PVC door recommendations - south yorks

[nochance]

Hi, can anyone recommend someone to fit me a PVC door and frame in Sheffield? I've had a quote of over £400 which seems a bit steep.

Thanks

[Michael Mcneil]

You mean compred to a £50 qid hardwood frame and a bog standard door from a builder's yard for another £50 or so?

What you have to remember is that wood will rot eventually. Yes it looks better and is easier to maintain but...

[Steven Briggs]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Seems about ballpark to me. Screwfix PVC door + frame range from 299 upwards, (plus fitting) Mind I wouldn't have a PVC door if it were free...

[RichardS]

You might have just been unlucky.

We've got a PVC door and it doesn't bend at all - seals and locks perfectly well. Think it must have been fitted about 8years ago - a few years before I bought the place.

Having said that, I think it looks awful, completely out of character with the place, and when I get the chance it's being replaced by a decent wooden external door, which will be painted. I'd also replace the two uPVC DG windows on the front of the house, but Part L is now a problem for me, and I can't afford to get them replaced with decent sashes of the required u values with cathedral glass at the top so it's in keeping with the rest of the road, etc etc. >£1.5k each I think...

Decent external wooden doors are not cheap - you can easily pay up to £500 for the door, and another lump for fitting if you can't DIY.

There is a cyclical maintenance requirement of 3 yearly repainting, yearly oiling, whatever, as opposed to uPVC doors that need no such cyclical maintenance, but instead do have a very definite need for day-to-day maintenance such as regular washing before staining from air/rain born dirt sets in.

Horses for courses I reckon. uPVC looks like crap in the wrong setting (my Edwardian terrace house springs to mind, as would stucco-fronted terraces or picture book cottages, etc) but for many houses they don't look out of character. Poorly maintained wooden doors probably look like crap an awful lot quicker...

Then there's powder coated aluminium doors and frames. Different kettle of fish altogether, and yet another notch up on the price scale...

cheers Richard

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Dave Plowman]

Many of the sheds and certainly Screwfix sell them. Have a look at the prices and then decide if 400 quid is too much fitted. I reckon it's a good price if the door is of good quality.

[Michael Mcneil]

It would take all day for a total novice to remove the original door and frame and replace it with quite decent wood and glass complete with sealant locks and letterbox. It should even be primed at that.

A lad at work was telling me that he had a quote from a double glazing salesman recently for two external doors that would have had him paying £7880 over ten years.

People actually do pay these silly prices out of fear of their own capabilities.

I would rather waste my time learning how to replace and repaint a cheap, bog standard, wooden door -ruining umpteen in the process until I got it right.

The only thing I don't like about wooden doors is the locks that go with them. They all require the removal of too much material from the door and frame. The ideal is to fit two or more flush mounted back-locks and have them and their keepers designed to look nice, or if money is a problem, have them boxed in to mask their ugliness.

This is what you do to fit a frame:

You need to remove the old one. It should not take more than an hour. A hammer boulster or bar and a saw can do it in a few moments. Slip a knife down the plaster work to minimise damage.

But first you should ensure the new frame will fit. Measure the distance between the reveals (the brick or blockwork) top and bottom and the sides. Check the frame again (it needs to have some slack, say 1/4 of an inch play all around) and then set to it.

Prime or treat with preservative -or whatever, the back of the frame and put it up against the old plaster. Put a few wedges in to hold it whilst you check for plumb and level. Get the head level and the frame as close to the wall on the hinge side as possible without forcing it out of plumb or bending it. Pack with wedges as required.

Check that it is level and plumb in two directions and wedge in place. The wedges/packers should be nice fits -not buckling the frame. Drill and screw. Check the door fits without winding or binding before putting too many screws in. The problem with this is that most fitters insist on putting the screws into the rebate. This is a cosmetic thing. Don't do it.

Place the packers so that if there is any shrinkage they will not fall far before dropping on the screws and don't put the screws in where you are going to mount the lock or place the hinges.

A door can be removed by knocking the pins out of the hinges. You might want to consider putting two more back-locks on the other side of the door to prevent thieves doing that. Another thing is that people tend to rely on simple Yale latches. They bend open with little more than a nudge, enterprising children can get their hands in through the letter box and use a stick to turn the handles on them too! Beware.

Decent locks cost about £30 each. Use ?5 lever? locks as a minimum.

Any half competent amateur can knock up a frame for a few quid. Even so, I?d buy one purpose made with the door. A door is about £100 to £200 maximum. Say £300 or £400 at the very most for the parts including silicon and paint.

That just leaves the threshold and shed. I forgot about them.

[Witchy]

I had mine fitted in '96 and instantly regretted it - the doorway was a 7'x7' hole so they replicated the old frame in uPVC and I think the whole shebang was held in with about 8 screws. And boy did it bend! I reckon a couple of well-placed kicks would've bust it all.

Still, I don't live there any more :)

Yup. First thing we did with this place was to hoik out the plastic door and fit one we'd got from a church that was being demolished. The windows look and act like they were fitted by a 4 year old and the back doorframe was held in with 6 screws and some caulk. The locks were in the wrong place so you could bend the bottom of the door outwards!!

Yikes. We've been getting people's sashes from them as they replace perfectly good ones with shitty uPVC :) Nearly to a man they've all said "what do you want those old windows for?!"

On the walk to school this morning we passed a house that used to have a bloody awful wooden porch affair stuck to the front that stretched from next door's porch and covered 1 of the 3 windows of the front bay. Now they've had that knocked out and put in a bloody awful uPVC door that just looks terrible. First one in the street! (~c1910 houses)

I s'pose *anything* poorly maintained looks crap....

-- cheers,

witchy/binarydinosaurs

[Witchy]

Only if it's not cared for. I think PVC looks crap after a few years, particularly if its been in the sun. At least with wooden doors you can give 'em a lick of paint and they don't bend.

Perhaps I just had a crap installation from the conniving bastards at the company.

-- cheers,

witchy/binarydinosaurs