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Carpentry & Joinery

Replace a hollow firedoor with a more secure door of same appearance (internal flat entrance)

Anonymous user 14/03/2024 - 2.31 PM

We want to replace our flat entrance door - a plain hollow firedoor, mainly for the purpose of having something considerably stronger and more difficult to kick down. The door frame is ok, but needs some repairs to the top hinge area where various older refits have left the wood in poor shape. So looking for some advice on what type of door we should get best security (within reason) and ideally reusing the existing frame. Also curious about the possibility of embedding the door hinges right into the brickwork as I've heard can be done? The most straightforward option looks to be a solid core timber door blank, then cut to size. Having looked around there seems to be many options and materials but generally am looking for something very solid and strong, while still keeping the plain appearance of the current door (plain mahogany colour stained / painted veneer).

Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?

1 Answer

Anonymous user

Your best bet would probably be to get an oak fire door, you can source one of these from Wickes, B&Q or anywhere like that. These doors have about an inch thick of solid oak around the doors and then another type of timber inside which is fire rated. These doors are very heavy and very strong, I'm not sure you can get a plain one as all the ones I've seen have been fancy but I'm sure you could find one to suit you if you shop around. For the lock, I would suggest getting a strong yale mortice lock. These do cost quite a lot but are worth it in the long run, I've never heard anyone have a problem with one of the strong, bulky yale locks. You can save the door frame and will save you a lot of money, by cutting out an area where your frame is broken and then glueing new pieces of timber in. Hope this helps. Darryl.

Answered13 September 2013