Composite doors are one of the best products you can have if you are looking to replace the front door in your home. Composite doors come in a big range of colours and designs, as well as being robust, reliable and very affordable compared to new timber doors. In this section, we answer many questions about composite front doors for your home.
How do I choose the right composite door?
The composite door market is enormous in the UK and you have a huge amount of choice. It is important to explain that composite doors fall into a number of sectors, one of which being the homeowner and residential market.
There are composite doors made for the social housing market as well as the new build sector. These types of composite doors are large, volume production products manufactured to the low price expected by these commercial sectors. Budgets invariably decide on the overall quality of the door. Long service life is something that is not often required in the commercial sectors and found in the doors made to serve those markets.
Our composite doors are made for the domestic market and are of high quality. Our residential composite doors offer a bigger choice of styles, colours, security and glass options as well. At the same time, our residential quality composite doors are very well priced while being manufactured for long service life.
Are all composite door skins the same?
No. The quality of door skins varies from product to products with different types of finishes and colouring methods. One good sign of a quality composite door skin is one where the grains are tightly packed together giving more of a traditional appearance on a suitable period style.
Our doors use skins with an authentic texture and the colour is an integral part of the material itself.
What is a composite door?
Composite doors have been growing in popularity in the UK over recent years. Better and stronger than PVCu panelled doors, far cheaper than timber or aluminium and steel doors, they offer homeowners a modern or traditional looking door at a great price and built to last.
Composite doors are so-called because of the combination of materials they use. These include a PVCu outer frame, GRP door skins and a timber or other internal core. All these combined materials found in a composite door make them strong, low maintenance, very secure and resistant to attack.
Composite doors have done away with many of the technical and design flaws in PVCu doors and can look just like a timber door with none of the maintenance.
Is a composite door better than a timber door?
It is not fair to compare a timber door with a composite door. The great thing about timber doors is their weight, longevity and natural materials.
Composite doors today come in so many different styles to replicate traditional timber doors at a much lower cost and far less maintenance. This is why composite doors are so popular.
The modern door market means both composite and timber doors are secure, colour rich, built to last, and with a huge choice of handles and accessories.
What are the benefits of composite doors?
Choosing a composite door gives you a number of benefits in your home.
The first is their price to quality ratio. You are getting a superb door for your home at a very good price. Composite doors are designed to last with modern materials, that will not rot, warp, twist or flake. The PVCu outer frame found in composite doors also comes in a choice of styles and colours to match your door and is fully reinforced.
Composite doors are incredibly thermally efficient thanks to the thick insulated core and PVCu frame. A thermally efficient front door works with your windows and doors to keep your home comfortable.
The big choice of colours and styles is another benefit, with composite doors available in traditional and well as very contemporary styles. Accessorise these doors with the vast range of hardware available and you get a very attractive product for the front of your home.
Can i have a composite door as a back door?
Yes. We can help you choose a style of composite door for the back or side of your house that will offer great security, energy efficiency and will look good in your house.
With the rear or side door in your home, you do not have to have a simple design as you can make your door as interesting as you want with a different colour, panel style and glass design. Contact us and we can help. We can even provide composite doors as fully glazed French Doors.
Can i have a composite door in any RAL colour?
With Newlite, the answer is yes. Many of the good composite door suppliers only offer a standard colour palette of about 20 colour combinations. Our Truedor composite door has five standard colours, twelve heritage colours and two woodgrain colours. All of these colours can be chosen for either the inside or outside of your door.
What you get with Truedor composite doors is a choice of the full RAL colour range associated with aluminium doors. Truedor doors come in special colours as well as a colour matching service. A state-of-the-art colour matching and mixing system, allows you to choose exactly the colour you want for your front door.
How secure are composite doors?
It is vital any door in your home is secure. The good news is composite door security is hard to beat.
Our composite doors come with the latest multi-point locking systems as standard giving you peace-of-mind high security. Our composite doors meet the latest security standards such as PAS 23/24 , BS EN ISO 1303 and subjected to several attack tests in their design.
With our composite door, you also get triple hinge bolts that keep the door secured in the frame. You also get the latest security door cylinders that are anti-snap, anti-bump and anti-pick or anti-drill with the Secured by Design approved 3 star Kinetica cylinder.
All this high security, combined with a thick door slab and reinforced frames means composite doors are very secure.
Are composite doors Secured By Design?
Many websites show Secured By Design (SBD) accreditations and it is easy to assume that every composite door is Secured By Design.
Secured by Design is a UK initiative operated by the Police Services helping to design products that reduce crime through their design. Composite doors can be Secured by Design but they require a particular specification. This includes:
- Doors that meet PAS24:2012 Certification.
- Doors that are tested by an approved independent third party under the BSI Kitemark Scheme.
- Hardware that includes a multi point lock, laminated glass, security glass cassette, steel or GRP materials, a security hood for the letterbox, a door chain and door viewer.
If you want a composite door that has been tested to SBD standards, contact us for help and advice.
What is GRP on composite doors?
GRP is Glass Reinforced Plastic which is the inner and out skins of a composite door.
What types of composite doors are available?
Composite doors come as single or double doors. Larger door apertures can be accommodated with your composite door having side panels as well as glazed panels above the doors.
You can even have stable doors as composite doors.
For the door itself, there is the choice of open in or open out doors, doors with a low threshold or a full frame.