What is a Composite Door & how are they made?

Published by: Owen Mullock

What is a composite door?

A composite door is composed of multiple materials, generally solid timber, glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), polyurethane foam (PU foam), and uPCV. They are combined in layers to make a door with superior thermal efficiency, increased durability, and all-year-round weather resistance.

This combination of materials has been carefully selected to counteract common problems found in single material doors like solid wood doors and uPVC doors, such as rot and internal moisture, peeling paint, cracking, fading, warping, and bowing.

External skins, usually made of PVC or GRP not only provide weather resistance, thermal efficiency, and impact resistance, they can also be molded to replicate the intricate and desirable wood-grain effects of natural-wood doors. These can be manufactured in a wealth of colours to match your home’s exterior aesthetic whilst maintaining a unique finish for your front entrance.

What is a composite door made of?

Whilst made of several different materials, composite doors are usually comprised of these core elements:

Inner frame: this is usually solid-timber to provide the door structural support. Our composite doors feature a low-density Albasia Falcata timber core to prevent bowing and swelling over the lifetime of the door. 

External skin: this is usually made from PVC or GRP, and provides the door with its weather-resistance and impact-resistance properties, and unique aesthetics such as wood-grain effects.

Outer frame:  is what the door closes against, made from uPVC at 70mm front to back. Manufactured with triseal technology, our frames offer superior weather performance.

Glazing: We only use Low-E safety glass, which offers increased energy-efficiency whilst reducing the glare from light sources. All of our composite doors also feature the TriSYS triple cassette system, a sleek and low-profile cassette that offers a premium aesthetic with a subtle texture finish.

How is a composite door made?

At Comp Door we use the most advanced techniques on the market and adhere to rigorous standards every step of the way to ensure you receive the highest quality product and service:

• Firstly, the solid timber slab is cut to size and routed to millimetre precision as required, taking into account specific design details, letterboxes, spaces for glazing, room for locks and door handles.

• The edge banding is then applied. This is done before the skins are fitted to the door to ensure that the edge banding is not visible in the final aesthetics of the door.

• We encase the doors with skins incorporating CoolFoil technology to add both impact and thermal resistance. These skins are vacuum-formed in house to give the door its grained texture and surface detail.

• The skin is glued to the slab faces using our unique ADHEER process to prevent delamination issues.

• The hardware is then fitted to the door, personalized to your specification.

• We hang the door into our bespoke-manufactured outer frame, where we install the glazing, cassettes, and final details by hand.

The benefits of a composite door

Superior security: composite doors are naturally very secure due to the composition of carefully selected materials, making it very hard to break through. They can also be installed with a variety of additional security features, such as multi-point locking systems and auto-slam locks. 

Thermal Insulation: most composite doors are made with several thermally efficient materials, including solid timber, polyurethane foam, and uPVC, which all combine to create a highly insulated door. At Comp Door we go one step further by encasing our solid-timber cores with CoolFoil technology, which deflects heat at the door, keeping your home cool in the summer whilst the natural properties of the door keep it warm in the winter.

Durability: composite doors can last around 35 years if properly maintained. Unlike wooden and uPVC doors, paint won’t peel, the door won’t crack, warp or fade over time.

Soundproof: as well as thermal insulation, they provide superior sound insulation, making them a great investment for houses on particularly busy or noisy streets.

Low maintenance: unlike wooden doors, composite doors don’t need treating to maintain their performance or fresh appearance. They are simple to clean with a cloth and water.

Weather resistant: outer layers are made from weather resistant materials, such as PVC or GRP that can withstand weather conditions all year round.

Customisable: composite doors can be customised with many different accessories, including door handles, locks, and glazing, and can be manufactured in a wealth of colours.

Why buy from CompDoor?

We strive to provide you with the best quality composite doors on the market, that’s why we’ve invested in the most advanced technology and techniques available:

Delamination-reduction: we use our unique ADHEER process, an automated gluing process that secures the skin to the door, greatly reducing delamination of your composite doors. Other manufacturers’ manually apply glue to their doors, and this can often lead to delamination over time.

CoolSkin Technology: CoolSkin technology provides our composite doors with increased thermal performance by deflecting the heat away from the door, but also provides increased impact resistance and greatly reduces thermal movement in your door, unlike many others on the market.

TriSeal Frames: market-leading TriSeal frame for better weatherproofing and performance, the Comp Door is able to withstand even the most extreme weather. 

Industry-leading U-Value: At Comp Door, our doors are made from a 48mm thick cross-laminated solid timber core. This helps us achieve an industry-leading U-value of just 1.4W/m2K. The Comp Door composite door is the first solid core timber door on the market to achieve this level of thermal resistance.

ABS cylinders: Fitted with top-of-the-market ABS anti-snap diamond grade cylinders as standard to provide the ultimate security against unwanted intruders. ABS is the UK’s highest accredited lock range and is pick, drill and bump resistant making it a super secure choice for your composite door.

Auto-slam shut lock: all of our single doors come equipped with the latest auto-slam shut lock from Avantis, fully compliant to PAS-24. This automatically engages when your door closes, thereby increasing the security of your home, and minimising thermal movement to increase thermal efficiency.

Hand-crafted in the UK: at Comp Door, we produce all of our composite doors from start to finish here in our factory in the UK. Most other door manufacturers choose to ship their doors from abroad, but we are proud to manufacture here in Britain, giving us ultimate control over the quality of the product. With this approach, we can also offer a better variety of styles and sizes, rather than take a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Highly customisable: we offer over 250 colour combinations, inside and out, with a wide variety of door hardware accessories and glazing options to make your new door unique to you.