The front door is often the last thing done after the garden doors, and the quickest. On the 1980s and 90s houses around Uckfield and Maresfield, the original is often a uPVC panel door with a tired lock and a draught round the edge.
Composite doors
A solid insulated core under a tough outer skin, made to look like a painted timber door without the painting. They are the usual replacement for a uPVC door on a post-war house and come in dozens of colours and glass designs.
Aluminium entrance doors
Heavier, flatter and more modern, often with a long bar handle and a flush panel. They suit a house that has just had aluminium windows and a slider, so the whole outside reads as one.
Timber
Available, and sometimes right on a listed cottage in Framfield or Fletching. Otherwise a composite door gives the look with far less upkeep.
Side lights and top lights
A glazed panel beside or above the door brings daylight into a dark hall. It is the main thing that changes the cost of a front door job.
Security
Ask for a door tested to PAS 24, with a multi-point lock and an anti-snap cylinder. The installer will confirm what its doors carry.
Illustrative example of a typical job
Composite front door with one side light, 1990s detached house in Maresfield
The house: One of the detached houses built in Maresfield since about 1990, with a draughty original front door and a glazed panel to one side.
The spec: A composite door around 920 by 2100 mm with a multi-point lock, and a matching glazed side light in the same frame colour.
Typically £3,300 to £6,000, supplied and fitted, including VAT.
The side light is what lifts the figure. Without it, the door on its own sits well inside this range.
