The Opening
A door on its own is a much smaller job than a door with a glazed sidelight or a fanlight above. The opening decides more of the price than the leaf does.
Best for establishing before you compare two quotes.
Composite Front Doors in Ireland, Fitted and Made Good
What Sits Inside a Composite Door, What the Locking Should Be, and What a Fitted Price Includes
Composite front doors in Ireland, from contractors on the SEAI public register. The cheapest way to change how a house looks from the road, and the details worth checking before you order.
Why a Front Door Is the Cheapest Change You Can Make
A front door changes how a house reads from the road more than any other single job of comparable cost. It is also the one people put off longest, usually because the old one still opens.
The reasons to change are rarely dramatic. A timber door that has swollen and sticks in winter, a 1990s uPVC door that has gone chalky, or a lock that no longer feels secure.
A composite door is a skin over an insulated core rather than a solid slab, which is what lets it hold heat and stay flat under sun on one face.
What Changes the Price
Glazing
Obscured, clear, leaded or none. Glass choice affects both price and lead time, and non standard designs push delivery out further.
Best for deciding early rather than late.
Colour and Hardware
Standard colours are quicker and cheaper than bespoke. Handles, letterplates and knockers are usually specified separately.
Best for matching the house rather than the brochure.
What to Check Before You Order
The core is the part you cannot see and the part that decides whether the door holds heat and stays flat. Ask what it is.
The locking should be a multipoint system engaging at several points along the frame rather than a single deadbolt. This is standard on a decent door and worth confirming rather than assuming.
The threshold is where most trouble starts on a door facing driving rain. A low threshold is easier to live with and harder to detail correctly, so ask how it drains.
Finally, confirm whether the frame is being replaced or the new leaf is going into the existing one. They are different jobs at different prices, and a quote that does not say is worth querying.
What Actually Sits Inside a Composite Door
A composite door is not a solid slab. It is a dense skin, usually glass reinforced plastic, bonded to an insulated core, held in a frame that carries the locking. What separates a good one from a cheap one is what that core is made of and how the edges are finished.
Cores vary. Foam is the common choice and insulates well. A timber or composite core is heavier and more rigid, which matters where the door is wide, or where the letterplate and handle cutouts take the leaf close to its limit.
The skin is what you see and what takes the abuse. GRP does not dent the way an aluminium or uPVC face does, and it holds a grain texture that reads as timber from the road without needing paint.
The reason a composite stays flat under sun on one face and cold on the other is that the two faces are not the same material as the core. A solid timber door in the same situation moves, which is why timber doors stick in winter and free up again in summer.
Locking, Cylinders and What Actually Gets Attacked
The lock is the part of a door quote most often left vague and most worth pinning down. A multipoint mechanism engages at several points up the frame rather than at a single latch, which spreads force across the whole frame instead of one strike plate.
The cylinder is separate from the mechanism, and it is the part that gets attacked. Ask specifically whether it is anti snap. A good door on a poor cylinder is a poor door, and the upgrade is cheap when it is specified at order and awkward afterwards.
Hinge bolts matter on an outward opening door, because the hinge pins are reachable from outside. On an inward opening door they are not, which is one reason most Irish front doors open inward.
Ask who adjusts the door on handover and who comes back if it stiffens in the first winter. Multipoint locks need setting up, and a door that locks perfectly in August can bind in January if nobody allowed for it.
Colour, Fading and What the Weather Does
Dark colours on a south or west facing door take the most punishment. Anthracite and black are the two most requested finishes in Ireland and the two that sit hottest in direct sun, which is exactly the condition a composite handles better than timber or uPVC.
Fade is a real phenomenon rather than a sales objection, and the honest position is that it is gradual and rarely noticed on a single door. It becomes noticeable when a door is replaced and the frame or a neighbouring panel is not.
Check what the guarantee covers and for how long, and specifically whether it covers the finish as well as the hardware. Read it as a document rather than a headline number, because a long guarantee that excludes the parts that actually fail is not worth much.
If you are matching a door to existing windows, get both looked at together. Replacement windows covers doing them as one job, and what a composite door costs goes through what moves the price.
Composite Front Doors by County
Every county page lists only the contractors registered at an address in that county, rather than padding the number with firms from the far side of the country.
- Carlow10
- Cavan9
- Clare10
- Cork54
- Donegal26
- Dublin122
- Galway35
- Kerry16
- Kildare31
- Kilkenny12
- Laois8
- Leitrim3
- Limerick32
- Longford5
- Louth23
- Mayo18
- Meath36
- Monaghan8
- Offaly19
- Roscommon6
- Sligo9
- Tipperary24
- Waterford17
- Westmeath13
- Wexford26
- Wicklow17
What Actually Happens on a Window Job
Four stages, and the two in the middle are where a cheap quote saves its money. Almost nothing fails through the glass: it goes at the joint where the frame meets the wall, and it is the making good that gets left out.
Composite Front Doors: Common Questions
How long does a composite door take to fit?
The fitting is usually half a day. The wait is manufacturing, generally several weeks, and longer for non standard colours or glass.
Are composite doors more secure than uPVC?
Generally yes, on account of the solid core and heavier frame, though the locking specification matters more than the material. Ask about the lock rather than assuming.
Will a dark composite door fade?
A dark colour on a south facing door takes the most sun and is the most likely to show it. Ask about the guarantee on the finish specifically.
Can I keep my existing door frame?
Sometimes, if it is square, sound and the right size. It is cheaper, but a new leaf in a tired frame often just moves the problem.
Do composite doors fade?
Gradually, and most on dark colours facing south or west. It is rarely noticed on a single door and becomes visible when one door is replaced and a neighbouring panel or frame is not. Check whether the guarantee covers the finish as well as the hardware.
Can a composite door be painted?
Not in the way a timber door can. The colour is part of the skin rather than a coating on top of it, so the finish you order is the finish you keep. That is also why it does not need repainting.
Is a composite door more secure than timber?
The leaf is harder to break through, but security is decided by the locking rather than the material. A composite door on a poor cylinder is less secure than a solid timber door on a good one. Ask what standard the cylinder meets and whether it is anti snap.
How long does a composite front door take to fit?
The fitting is usually a day, often less if the old frame comes out cleanly. The wait is manufacturing, because the door is made to the measurements taken at your survey. Non standard colours and glass push that out further.
Getting a Quote for a Composite Front Door
Ask two or three registered contractors, confirm what the core and the locking are, and check who makes good the plaster and render once the old frame comes out.
589 contractors drawn from the SEAI public register