Invent Design Make

Composite Oak French Doors – Intro

There are many things to consider when designing your doors: your own aesthetic preferences, what the rest of the house is like (you want them to fit in or contrast nicely right?), what the neighbours’ houses are like, size, cost, and so on. Our particular windows had a few primary design requirements:

1. They wanted to keep us snugly and warm even though they often get a cool and strong sea breeze. They had to be well insulated and tightly sealed when shut. This would also reduce the need for heating and thus wasted energy (CO2 emissions, etc etc.). Along these lines they should also provide a good deal of passive ‘solar gain’, as they are directly South facing.

2. They were replacing garage doors, to make the workshop more habitable and pleasant. For us, first and foremost this means providing plenty of natural light! It also meant that they had to be capable of being thrown right open, so on nice days tinkering in the workshop is much like being outside in the sunshine. Full opening will also help with soldering and other fumetastic jobs that require good ventilation.

3. They should last well, be dimensionally stable, and secure enough to repel the amateur opportunist brigand.

And the fussy extra bits:
i) They should not have a large bottom lip, so I can wheel heavy things in and out nice and easy.
ii) Should cost less money than buying factory made oak ones.
iii) While not compromising my desire for wood, they should ‘fit in’ with the rest of the streets uPVC doors and windows (it pays to keep the neighbours happy).
iv)The doors should keep outside noise outside, inside noise inside as much as possible.

I would recommend you write out your own design brief. If you don’t really know what you want, just think about how you would be using the door or window day in day out. Also look around for ideas on the many websites that sell doors and windows – you will see plenty of examples. Just don’t let these large manufacturers tell you what you want – follow your own brief.

Composite Oak, Triple Glazed French Doors

Here are some features of the finished doors:

Natural UV protected inside finish, so we can appreciate the delightful oak White outside finish, for weather protection and discrete appearance Multi Point Locking System for security and better sealing Hand finished for  kinaesthetic niceness Laminated construction – reduced warping and added strength Composite cork sections to prevent thermal bridging and improved insulation Triple glazed – low u-value, high r-value drained and vented rebates to extend sealed unit life Open fully