Front Door - composite or natural wood? Plus updated pictures of the build.

The front door in my opinion is one of the most important features of a home. It makes a statement and can change the whole look of a house .

There's a huge range of doors on the markets ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of pounds.  I started researching doors and in particular those of the oak variety. I got in touch with a few suppliers but was slowly getting put off them them. Wooden doors are not maintenance free and will require restaining etc every few year/few years.  Some suppliers even said they shouldn't be in direct sunlight. Worse still some of the Oak Veneer doors I saw , the veneer had started to come away where moisture had got in.  A solid Oak doors cost 3-4 times that of a composite door, and the Oak veneer door was double.

On top of that , wooden doors contract and expand over the winter and summer months. With the door being my only barrier to the outside as I am not having a porch this started to put me off them . I didn't want a door that would let the cold in and leak noise too.

Equally I didn't want a plasticky looking door. I started too look into composite doors. I got in touch with www.globaldoor.co.uk who I found on the internet. Their prices including fitting looked very resonable. First thing I did was order a sample. The sample came through the post and I was pleased with it. From a distance you would be hard pushed to tell the difference between real and wood and the composite.  So you get the benefits of modern technology ; heat retention, noise insulation and completely maintenance fee but the look of wood. Below is a picture of the composite sample against my real wood floors.

My floor is lighter  but ignoring that, the grain is very realistic both printed and the actual feel.

I was sold so this is style I went with.

The side panels and the glass in the door are all double glazed. I chose the thermal glass upgrade option which is basically better insulated windows. 

Global Doors' surveyor came round on Monday and will fit the door on the 10th of July. The door came with a multi point lock and a thumb lock. I chose not to have the eye view as  I am having a video intercom system. From an insulation point of view a composite door will be much better than a natural wood door.  Up close a natural wood door will always look better but for me the benefits of a composite door outweighed that. 

Below is the opening the door will be going to.

On to the house. The roof is coming a long nicely. The structure of the pitched roof on the side extension is up. The membrane, tiles and roof windows should be installed this week. The flat roof along the rear extension has been laid and the first layer of felt is down. The roof lantern has been installed and the glass panes will be installed once the second layer of felt is down. The ground where the patio will be laid has been dug out and made flat. Footings for the foundation of a small retaining wall have also been dug out. The patio and rear wall should be laid this week before the front door and bi folds are installed. The small wall will be rendered and painted white with lights built into them.

The ground where the patio will be laid has been dug out and made flat. Footings for the foundation of a small retaining wall have also been dug out. The patio and rear wall should be laid this week before the front door and bi folds are installed. The small wall will be rendered and painted white with lights built into them. The garden was only 50ft to begin with and we have lost 12ft to the extension. Rather than build a big patio across the entire back, I have built an area which is 3m by 3m where the seating area will be , the rest of the patio only comes out 1.5m.