Which Composite Door is Best?
Which Composite Door is best?
The recurring question, which is best the one all Composite Door suppliers try to answer in both articles and blogs with varying degrees of success. At Composite Door prices we vet an awful lot of doors before we recommend them which means we read an awful lot of technical jargon about how the doors are manufactured, how they perform and of course the cosmetic issues of styles, colours accessories etc. and of course there is also the key matter of personal budget.
To illustrate our point as to how long this debate over which “composite door is best” has been up for discussion, take a look at this article from 2015 – “Composite Door v Composite Door – which is best?” which quite succinctly sums up the argument.
In 2015 “the Eco Friendly” campaign was in full swing and was used as a major card by the “timber core” door manufacturers, however three years on and compressed polyurethane doors are still selling exceedingly well. As timber core doors are generally the more expensive of the two options the key issue here could well be personal budget
The standards which control the manufacture and testing of Composited doors have become more stringent they should all be tested to meet industry standards of PAS 23/24 for strength and durability and they should all have some form of certification confirming their thermal efficiency normally rated A (the best) –G (not very good) and the better doors should have passed the Police and Insurance requirements of Secured by Design Scheme.
The most significant change was the Building Regulations introduction of the “cut through test” during 2016 adopted into the PAS standard, which required the door withstand an attack with specified tools for a specified time period – a test which favoured the harder core and thicker-skinned timber core doors, but as we stated earlier rigid polyurethane core doors still sell extremely well – the “would these guys beat a PAS24 test” spoof blog includes an informative video showing the application of “the cut through” test.
There are obvious arguments that suggest that the strength and thermal ratings are better for timber core doors and for some doors tested they may be but for every specification criteria there are polyurethane core doors that reach the highest standards
The security of the door is not only dependent upon its integral strength, locking systems are equally as important the blog – “what does security mean to you” gives a good insight into exactly that which the prospective door owner should be looking for.
The specification and security aspects of the door for many are secondary, cosmetic appeal rules, the correct style and the preferred colour, the ideal glazing and the stand out accessories are the first thing that draws their attention. With the evolving development of manufacture and colouring techniques both timber core and polyurethane core are available in any style or colour you would wish so choice of manufacturer is the possible key for some clients – to requote the last two paragraphs of the aforementioned article “Composite Door v Composite Door – which is best?
“If your door manufacturer /supplier is prepared to constantly extend and upgrade the styles, colours, glazing and accessory choices this requires investment of time, finance and resource and it is generally the mark of a company that is in the business for the long term and one that cares about the product it is serving up to its potential customers.
Unfortunately in this instance choice comes down to personal taste and how much you care about the environment – undoubtedly some doors are marketed and better presented than others more designs, newer colours, better choice of accessories, and unfortunately those three words – more – newer – better – come at a cost and that cost will more than likely be reflected in the price you will pay for your door”
We started off in our first paragraph with the phrase “the key matter of personal budget” and we have returned to the same topic “personal budget and choice are the key factors in most people’s decision”, the construction of the doors may be different but the quality and availability of styles and colours of both are very similar.
It is this very philosophy of providing the best available information on specification style and budget that gave birth to Composite Door Prices, we have provided this on line service of vetting and advising our customers for approaching ten years and we hope we can look forward to providing the same service for our hundreds of satisfied customers for many more years to come.
