Why Choose a Solidor Composite Door?

Why Choose a Solidor Composite Door?

You might not think about it much, but when you get home from an outing, a school run or a trip down to the local supermarket, how do you feel when you pull up to your house? Is the drive and pathway up to your front door inspiring? And how about your front door? Does it make you happy that this is your home or is it a bit of a sore point?

If you’re honest about how shabby your door is looking, and you think you can do better, then isn’t it about time to consider a replacement? You’ll feel so much better when your new front door creates a positive feeling when you arrive home!

Let’s take a look at Solidor to find out what’s so special about them.

The Feeling of Being More Secure

Old doors aren’t that safe. It is easy to stick something in the door jam and create enough of a gap for a burglar to get the door open. Some older doors flake away and aren’t thick and sturdy enough either. Overall, they’re not the barrier to entry that you probably think they are.

The Solidor is built to change all that. It’s produced using timber that’s a minimum of 48mm thick, which is considerably denser than either the composite UPVC or GRP alternatives. Every Solidor also comes with an Ultion cylinder with a 3-star diamond rating. Doors with glass are also toughened too. Indeed, the Solidor design has multiple accreditations from security-related authorities, including the Secured by Design initiative.

Designed for Appearance

To get a new front door to fit into the surrounding structure, not every door style will be suitable. Because of that, there are more than 50 Solidor door designs. Each one is unique to suit a different type of building. Whether you use the door at the front, side or rear of your home, there’s a door design that will match the existing appearance. This way, the new door will look like it came with the home.

Colour Selection

Every home looks different from both the outside and inside. Not every coloured door suits the rest of the building, the colours on the walls or the surrounding front path. To match Solidor doors with their surroundings, they’re available in a choice of 23 colours.

The colour choices are wide with darker and light hues to fit in nicely. One added feature is that the colour chosen can be different on either side, so the exterior doesn’t have to match the interior shade. Therefore, a darker exterior colour scheme can be matched appropriately while using something lighter indoors.

Low to No Maintenance Too

Every Solidor gets a protective skin made from a thermoplastic polymer called Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. This protects the wood from the elements and avoids it getting scratched over time too. This also stops the need to repaint the door every year because the skin maintains the colour scheme well.

When fitting a Solidor, you don’t just get enhanced security and peace of mind, they’re durable and look great too.

Composite vs uPVC Doors: Which Should You Choose?

Composite vs uPVC Doors: Which Should You Choose?

When it comes to external doors, there’s more than one way to go. Especially when it comes to the doors opening out into the back garden or exterior of the property, where you want to create a different visual impression. Essentially, when picking a door system, you can go with a choice of solid wood, a composite material or uPVC doors. There are pro and cons to each depending on where the door is located in the building.

Let’s look at uPVC doors and composite doors to see how they compare. These are the two types most often installed at the rear of the property.

uPVC French Doors

uPVC doors are made from plastic, specifically polyvinyl chloride. While the material is used in some clothing, it also can be produced as a rigid structure when leaving out the plasticising part of the formulation. With that said, uPVC doors aren’t completely made from plastic materials, as sometimes they’re reinforced.

One important consideration with uPVC is that they’re reinforced using carbon fibre or a metal of some kind. The cheaper, non-reinforced ones are just not worth having. Both the door and any installed glass in the door won’t support any pressure being applied from a foot or elbow trying to break through. As such, they’re useful for a pre-fab garden building like a hut or plastic structure, but not for security.

How to Clean uPVC doors

Unlike with wood or some other materials, there is very little maintenance required. No cleaning, sanding down, painting and re-staining involved. Handling British weather conditions with frequent weather showers doesn’t bother a uPVC door. It stands the test of time and doesn’t require much attention.

One area to be aware of is how it is cleaned. You should be careful to avoid using a chemical that could strip off the surface of the door. Should this happen, it cannot be reversed. Therefore, choose the door cleaner carefully. Thankfully, few uPVC doors suffer from colour fading issues.

Composite Doors

Composite doors take on a completely different and varied appearance from one door to the next. This is because they’re produced using a blend of materials. These can include wood, steel, uPVC, and glass. One of the attractive qualities of composite doors is that they can blend better with the existing exterior building structure or surrounding patio and furniture. However, that does come at a cost.

It’s fair to say that composite doors are dearer than their uPVC counterparts. The reasons are due to the blend of materials involving a more time-consuming manufacturing process. The raw materials themselves also cost more.

How do you choose between a composite door and a uPVC one?

When it comes to the front door, you’re better off going with a composite door because of its strength and durability over a uPVC one. For the back door that opens out into the garden or patio area, then it’s more a matter of personal taste. Certainly, the composite door designs offer greater flexibility to get the look you want compared to a uPVC one. It just depends on which you prefer.