Your front door is one of the most important parts of your home. It keeps your home secure, ensuring your family can feel safe, and it helps with insulation too. It’s also one of the most prominent features of your home’s exterior and interior, which means it also needs to look good. A solid front door should last a long time, but they don’t survive forever. Even a front door that’s still in good condition might not be to your taste, and you might be keen to get a new one that suits your style.
Knowing when to replace a front door can be tough, but there are some signs you can watch out for. If you’re not sure whether it’s time to replace a front door, take a look at these clues that it could be due for a replacement.
Space Around the Frame
Can you see light filtering through the frame around your front door? Gaps around your door could be a sign that it’s deteriorating and might need replacing. If there’s space underneath the door or around the frame, it could lead to a number of other problems. Firstly, it could make your home draughty, leading to cold, possible damp, and higher energy bills. It could also let pests into your home, including insects and mice. If a whole is big enough to fit a pencil in it, it’s big enough for a mouse!
If you want a temporary fix, updating your weather stripping can help. However, this can mean you have to keep fixing it. Replacing your front door is a more permanent solution.
Dents, Cracks, or Peeling
Front doors can sustain various types of damage, especially if they’re older or not as sturdy. You could find that there are dents in your door or you might notice cracks or peeling, especially in wooden doors that are starting to be affected by the weather. These things might just look like aesthetic or surface-level issues, but they can also indicate structural problems with your door that means it’s time to replace it.
Rotting Around the Door
Wooden door frames and doors can start to rot if moisture gets inside them. Once your door is affected in this way, it can start to break down quickly, leaving your door unstable. It might not be an effective barrier against intruders any longer, so your home won’t be as safe as you need it to be. Installing a new door is probably required so that you can make your home secure again.
Sticking or Broken Lock
A broken front door lock could be replaced on its own. You can simply swap out the lock for a new one and hope that the new one isn’t going to break. However, if one lock has broken, it could be an indication that a new lock could also break. The broken lock could be caused by the structure of the door itself being unable to support a secure lock system. You might need to consider replacing the whole door, rather than just the lock.
Difficulty Opening or Closing the Door
A front door that won’t open or close properly without a struggle is a pain to deal with. You might live with it for a while, but you can only do it for so long before it gets extremely frustrating. Not to mention, it could make your home less secure if you’re not always sure whether you got the door to close and lock. A door that won’t open and close easily could be due to the material expanding in hot weather. However, if the problem doesn’t go away, it could be due to moisture in the door or frame or another issue that means the door won’t fit into the frame properly. If the damage is permanent, you’ll need a new door.
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Squeaky Hinges
Squeaking hinges are more than just annoying. Sometimes all it takes is a little oil or WD40 to get the noise to go away and ensure your door’s hinges are working smoothly. However, if the squeaking doesn’t go away, it could be a sign of a bigger problem. If your front door’s hinges are starting to come apart or have weakened, it can leave your home vulnerable. Intruders will target weak hinges, so your home could be more likely to be broken into. Replacing the whole door will ensure your home is secure again.
Poor Insulation and High Energy Bills
Your front door secures your home, but it needs to do so without affecting the insulation. Doors need to be well-insulated if you want to avoid draughts, dampness, and high energy bills. One issue that might mean your door is poorly insulated is if you have single-glazed glass panes in your door. Decorative glass can make your door look attractive, but older doors may only be single-glazed, which is not energy efficient at all. There could also be gaps or air leaks around your door, which is allowing cold air to get in and warm air to escape so you’re wasting energy when trying to heat your home.
If you notice your energy bills are higher than you think they should be or you feel a draught around your front door, it could be time to replace it.
You Don’t Like What Your Door Looks Like
One of the reasons you might decide it’s time for a new front door is simply that you don’t like what it looks like anymore. This could be because it’s starting to deteriorate, even if there are no structural issues. The paint might be peeling off or the UPVC might be discoloured. Or you might just decide that it doesn’t suit your tastes and you want to get a front door that matches your style and personality.
If you don’t like your front door, you don’t have to wait until it’s broken to replace it. A brand new door can make you happy and help you to give your home the look that you want. Whenever you leave the house or come back home, you’ll be glad you decided to get a new door. Not only will it look better for your own pleasure, but it can make your home look a little more respectable too.
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The Benefits of a New Front Door
Getting a new front door can have a range of excellent benefits. You don’t even need to notice anything wrong with your door to consider replacing it. If you’re still not sure whether a new front door is right for you, check out these benefits you can gain from a brand new front door.
Better kerb appeal
Not everything is about looks, but aesthetics are definitely important when it comes to your home. Kerb appeal is something you should consider if you’re thinking about the resale value of your home, as well as the impression that you, your neighbours, and any passersby get when looking at your home. A new door can improve your home’s kerb appeal immensely. If you decide it’s time to sell, whether it’s in the next few months or few years, it could increase the interest in your home and even help to raise the price.
Improved security
Home security is vital if you want to feel safe in your home. An older front door can start to deteriorate, leaving your home less secure than you need it to be. Replacing your front door and its lock can remove vulnerable points, such as weak hinges and locks or a weak door or frame. You’ll have a newer, stronger door to protect your home and family.
Lower energy bills/better insulation
If your front door is letting in air and moisture, it could be causing higher energy bills, making your home cold, and causing other problems. But a new door will help to address these issues and you could benefit from lower energy bills thanks to improved insulation.
Keep out pests
Gaps around your door could let pests in. Anything from slugs to bugs or mice could find their way inside if there’s a hole or gap big enough. When you replace your front door, you can get rid of these places where pests can sneak in. That will allow you to keep your home more hygienic, and you won’t have to deal with any nasty surprises or infestations.
It will make you happy
If there’s one big reason to get a new front door, it’s because a brand new and shiny front door will make you happy. If you don’t like your old one, you don’t have to put up with it just because it hasn’t completely fallen apart. A new door could get rid of any tiny, niggling things that annoy you about the current one, and you can choose a style and colour that you like.
Replacing your front door has lots of great benefits. If it’s time to replace yours, get in touch with us at Kay Garage Doors to find out about our front door replacement services.
