. The internal face can be cosmetically dressed with door furniture, mouldings etc if desired...

But for the faff factor I'd second the Lady A's suggestion!

 

[BarumMike]

Really helpful everybody. Sounds as if they need to start saving up for a quality door. And we will look at insulating the walls of the door reveal.