"best" internal oak doors

[Chicken Chaser]

Looking at veneered oak doors, ones with vertical lines top to bottom plus a half glass option.

I've seen 3 -

LPD Mexicano
XL Suffolk
Howdens Holdenby

About 200+VAT between them all, but I'm more interested in quality as they all seem fairly similar.

Finish wise I was going for pre finished, purely because I've got 15 doors to buy and didn't want to spend weeks getting round to finishing them all. Some are going in fairly uneven old frames and some in new level frames.

I was planning on treating the edges that are planed off with Osmo PolyX as there seems to be decent reviews of it here.

Anyone else bought similar or any joiners worked with them?

[ICallCustard]

Have the howdens doors and finished them myself with the Osmo oil. They came up great and was really easy to do. The osmo oil dries quite quickly so didn’t take long to do them.

[Wombat3]

Chicken Chaser said:

Looking at veneered oak doors, ones with vertical lines top to bottom plus a half glass option.

I've seen 3 -

LPD Mexicano
XL Suffolk
Howdens Holdenby

About 200+VAT between them all, but I'm more interested in quality as they all seem fairly similar.

Finish wise I was going for pre finished, purely because I've got 15 doors to buy and didn't want to spend weeks getting round to finishing them all. Some are going in fairly uneven old frames and some in new level frames.

I was planning on treating the edges that are planed off with Osmo PolyX as there seems to be decent reviews of it here.

Anyone else bought similar or any joiners worked with them?

I used UK Oak doors (or by the same stuff via their sister company www.internaldoors.co.uk for much less!)

I bought unfinished but UKOD will sell you finished I think. The Treatex hard wax oil they recommend is very good stuff - especially when followed with some fine steel wool & furniture wax,

Sounds like the most important thing is to find someone who is good enough to fit new doors into old frames - that's going to be half the battle.

[neth27]

I fitted 22 of the Mexicano oak fire doors from Magnet last week, they seemed to be good quality. No problems with them. They were about £150 each inc Vat.

John

[EViS]

All oak-veneered doors are generally of equal quality, especially those three you list. The only difference arises from the thickness of lipping which 'frames' the door (and therefore how much you can plane a door by). In saying that, the maximum is generally 5mm, with the exception being Deanta doors which allow a whopping 15mm from each side! Shop around online, get a best and final price from Howdens/Benchmark/Magnet, then make your purchase based on the lowest cost quote/shortest lead time you require/best customer service.

[Chicken Chaser]

EViS said:

All oak-veneered doors are generally of equal quality, especially those three you list. The only difference arises from the thickness of lipping which 'frames' the door (and therefore how much you can plane a door by). In saying that, the maximum is generally 5mm, with the exception being Deanta doors which allow a whopping 15mm from each side! Shop around online, get a best and final price from Howdens/Benchmark/Magnet, then make your purchase based on the lowest cost quote/shortest lead time you require/best customer service.

Howdens is approx a 10mm lipping whereas LPD claim up to 20mm!

It's about an extra 30 quid per door. The PolyX stuff is 75 quid a tin and I'll probably need a couple of tins so although the old frames will inevitably mean I'll need to treat the edges, I'd probably say a few hundred to have prefinished isn't a bad deal

[V8RX7]

My carpenter will only fit pre finished doors to new frames (that he's fitted)

He cites that doors are easily marked during storage, handling, fitting and it's easier to finish them than touch them in

Annoyingly, over the years, I have found he is generally correct

[Nealio]

V8RX7 said:

My carpenter will only fit pre finished doors to new frames (that he's fitted)

He cites that doors are easily marked during storage, handling, fitting and it's easier to finish them than touch them in

I'm not understanding this, did you mean he only fits UN-finished doors?

[V8RX7]

Nealio said:

V8RX7 said:

My carpenter will only fit pre finished doors to new frames (that he's fitted)

He cites that doors are easily marked during storage, handling, fitting and it's easier to finish them than touch them in

I'm not understanding this, did you mean he only fits UN-finished doors?

Yes - except to new frames as he's allowed the tolerance so the doors are untouched

[EViS]

Chicken Chaser said:

Howdens is approx a 10mm lipping whereas LPD claim up to 20mm!

It's about an extra 30 quid per door. The PolyX stuff is 75 quid a tin and I'll probably need a couple of tins so although the old frames will inevitably mean I'll need to treat the edges, I'd probably say a few hundred to have prefinished isn't a bad deal

Double check that LPD lipping spec. You may find that the lipping is doubled up on the sides, but remains at 10mm top and bottom. You do sometimes find that the odd door in a certain range has a different lipping size compared to everything else offered by the same manufacturer.

Definitely don't go for pre-finished. They're fine on new builds with brand new square linings. On anything else, they're a pain as it's next to impossible to finish them off to match. Furthermore, any future maintenance/scratches will be harder to rectify and blend.

I'd suggest Osmo Door Oil over PolyX on veneered. Less chance of delamination.

[DocJock]

I'm happy with my Jeld-Wen doors. https://www.jeld-wen.co.uk/products/interior-doors

[Desiderata]

I've just bought similar to you. 13 doors, a mix of metric and imperial sizes as the house is a byre conversion. If you can, fit imperial as they tend to be £30 to £50 cheaper a door.
I got quotes from Jewson, Howdens, and JeldWen from our local Indy merchant.
Prices were all roughly £200 list per door but quoted were between £1500 and £1800 all in.
If they'd all been imperial sizes it would have been just under £100 per door.
Went for Howdens unfinished in the end then treated with Osma oil.
As others have said, unless frames are perfectly sized, get unfinished.

[Little Lofty]

I’m not a fan of Howdens oak doors due to the thin lip, it’s only an issue if the frames are tight though. I usual fit LPD, good quality and decent price, having said that I sometimes just use what’s on special offer as there is little difference in any of them.
Fire doors won’t fit in many internal frames, especially older properties.

[lewisf182]

Pretty sure I bought the mexicana’s from magnet which are supplied by LPD. They feel pretty good quality especially considering the price.

Just checked my invoice, i got the Belize style, still LPD door supplied. They were £55 inc VAT unfinished, genuinely feel like they cost more than that

[AW10]

ICallCustard said:

Have the howdens doors and finished them myself with the Osmo oil. They came up great and was really easy to do. The osmo oil dries quite quickly so didn’t take long to do them.

Did this a few years ago - v pleased with the result. Just don't oil the doors indoors in January - ended up with ocular migraines after each coat. Not clever!

[edc]

You'll see a lot of the same doors across Travis, Wickes, Howdens, Benchmarx etc. Just find the best price. They give them different names. I got some from Wickes on a black Friday deal. They are Oak veneer with the 3 vertical lanes of glass with the central pane wider. They were unfinished and I finished them myself.

[Flibble]

I have some XL doors and some JeldWen. The XL are better quality with larger lips so easier to fit to old frames. All finished with Osmo door oil, no issues so far.

[Little Lofty]

I could be wrong but if oak veneer doors are the same as moulded doors and composite doors then most of the skins will come from China. The inner frame and lipping will be made locally, hence the doors all looking very similar but with slight differences to weight and thickness of oak lip.

[archie456]

OP, have you considered solid Oak doors as they're much less prone to damage? I used UK Oak doors and they were excellent for the price. Unless you're looking to have new door frames fitted then get unfinished. You're better to pay someone to finish them than try and patch up pre-finished after the joiner has cut them down. Also budget a decent amount for a good joiner to fit them.

https://www.ukoakdoors.co.uk/internal-oak-doors

Wombat3 said:

I used UK Oak doors (or by the same stuff via their sister company www.internaldoors.co.uk for much less!)

I think the www.internaldoors.co.uk are veneered not solid btw.

[Steve Campbell]

Looking to refit all house with pre-finished oak doors (14 doors - 4 with glass in). Probably will use a company with a local showroom (Todd Doors). Anyone had experience of them ? https://www.todd-doors.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/...

One question, once fitted, what do you do with the side or sides that have been altered/skimmed to fit (top/bottom/sides) ?

I noted the points above about not buying pre-finished, but we definitely don t want any hassle of oiling / waxing 14 of them. Do you do that in situ or do you have to remove each one to coat it ? We wouldn’t have anywhere to do that anyway.

Edited by Steve Campbell on Sunday 2nd November 14:06