Home Period front door restoration

Period front door restoration

Front door restoration includes:

Repair rotten wood in the front door
Restore cracks
Improve insulation and energy efficiency
Double glazing currently single glazed French doors

!Please Note:

Scott James Sash Window Specialists refurbished the front door only as a part of the window restoration project.

Our minimum service order quantity is 10 windows for restoration or painting; a bay window is counted as 3 windows.

The wooden front doors of your home are extremely important for maintaining the character of your property. Without these beautiful doors, your home loses a fantastic period feature.

However, if you’d like to modernise your home’s energy efficiency, you may feel like there is no other option but to change the doors.

Well, our period front door restoration services not only restore your wooden doors back to their former glory but can also add 21st-century glass and draughtproofing technology without changing the look of these original features of your period property.

The benefit of restoration over replacement

One of the bigger benefits of restoring period doors rather than replacing them is that it keeps bespoke doors in place.

Many French doors and Victorian doors were custom-made for individual properties.

These are heritage doors that add so much character to your property. Removing original doors takes away a lot of the charm and style of your home.

But by preserving them, restoring them and adding modern glazing and draughtproofing technology, you can enjoy all the benefits of modern window and door technology as well as the classic style of your doors.

This makes restoring period doors a very popular choice for many period homeowners.

French door double glazing retrofitting – replace single glazing with double glazing

French doors have such an iconic style. And while there are modern uPVC replacements, nothing is going to do your home’s style more justice than the original doors.

Of course, the doors are likely single-glazed, though, which is an issue when it comes to energy efficiency.

However, we can retrofit double glazing into most timber doors without changing their look of them at all. We preserve the style but update the glass and draughtproofing technology.

This ensures your doors look as beautiful as they always have, but the areas you can’t see now have up-to-date energy-efficient technology to reduce your energy bills.

Our process of wooden front door restoration

Our period door restoration services vary from project to project, and it greatly depends on how much work is needed to bring a door back to life.

However, here are the common steps included in most projects.

Step 1

Stripping the paint off the front door

We strip the paint off of your doors to assess all of the damage to the wood.

We look at the most common areas for rot (the bottom of the door and sills, for example), but also every other part of the door.

Spet 2

Repair rotten wood and structural issues

Any rot we find on the door and the door frame is then repaired. For larger areas of damage, we splice in fresh wood.

For smaller areas, we use a high-quality two-part epoxy that strengthens the wood around it.

Step 3

Glazing – install energy-efficiency glazing

Next, we retrofit ultra-thin vacuum-sealed double glazing into the existing door.

The beauty of the door goes unchanged, but this increases its energy efficiency dramatically. The new glass and draught-proofing aimed to achieve “A” on the windows and door energy efficiency rating scale.

front door reglazing with double glazed units

Step 4

Fit draught-proofing seals

We then install modern draught-proofing, which increases the energy efficiency of your door even more.

Step 5

Painting front door

We then prime and paint the door with good quality exterior-grade paint, unless it is an internal door.

As you can see, the steps we take to restore your period doors do not change their style of them at all.

But rather, give them a new lease of life, and make them look like they did when they were first installed in your home.

Only they now have modern, up-to-date glazing technology that is just as energy efficient as modern gas-filled triple glazing.

Period doors style guide and history

Certain styles of doors were popularised at different times throughout history. However, previous homeowners may have changed their doors to keep up with the current styles and trends, just as you are doing now.

So, if your house is Georgian, for example, this doesn’t mean that your doors are from this period. We can help you find out which period your doors are from when we see them.

However, there are four main types of wooden doors on heritage properties, including:

Georgian: 1714-1837
Victorian: 1837-1901
Edwardian: 1901-1910
Interwar: 1919-1939

FAQs

Can my period door be restored?

Yes, your period door can be restored. We can repair any rot issues with a wooden door and restore it to a previous condition. With our help, your wooden doors in your beautiful period property will look as they did when they were first installed. But we can also retrofit modern draught-proofing and double-glazing into your existing doors without changing the style at all.

Signs your doors need restoration

Any flaking paint and dark marks on the paint can be a sign of wood decay. These should be addressed. If signs of rot on doors are addressed quickly, the repair work is fairly minimal, and the door will look as beautiful as ever.

Should I choose door restoration or replacement?

Door restoration is often much cheaper than replacing the door. It is also the best way to preserve the look of your home too. By changing the doors to modern uPVC French doors, you can drastically change the looks of your entire home.

Front door restoration is often cheaper because the structure of the door is there already.

All we need to do is address any rot, sand and paint the doors. We can also add modern glazing technology, just as we do with our sash window repairs, during the restoration without changing the look of the door at all.

How do you fix a faded front door?

A faded front door may only need to be sanded and then given a fresh coat of paint. However, after you have sanded the front door, inspect the wood for rot. Any rot issues should be addressed before painting it again. This can be done with two-part epoxy wood filler if the areas of rot are small. But for larger areas, splicing in new wood may be needed.

To find out more about our period door restoration services, please get in touch. We also offer restoration services on wooden sash windows and casement windows too.