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Archive for the ‘UPVC Doors’ Category
UPVC double & triple glazed replacement door options
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>The door place (or better known as Hazlemere Windows) has been supplying and installing bespoke replacement double glazed PVCu doors for three decades. In 2011, Hazlemere Window Company also introduced bespoke triple glazed PVCu doors into their product range. As independent double glazing manufacturers and installers, Hazlemere will only fit high quality home improvement products.
There is two main ways bespoke UPVC doors are made here in the United Kingdom. The first is by use of a full height feature panel that sits within the door sash, and the second is literally a more simple tailor-made double glazed door with either full height glazing within the PVCu door sash or toughened double glazed unit above a mid rail, with either glass or insulated bottom panel…
Decent drip bars on doors help prevent wet floors!
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>The online Free Dictionary definition of a door drip bar is “A wood or metal strip which is fixed to the sill of an external door or a window to resist the penetration of water.” The primary function of an external door drip bar is to direct precipitation away from the door frame, door sash and door threshold onto the external ground.
Most modern double glazed door manufacturers should fit a drip bar onto the bottom of the external door sash to improve the products overall weather rating. Does the presence of a drip bar make a real difference? Absolutely, and when it comes to opening in doors, it matters even more so, as these need the protection of an external drip bar more than…
Nowadays a door needs to be so much more!
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>With climate change causing greater extremes of weather here in the United Kingdom, the vulnerable parts of our properties surely therefore need to be more weather-proof than ever before, whilst still performing the task for which they were designed. The problem with this is that sometimes the England & Wales Building Regulations are somewhat contradictory in this regard.
Take new front and back doors for extensions or on new build homes for example. UK Building Regulations require all new entrance doors fitted into home extensions or installed into new build dwellings to have low thresholds to allow wheelchair access, even though the vast majority of homeowners don’t use wheelchairs. Obviously they might sell their house to people with disabilities, so one can understand the requirement…
Wider choice of UPVC door panels now available
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>After all the problems in the double glazing door panel industry in 2012, with old established firms like Door Panels plc going to the wall, it is nice that other PVC door panel firms are not only surviving, but benefiting from the subsequent gap left in the market. For example, Hurst Plastics have recently added 35 new door panel designs to their range for replacement double glazed doors, offering UK property owners an even wider choice of high quality UPVC door panels for their new front door thanks to their “Definitive Collection”.
The good thing about the “Definitive Collection” is that it contains some very contemporary designs, as well as Classic traditional…
UK home owners restricted on UPVC door choices
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>With the sad demise of PVCu door manufacturers and suppliers Door Panels plc in September 2012, plus the industry wide reduction in stocking door panels with coloured double glazing, the range of UPVC door panel choices available to UK property owners is now greatly reduced. This narrowing of options is on top of the end of production of most Jewel in the Crown aluminium door panels back in 2011.
When you combine these changes with current door panel companies sensibly reducing their stock levels and numbers of “standard” designs they offer in an attempt to make themselves more streamlined and competitive, the double glazing replacement door industry has probably lost more than 50% of aluminium and UPVC door panel design options in the last 12-18…
Door in or out? Shake it all about!
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>When replacing an existing external residential door it is a unique opportunity to consider changing or improving the current way the door operates, whether currently hung left or right, opening in or opening out or whether with a standard or low threshold. A replacement bespoke double glazed door can also be designed to improve security, appearance, thermal efficiency, access and egress etc.
Made to measure replacement double glazed or triple glazed doors are a great way to improve a home, entrance and living space, all at the same time. Choose the right design, colour, specification, material and model, and you’ll add value as well as kerb appeal to your property. Choose the wrong door in…
Even replacement doors have their limits!
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>Whether a property owner has decided on a replacement aluminium, composite, steel, timber or UPVC door(s), each type of material, as well as each “door system” has its limits. The minimum and maximum opening widths and heights that can be achieved vary considerably from one product to another, and also from one type of door to another.
Regardless of whether one is replacing a front, back, garage, French, sliding, folding or stable door, not every size of opening or configuration can be achieved. For example, when it comes to bi-folding doors, there are practical limits set by the systems manufacturers for their products, outside of which not only will the doors be likely to fail operationally, but they will not be covered by the manufacturers…
Buying a door? Get best type of threshold for the floor
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>It may not seem like a big deal what height and type of threshold a replacement door has, but choose the wrong one for the wrong installation and UK homeowners may live to regret their decision. Most of us would prefer all our external doors to have a low threshold from both a practical and aesthetic point of view……….However!
Whilst low thresholds are essential for internal floors to avoid trip hazards, they need careful consideration before being specified for external residential entrances. Whatever a double glazing salesman may tell you, the simple fact of the matter is that whatever type of replacement doors you are considering (i.e. aluminium, composite, hardwood or UPVC doors), a low threshold has a poorer weather rating than standard thresholds. The…
Energy rated doors important energy savers
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>In September 2011 the British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) commenced their Door Energy Ratings Scheme (DER). Another official body, the British Standard Institute (BSI) has also introduced a Kitemark for replacement doors, enabling UK householders to select external doors tested by either of these recognised bodies so that they can choose external replacement door products that have the highest possible rating.
The BFRC door scheme is simply an extension (to all kinds of domestic doors – external pedestrian doors and French, folding and sliding glazed doors) of the BFRC’s Windows Energy Ratings (WER’s) label scheme . The BFRC label makes the levels (A to G) for energy efficient doors understandable and easily visible, allowing UK home owners and specifiers alike to assess for themselves the energy efficiency properties…
Where is the most sensible place for a letterbox?
Author: Mark Austin | Leave a Comment >>Where to locate your letterbox may not seem that important to start with, but it is one of those decisions that can have a big impact on how well your composite, hardwood, metal or PVC front door performs thermally efficiency wise, as well as sadly on how secure a UK property is.
Fitting a letterbox into an otherwise well insulated double glazed or triple glazed door is not the brightest thing if you want to exclude draughts from the internal lobby in your property. Even with nylon brush draught “excluder” fitted in the gap between the inner and outer flap of your letterbox will not be sufficient to keep out the extreme temperature we have experienced over the last 3 years, the most recent sustained…
