Internal Doors

[canalsiderenovation]

Surrounded by door brochures we have concluded we just want a flat if possible, white door.

 

As SWMBO has a knack of picking THE most expensive handle/knob out of all the brochures we have I'm hoping we can save a bit of money by picking a fairly basic door.

The issue is after gloss and satin white doors previously I'd rather not have something that requires regular painting, so does such a door exist? Any pointers?

[Ferdinand]

Normal upvc door? Or you could do a composite door?

 

Or are your actual requirements more demanding?

[canalsiderenovation]

1 minute ago, Ferdinand said:

Normal upvc door? Or you could do a composite door?

 

Or are your actual requirements more demanding?

 

It's for internal doors, sorry I should have made that clear.

 

Unless you mean uPVC or composite inside???

Edited July 18, 2020 by canalsiderenovation

[Ferdinand]

What's your budget? Are we in £25 doors or more like £75? Are you committed to white?

 

(Have you tried getting posher doors at a discount?)

Edited July 18, 2020 by Ferdinand

[canalsiderenovation]

9 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

What's your budget? Are we in £25 doors or more like £75?

 

(Have you tried getting posher doors at a discount?)

 

To be honest at the moment it's just finding something we both can agree on though I'm sure price will be a deciding factor too.  We had some cheap ones (not flat though) previously £20 from B&Q and they were still fine 15 years later but it was painting them that did my head in - and the fact one door handle kept falling out as it was flimsy, though that may have been the quality of handle as oppose to the door.

Edited July 18, 2020 by canalsiderenovation

[Ferdinand]

Many BHers end up with Cottage Oak doors, and if you work the angles the door including hinges and furniture can come in in the £90 to £100 range.

 

Which might give you what you would like.

 

Other things you can do include sets of doors of ebay from people upgrading etc. Depends on if your sizes are standard etc.

 

F

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Ferdinand

[canalsiderenovation]

31 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Many BHers end up with Cottage Oak doors, and if you work the angles the door including hinges and furniture can come in in the £90 to £100 range.

 

Which might give you what you would like.

 

Other things you can do include sets of doors of ebay from people upgrading etc. Depends on if your sizes are standard etc.

 

F

 

 

Definitely not oak, it's got to be white and as flat as we can get and not needing painting/finishing. I just can't quite find what I'm looking for. I'm sure I saw the same question on here but I can't find the thread.

[joe90]

doors usually come stained or painted unless they are plastic!

[canalsiderenovation]

It was @success1980 who had a thread that mentioned plain white finished doors and @PeterW mentioned XL joinery so I'll check them out.

 

@success1980 did you get fixed up and what did you end up with?

[Russell griffiths]

I personally feel it will be a mistake to not have a door that needs painting, if in 5 years time they have picked up marks from the hoover and other every day chores it’s a simply job to flat them down and roller on a top coat. 

If you go for something fancy you will find they look tired but cannot be tidied up, so you leave them and they get worse until you replace them again. 

[canalsiderenovation]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

I personally feel it will be a mistake to not have a door that needs painting, if in 5 years time they have picked up marks from the hoover and other every day chores it’s a simply job to flat them down and roller on a top coat. 

If you go for something fancy you will find they look tired but cannot be tidied up, so you leave them and they get worse until you replace them again. 

 

Valid point... 

[PeterW]

Cheapest flat white door you can get that doesn’t feel flimsy is a standard FD30 ply panel fire door. Get the chippy to knock them into the holes then take them out and lay flat and give them a sand over, two coats of decent undercoat and then two top coats using a roller. 
 

The downside  is that it will look industrial and show marks etc. Have a look at the Howdens doors catalogue 

[Bored Shopper]

XL Joinery doors have a note in the specification saying they cannot be fitted in newly plastered/decorated properties (ie fresh newbuilds). This somewhat limits the range to choose from. Did anyone have any experience with this? We are also at the stage of ordering doors, but DH is focused on the solid core only, and then I want only paintable whites in a certain design which again narrows it down...

[success1980]

Thanks for bringing this thread back up, I totally forgot to update everyone

 

I got the doors from doorsuperstore.co.uk which are very good and helpful. The doors are JB Kind fully finished. The doors are in and they look good ... but let me briefly outline the nightmare we had to get to it.

 

Ordering went very smoothly and delivery was scheduled. However, every single door was faulty - whend they were painted, the protective paper layer was put on too quickly and the paint hasn't fully dried yet, so it got stuck to the paint. All doors were exchanged and I spot checked the replacements (seemed fine). They started hanging the doors and found that some had imperfections, not from the painting but from cutting the horizontal grooves. Again, replacements arranged. The replacements arrived and they were the wrong shade of white - arranged replacements again. After waiting for a few weeks, they finally got the remaining doors delivered without fault.

 

I am happy with doorsuperstore.co.uk as they dealt with all the issues well. JB Kind however, are not very forthcoming. Turns out that following my complaint, they checked all their stock and had to pull over 100 doors from sales due to the paint issue. I learned that the doors were actually made in Spain which is why deliveries took so long.

 

Now that all doors are in, I am happy with them and they look good. But would I have known how much of a pain that would be, I would have gone for Oak!

[ProDave]

On 19/07/2020 at 08:00, Bored Shopper said:

XL Joinery doors have a note in the specification saying they cannot be fitted in newly plastered/decorated properties (ie fresh newbuilds). This somewhat limits the range to choose from. Did anyone have any experience with this? We are also at the stage of ordering doors, but DH is focused on the solid core only, and then I want only paintable whites in a certain design which again narrows it down...

I missed that "instruction"

 

I have all XL Joinery Oak doors fitted to my plastered new build without issue.

 

It is probably a case of my build is slow and by the time I even bought the doors it was many many months after the house was plastered and painted and dried out so there were no issues.

 

I suspect what they want to avoid is the plasterer coming on Monday, the painter on Wednesday and the doors being hung on Friday in a mass produced rushed new build.

[canalsiderenovation]

5 hours ago, success1980 said:

The doors are JB Kind fully finished

 

I have a JB Kind brochure here. Thanks for updating.

 

I still can't find a flush white door. I've messaged @ultramods as they posted a similar question but not sure they are active on this forum.

[AliG]

We have JB Kind Mistral walnut veneer doors. An enormous percentage of them were delivered damaged also.

 

We have some of the white Mistral doors for garage cupboards and they are very nice. We have just left them with the primer tbh.

 

I remember white painted doors gradually going yellow in a previous house and being a pain to paint. We used water based gloss in this house which is not supposed to have that issue.

 

The veneered doors shouldn't need painted but as mentioned the veneer is very easily damaged, especially if people bang into the corners. A solid oak door would be better in this respect.

Edited July 22, 2020 by AliG

[canalsiderenovation]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

I remember white painted doors gradually going yellow in a previous house and being a pain to paint. We used water based gloss in this house which is not supposed to have that issue.

 

The veneered doors shouldn't need painted but as mentioned the veneer is very easily damaged, especially if people bang into the corners. A solid oak door would be better in this respect.

 

Yes our previously painted doors went yellow. In 11 years in our last house we didn't damage any of our doors and those were cheap £25 B&Q doors and only had to get them painted as they went yellow. 

 

White veenered doors don't exist though ...

 

[AliG]

Sorry I maybe wasn't clear.

 

It seems like there are basically three kinds of doors from a finish perspective.

 

White doors which will need painted every so often - other colours are available.

 

Veneered doors which should not need painted, but are easily chipped and scratched and difficult to touch up if this happens.

 

Solid wood doors which which may need varnished or oiled every so often but are less prone to damage than veneer.

 

I would say that solid wood is the best combination of durability and lack of maintenance but are restricted in terms of finishes available for a reasonable price.

[joth]

How about laminate doors? 

https://www.doors4uk.co.uk/white-laminate-doors (ignore  the bit about sliding door, the images and price calculator at the bottom of the page cover hinge doors too)

 

[canalsiderenovation]

2 hours ago, joth said:

How about laminate doors? 

https://www.doors4uk.co.uk/white-laminate-doors (ignore  the bit about sliding door, the images and price calculator at the bottom of the page cover hinge doors too)

 

I just did that, good god how much?!?

[Onoff]

My magnetic catches cost more than the doors they're fitted too! As likely do the stainless steel hinges...

 

Seriously, these catches are superb. Never catch yourself again! Video:

 

 

[success1980]

I have the model "Tigris" which is fully finished in white and has a ladder effect design. I would have also liked the cottage style but I'm happy (wouldn't use JB Kind again though).

[AliG]

I had a look for solid oak doors and didn't realise how much more expensive they are than veneer doors. They also come with the a higher risk of the door warping.

 

The veneers on my JB Kind doors seem very easily damaged, so I checked the thickness. They are 0.6mm thick.I then checked other makes such as XL, Deanta and LPD and 0.6mm seems to be the standard veneer thickness. I wonder if a 3mm veneer would be more difficult to damage and if so does anyone know a manufacturer who uses a thicker veneer?

 

Maybe the reality is that you have to just be very careful with veneer doors.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

I had a look for solid oak doors and didn't realise how much more expensive they are than veneer doors. They also come with the a higher risk of the door warping.

 

The veneers on my JB Kind doors seem very easily damaged, so I checked the thickness. They are 0.6mm thick.I then checked other makes such as XL, Deanta and LPD and 0.6mm seems to be the standard veneer thickness. I wonder if a 3mm veneer would be more difficult to damage and if so does anyone know a manufacturer who uses a thicker veneer?

 

Maybe the reality is that you have to just be very careful with veneer doors.

 

Wouldn't you more likely find thicker veneers on external doors?