front door

[Tricia]

Hi I have a wooden front door with single glazed glass panels in it.

there anything I can do to it to make it lose less heat in the winter? Other than a curtain? I was thinking of replacing it with a double glazed upvc door but it would not look very nice as all the other doors in the scheme are like mine and also the windows, which are double glazed, are all wood framed. Someone else have replaced their windows and doors with upvc and they stand out like a sore thumb. I have also read that replacing wood with upvc actually lowers the price of the house.

Thanks Tricia

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Is that a hallway? if so have vestable door and frame added with good draft proofing.

[John Rumm]

Well you can get hardwood double glazed doors - double glazing does not have to equate to uPVC! If the current door has enough rebate depth (or could be modified to have enough) then you could simply reglaze it with DG sealed units. Another less attractive option would be a large polycarbonate sheet fixed to the inside of the door as secondary glazing.

[Phil Anthropist]

A glazing company might be able to make two secondary glazing panels to cover the top and bottom halves of the door but that area of glass and frame would make the door very heavy therefore the frame and hinges need to be strong enough. The bottom panel would have to be toughened glass, and maybe the top also. An alternative to glass would be two clear acrylic secondary glazing panels, which would avoid the weight problem and can be done DIY. Other than that, all you can do is draught-proofing around the frame or a heavy door curtain. Double glazed plastic doors are now available in colours other than white but I haven't seen any in the style of your front door.

[nightjar]

I dealt with a door that had unique Victorian glass in it by fixing panes of

2mm thick Perspex on the inside, using a frame of wooden beading to hold it in place. It almost certainly wasn't as good as purpose built double glazing, but it did make a noticeable difference to comfort levels.

The generic name for Perspex is acrylic and it comes as cast or drawn. Cast acrylic is optically clearer, which may be important for what appears to be a vision panel in the top centre of your door. Drawn acrylic is cheaper. There are various other clear sheet plastics you can use. Polycell used to do a film that you stuck to a door or window, then heated with a hair dryer, to get it flat, although that only lasted a year or two. Clear polystyrene is cheap, but I have found it yellows with age. Polycarbonate is optically clear, by far the strongest option, but also expensive. PETg falls somewhere between acrylic and polycarbonate in both strength and price.

Colin Bignell

[Bob Mannix]

Draught proofing (strip sides and top and brush strip on lower edge). This helps a lot but really a thick curtain does the most, I'm afraid! A second door/vestibule (as mentioned elsewhere) would also work but that's getting a bit disruptive! A curtain is emininetly DIY-able as well (if perhaps not that attractive).

[.]

rubbish. 99.9% of buyers are not that discerning and /prefer/ the draughtproofing and sound insulation that upvc dg gives.

[Mary Fisher]

We must be two of the 1%. We wouldn't have upvc for the world and can't see how it can be more draughtproof or insulative than well fitting timber.

Mary

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd agree if there is room. Also makes a vast difference to noise from outside.

[Cicero]

===================== A curtain is the best short term solution. It can be thick and heavy and much more attractive than a door dripping with condensation and you can remove it when it's not needed.

In the long term a solid wood door (no glass) would be much warmer than your present door which is about 50% glass.

Cic.

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[Guy King]

The message from John Rumm contains these words:

I'm about to make one out of cedar!

[Guy King]

The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

I ain't to bothered about the aesthetics of uPVC, what annoys me is the very high lip to get over.

[John Rumm]

nightjar Polycarbonate is optically

Not come across PETg before... do you have a source for it?

[Stuart Noble]

According to a DG fitter I was chatting to, you can have an aluminium threshold on a upvc door. Means it's no higher than a normal wooden step.

[Christian McArdle]

Well, the 0.1%. Count me in too. However, the effect on price varies according to location. In a nice Victorian area, uPVC will knock thousands off the house. On a scummy concrete estate, it is an advantage.

Christian.

[Mary Fisher]

There's posh!

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I've complained about that many times, you're the first person to have agreed about it! I think it's a death trap, it would be outlawed in any other situation.

Mary

[.]

/obviously/ there are exceptions but, in general, upvc double glazing puts at least 3 to 5k on the value of a house in the same way that installing central heating puts at least 3 to 5k on the value of a house.

they are both major boxes on the buyers ticksheet.

[Peter Parry]

Simple old method - put a curtain pole the width of the passage above it and fit a heavy curtain from floor to pole.

[Mary Fisher]

I suggest that's only if the alternative is single glazing.

Mary