Buying a new front door for your home can give your house a fresh new look and some much added curb appeal. A new front door can really make a difference to the overall appearance of your home and help you add that personal touch to your property. With so many options to choose from these days, it is sometimes difficult to know which type of door to choose. With many different materials, colours, glass finishes and security options, all confusing the buying process for you. So what is the ideal front door for your property?
You need to ask yourself the question “What is most important to me” when it comes to your new front door. Would you choose:-
- Security
- Energy efficiency
- Cost
- Style and appearance
Once you have prioritised these different factors, it is easier to pick the ideal options for your door and find the perfect door for your home. In a recent poll taken by Fitter Windows, Door Security came out as the clear winner with over 45% of the votes. Keeping your home safe and secure is very important; would this be your number 1 choice?
Front Door Build
There are many different materials to choose from when you are buying a new front door for your home. Each of these has different properties, which could make them a better choice for you and your home.
Timber Doors
The original and traditional material for front doors is wood. Most period properties will still have a wooden front door, giving it a very classic style and feel. Wooden doors have become less popular over the year and newer materials have started to become more prominent. The main reason for this is the levels of upkeep and maintenance that owning a wooden door can bring. To keep your wooden door in tip top condition, you need to take very good care of it. This can involve regular treatments, painting and sanding to ensure the door is kept looking fresh and there is no rotting or cracking. This can be an expensive process and has led the way for newer, easy maintenance options to take their place.
uPVC and Composite Doors
uPVC and Composite doors have become the most popular build for front doors. They are such a low maintenance choice, that home owners are turning to them more and more. Composite doors are generally made up of a very strong and very durable uPVC material, which can be kept clean and maintained with just a quick wipe down with soapy water every now and again. The strong build also makes them very secure and gives them the strength to host a variety of different glazing options.
Aluminium Doors
Previously, Aluminium doors would only really be used for commercial properties, with the extra strong and extra light material making for an easy to use and secure door for business owners around the world. In more recent times home owners are starting to also use the aluminium doors for their front doors, adding a very sophisticated style along with great strength and security to properties.
Front Door Security
Home security is of huge importance to home owners around the world. Keeping your family and belongings safe is always at the forefront of home owner’s minds. Having a highly secure front door for your home gives you tremendous peace of mind, being able to lock the door at night and sleep well knowing your home is safe and sound is of vital importance.
Different door companies will offer different security options with their doors. This could be from a simple door lock through to an entire security set up. One of the most popular systems at present is a 10-Point locking system. Requesting this kind of system for your front door may add a small amount more onto the price of the door, but it is probably worth it in the extreme amount of security this adds to your home. As the name suggests, this gives 10 different points of locking for your front door, as you lock the main lock with your key, these 10 different security features are slid into place, firmly securing your home against burglars and criminals.
Door security is also moving forwards with technology. If being up to date with the latest gadgets is important to you, then there is a whole range of exciting door add on’s you can purchase to make your home more hi-tech. One of these is the keyless entry system, which allows you to open your front door with either you smart phone or even just by giving a certain knock whilst your phone is away in your pocket. New products are appearing on the market all the time for home security and adding the latest door security gadgets to your home can be a real game changer.
Energy Efficiency
Being greener is becoming more important globally. So every little change you can make to help the environment can only be a good thing. The best thing is, most environmentally friendly products save you money as well as saving the environment. Energy efficient doors are the perfect example of this. The whole idea here is to stop energy being wasted from your home. If you are heating your home and this energy is just escaping through badly insulated windows and doors, then this is wasting your money and causing more harm to the planet. Energy efficient doors are manufactured to provide the perfect fit and insulation for your home to ensure that your property is kept at your ideal temperature with little to no waste.
If the energy efficiency of your home is important to you, then be sure to ask your door supplier if they have energy efficient doors on offer. Many doors now will have an energy efficiency rating, and if you can have an A-rated door or better installed, then you are on your way to saving money and the environment.
Style
As important as the other factors above are, at the end of the day we all want our home to look nice. Nobody wants to buy an ugly front door, just because it is slightly more secure. These days’ front doors are available in hundreds of different design to suit the different styles of every different home. Whether you are looking for a classic traditional look or something super modern, there will be a front door for your exact style.
Colour is also very important when choosing a front door. Finding a door that fits with the colour pallet of your home or is the exact colour you have always wanted is easily possible. With wooden doors you can purchase paint in pretty much any colour and are free to remove this paint and paint it a different colour whenever you want. This can be costly, but is an option of wooden doors. uPVC doors and aluminium doors are also available in an array of colours, but you cannot sand them down and re-paint them. Once you have purchased your door that is the colour it will always be.
Which is the door for you?
So as you can see, there is a multitude of different options to choose from and there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing your new front door. It is all about what works best for you and your home, giving you the style, security and usability that matches your home and your lifestyle.