7 reasons to use aluminium doors

Aluminium doors have several benefits over timber, composite or PVCu doors and many of these benefits are quite important when deciding on what materials for a front door.

Aluminium doors can meet the needs of most property renovation projects so here are some of the best reasons to use aluminium for front, side or rear doors.

Why aluminium doors are best for small and large sizes

One of the significant reasons to choose aluminium doors is how flexible they are on sizes. Any door material will work well in a standard size opening, but aluminium is best outside standard sizes.

Want wider and taller doors? Aluminium door leaves typically go up to 1.2m wide and many models up to 2.4m high, some higher. This is well above the size capabilities of PVCu and composite doors, typically around a metre including the frame. As a result, aluminium doors remove the need for side or top panels, often a requirement with PVCu and composite doors in certain size apertures. So if you’d like more doors and a less visible frame, aluminium is best for small or large sizes.

The same also applies to small doors. Cottages and character properties often have smaller doorways. Composite doors don’t go to these smaller sizes and many alumninium doors can. As an example, composite doors aren’t usually available smaller than 850mm wide.

Aluminium doors give more glass and cleaner lines

Only steel doors are slimmer than aluminium. The advantage of an aluminium frame is a thinner frame giving larger door sizes. The doors also have a thinner sash profile meaning larger glass sizes. Larger glass sizes mean more light and an overall better-looking door.

The slim lines of aluminium get even better when you do want doors with side or top panels or a larger combination screen. Significantly smaller profiles than PVCu doors gives far less bulk.

One of the best ways of understanding just how thin aluminium is on French doors and where they meet and lock in the middle. Many PVCu doors are well over 250mm where set of doors meets in the middle. Aluminium doors are can be more than half this dimension.

And you could have even thinner double or French doors by opting for a steel-styled door or even doors made out of slimline bifold door profiles but made as double hinged doors.

Therefore, aluminium doors provide many different solutions for style, thin lines and maximum glass with a better feeling of light and space.

Aluminium doors allow more discrete or invisible hardware

Thin aluminium also means smaller and more discreet door hardware such as hinges and with no loss of security or other essential functions. There are even aluminium doors designed with invisible door hinges giving even cleaner looks.

The hinges typically used on composite and timber doors are far bulkier and more intrusive than with aluminium doors.  This is because PVCu frames found in composite doors and PVCu panelled doors need reinforcement and bulkier hardware to support the weight of the door leaf.  This is not the case with aluminium which is slimmer and needs no reinforcement for hardware to have a suitably strong fixing point.

Aluminium doors integrate better with windows.

If you are already having aluminium windows installed in your home or have a porch, screen or other glazed feature that needs both windows and doors, aluminium doors are all designed to couple and integrate with windows.  This means you do not need a composite or PVCu door that will look different from your windows.  Modern aluminium window and door systems are designed to couple together if needed creating uniform and matching screens.

This is not the case with composite doors where it is a completely different product by a different manufacturer.  If you are already having aluminium windows installed you can match their slim lines perfectly with an aluminium door that was designed from the outset to work with them.  With some systems, you can even have side and rear doors that match your bifolding doors.

More colour options wiht aluminium doors

Polyester powder coating is the most advanced and durable way of coating aluminium profiles.  Not only do you get over 200 colour options but these are further added to with textured, metallic and even different colours inside and out. You can even have wood effect doors in aluminium as well.

PVCu and composite doors do come with some excellent wood-effect finishes and foiles. These same foils are also available in aluminium or the sublimated colour finish.

Another significant advantage of aluminium is it’s easy to match other or existing aluminium colours. It’s harder to do with a foiled pvcu door even if the RAL colour references are the same! With powder-coated aluminium doors and windows, it’s easier to get a better colour match.

Why aluminium doors provide more design options

Composite doors and PVCu panelled doors are designed around panel slabs in set designs.  Whilst there is a large choice of door designs, did you know with the number of midrails, bottom rails, mullions and transoms available for aluminium doors you can create your own specific design? This will give you the option of designing your own door that is unique to you and not part of a stock range.

Aluminium doors are more flexible.

The nature of aluminium when used in doors means more flexibility. You don’t have to choose a standard product. Instead, a good manufacturer can create a distinctive and unique door arrangement.

Larger sizes, a greater range of profiles and colours make aluminium doors some of the best for front doors, single doors or double doors with and without fixed panels.