air tightish internal doors.

[trialuser]

I'm building a 2000 sq foot timber frame extension to a small Galloway farm cottage. When it's done we will effectively live in the extension 95% of the time and the original house will be for hobbies and the rellies. The extension is well insulated and will hopefully be fairly airtight. We are having MVHR and I would therefore like to install fairly airtight doors in the two doorways  which will link to the original cottage which leaks like a sieve.

The other doors in the extension will be the usual vertical planked oak veneer type, so ideally I'd like to get some that look similar but preferably come as a pre hung set complete with air sealing. Do they exist, or can effective seals be fitted to standard doors, I imagine it's the bottom gap which will be the problem. Any ideas or links very welcome.

[Mr Punter]

I have used some of the stick on seals with some doors.  They seem fairly airtight and help with sound as well.  You can get drop down seals for the bottoms.

[jamieled]

@trialuser we did something very similar. We wanted a larder that was thermally broken from the rest of the house, accessed from the kitchen. We got a company to make us an airtight door and frame. Our internal doors are pine, and so the airtight door is too (looks like the vertical planked oak, but in pine. Wasn't cheap though, so I'd imagine the doors strips might be more cost effective if you can get them to work.

[trialuser]

Thanks Mr Punter and jamieled.

I wasn't aware of the drop down seals, I think I might have a go using edge seals and a drop down seal.

[OzWald]

On 08/01/2021 at 19:27, jamieled said:

@trialuser we did something very similar. We wanted a larder that was thermally broken from the rest of the house, accessed from the kitchen. We got a company to make us an airtight door and frame. Our internal doors are pine, and so the airtight door is too (looks like the vertical planked oak, but in pine. Wasn't cheap though, so I'd imagine the doors strips might be more cost effective if you can get them to work.

Hi jamieled,

 

Who did you go to for the airtight door and frame? Have you got any sketches / photos you could share?

 

Many thanks,

 

Oz

[Dave Jones]

you could router in intumescent strips they do a good job of sealing against draughts.

[PeterW]

31 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

you could router in intumescent strips they do a good job of sealing against draughts.

Only if they have smoke seals on them. Better way may be a slightly wider recess and put a bubble seal in the face of the recess.

[jamieled]

I used a small ish local company called treecraft woodwork (we used them for our front door as well). There's probably quite a few decent joinery shops around that could do this though. It wasn't cheap, only a bit cheaper than an external door, but it does look good. The door has some insulation in it to provide a thermal break which is important for us. House temp is around 18 degrees, larder temp currently about 4! Couple of photos below.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by jamieled