How difficult can it be to buy doors one may ask. But if you haven’t done it before and as you start coming across different types of doors, architraves, frames, hinges, handles and locks then it can feel confusing and overwhelming.
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Door Material
Generally, doors will be available in three main materials. In addition, doors are also available with Fire Rating. Normally if you are doing loft conversion you would need Fire rated doors on the first floor.
Solid Wood – These are entirely made out of wood, either hardwood like maple or oak, or softwood like pine. Solid Wood Doors most likely will be the most expensive of the doors.
Hollow Core – These will generally be the cheapest doors which have a core of cardboard or plastic with a thin outer layer of wood.
Solid Core – These have an internal filling of engineered wood such as MDF covered with a real wood veneer. Solid Core doors will be at a price point in between the Solid wood and hollow core doors.
Door Finishes
Doors normally come in three different finishes as below
Fully Finished – These require no additional work apart from installation. The doors will have received a primer undercoat and then painted, varnished or stained all to a factory level finish.
Primed Doors – These are pre-primed normally in white which means the only effort required is to apply a colour paint of your choice to the door. These are good middle ground if you need to just paint onsite the door to your specific colour. You need to check if painting the doors is covered in your builders’ scope of work. If the priming is good you may even hang the doors straight away.
Unfinished Doors – From a price perspective these will be cheapest. Unfinished doors will require a coating to protect them from moisture, wear and tear. You can use varnishes, wood oils, stains or waxes to finish the door. They might require slight sanding and multiple coats preferably with the door in a flat position for an even coating. Again, need to ensure your builder quotes cover this job or you negotiate a price if not in the contract.
Once you have decided your Door type and finish, next you will have to buy all the associate accessories required to complete the door installation. What are the things you will need?
For each Door you will need to buy
Doors – You will need to measure the width and height of the opening and buy appropriate door size. Depending on the door material you will be able to trim down the size with Solid wood doors giving the most options. Generally, the height will be around 1981mm while the width will be available in 610mm, 686mm, 762mm, 838mm. We went with 686 x 1981mm size for the downstairs WC and 762 x 1981mm for the other internal doors.
Door lining kit – This will be the frame in the wall on which the door will be fixed and will also include removable stops. This is normally available as a 3-piece set – 2 for the sides and 1 for the top. We went with 30mm x 108mm with removable stops.
Door Architrave set – This is the decorative wood fitting around the door. Normally this is available in a set of 6 pieces to cover both sides of the door. We went with 16mm x 80mm.
Door Accessory Pack
In addition to above you will need
- Pair of handles
- At least 3 hinges per door
- Locking mechanism
A standard latch which opens just by turning the handle, so no lock required
A levered lock which will operate as a latch but will also have a key to lock from both sides
Or a bathroom lock with a turn to lock from side. This type can also be used for a bedroom (Can still be opened from outside but not easily)
You can also in addition buy skirting in the same design and finish. We went for these prefinished solid wooden doors for the ground floor. https://www.doorsofdistinction.co.uk/interior_doors/internal-prefinished-oak_doors/Oxford-oak_door.html.
For the first floor we went for the cheaper moulded doors from Travis Perkins and applied a coat of white paint on top https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/interior-moulded-doors/moulded-6-panel-grained-midweight-internal-door-1981mm-x-762mm-x-35mm/p/939465 .