I'm struggling to find options for this door, and it can't be a new problem. What have you wonderful people done?

 

I obviously want good thermal performance, because it's the thermal envelope for the house. Similarly for airtightness. Building regs also require FD30 and self closing, which rules out most of the regular suppliers and choices.

So far I've found a door from Hurst that has limited finish choices but does seem to tick all of the boxes, and that's about it. Supply and fit is about £2000 which I'd like to improve on!

Yes it's a long standing known problem without a sensible off the shelf solution.

 

All I could find was a very few fire rated outside doors (it does not need to be weatherproof) at a high price and you still had to fit the closing mechanism yourself.

 

I ended up fitting a standard FD 30 door, making the frame a good fit and adding a draught seal in addition to the intumescent fire stop seal.

 

It is not perfect and no doubt the source of some heat loss and definitely the source of a bit of a draught, but I took the view the small heat loss would just add a little heat into the insulated garage.

Perhaps a flat entrance door would work.  It could also be Secured By Design.

I installed an external type door between the garage and house on the basis that its insulative properties and seals would likely be as good as the house's front door.

 

GRP, solid core, FD30, SBD, self closer supplied. Just asked them to not fit the letterbox or knocker. Available online from various suppliers, manufacturered by Unity. Self install was pretty straightforward.

 

Unless you're aiming for Passive house certification I suspect it'll only be a minor component of the overall structure's performance.

Will be interesting to see if I can persuade the air tightness tester to do 2 tests, one via the hose door and one via the garage door.