Most houses have one front door, one back door, a couple of patio doors, and somewhere between five and fifteen internal doors. They’re easy to ignore until you’re replacing them, at which point the choice is overwhelming. Composite, uPVC, timber, aluminium, GRP. Outward-opening, inward-opening, sliding, bi-fold, French. £400 for a basic uPVC slab through to £4,000+ for a hardwood bespoke front door fitted.
This hub covers external and internal doors that aren’t garage doors. Security-specific doors are in the security section. Industrial entrances are with the industrial doors.
Front and back doors
The four main materials in domestic external doors:
Composite doors are the current default for replacement front doors. The slab is a glass-reinforced plastic skin over an insulated core, with a timber or steel sub-frame. They look like timber from a few feet away, they don’t warp, they insulate well, and they take any colour. Price band roughly £900–£1,800 fitted for standard sizes.
uPVC doors are the budget option — the same frame system as uPVC windows, with a moulded door slab. They do the job, they don’t rot, they’re cheap. The look has improved but it still reads as uPVC at close range. Usually £400–£900 fitted.
Timber front doors are the traditional choice and the most variable. A hardwood door fitted properly looks better than anything else and lasts for decades. A softwood door treated badly will warp inside three years. Price runs anywhere from £600 for stock softwood to £4,000+ for bespoke hardwood. Period properties almost always want timber.
Aluminium doors sit at the higher end of the market. Slim frames, big glazed panels, sharp lines. They don’t suit a Victorian terrace, but on a 21st-century house they fit well. Usually £1,500–£3,500 depending on glazing.
Security spec matters across all four. Multi-point locking, anti-snap cylinders, PAS 24 certification on the door set as a whole. A composite door slab is hard to break through; the lock and frame are where attacks usually succeed.
Patio and garden doors
Three main types and they’re not interchangeable.
Bi-fold doors concertina open along a track. Best for opening up the back of a house onto a garden — three, four, or five panels folding to one side. Aluminium is the standard frame material. Good for wide openings, expensive per metre, and they need a level threshold and decent groundwork below it.
French doors are a pair of hinged doors meeting in the middle. The classic option — cheaper than bi-folds, less impressive when fully open, easier to fit, and they suit period houses where bi-folds look wrong. Available in uPVC, timber, or aluminium.
Sliding patio doors glide horizontally on a track. One panel stays fixed, one or more slide behind it. Larger glazed area than French doors, smaller actual opening when fully open — only half the width clears. Good where space is tight inside or outside the door.
The right answer depends on the opening width, the wall structure, the floor level, and how the room behind is being used. Bi-folds aren’t always the answer despite what the brochures suggest.
Internal doors
Internal doors get less attention than they should. They affect how every room feels — a hollow-core flush door reads as a rental fit-out, a properly weighted panelled door reads as a finished house. The price difference is smaller than people assume.
Three main options. Hollow-core is cheap, light, fine in a flat. Engineered solid-core is the sensible middle ground. Solid timber is heaviest, best, most expensive. Finish — primed and painted, veneered, or solid hardwood. Glazing options vary.
If the house has period detail, match the doors to the period. If it’s a newer build or a recent renovation, the door style is more open. Either way, fitting matters as much as the door itself — a good door hung badly looks worse than a cheap door hung properly.
What to start with
Most replacement door projects come down to two questions: what’s the house, and what’s the budget. A 1930s semi with original timber features wants timber or composite in a traditional style. A new-build flat probably wants composite or aluminium. A barn conversion wants something else entirely.
The pages below cover each door type in detail — what to look for, what to avoid, and what installation should look like.