An entrance door with MY glass in it.

[AlwaysLearning]

So I'm out of ideas.

SWMBO has her heart set on replacing an entrance door with something more contemporary. She did some browsing and decided upon XL joinery's Lucca, ie asymetric with five sandblasted double glazed panels. Now the problem is that there is a large sidelight in the door frame and I've no intention of changing the frame, so I'd need to replace the glass with identical glass so the whole thing looks good.

So I spoke to the technical folk in XL Joinery. Can the glazing be removed. No. Could you tell me the specification of the glasses so I can have a sidelight made? It's sandblasted, dunno the rest. Ok, can you put me in contact with the glazing manufacturer so I can source direct? Oh we get them made in Asia somewhere and shipped in in bulk. Could you make me an unglazed door as a special order? No. How about I order a glazed door and extra beading so I can "accidentally" break the glass and replace the units. There is no beading. The panels are built into the door as part of the manufacturing process. [Note that the final answer would have answered most of the previous questions!]

I'm banging my head on a brick wall here. Well a wooden door anyway. I'm pretty much out of ideas. The last notion that went through my head briefly was to buy the door and take a router to it to cut back enough to remove the glazing. But who knows what routering out would reveal, and what's inside to attach beading to. I quickly decided that wasn't a path I wanted to go down any further.

So, has anyone any suggestions? I think the XL door route is dead.

Two other options are:
+ Find a similar door. Kinda searched, but Google isn't coming up with anything with the same visual appeal. Perhaps I just don't know the "right" search terms to produce the matches though.
+ Have a bespoke door made but I reckon that wouldn't give me much change from £700 plus the glazing. Not ruled it out, but just haven't convinced myself it's the only option left yet.

Any comments, or sympathy?

 

[Trevanion]

I've actually replaced a couple of External XL Joinery doors and frames not too long ago that were put in about 3 years ago and the bottom rails on the doors had rotted considerably and so had the door frame cills. As you said in your post, the glass was manufactured into the door rather than beaded into place so water ran down the glass and just sat in the groove rotting away the chipboard panels & timber (Whatever the timber was behind the oak veneer anyway, I have no clue what it was). The veneer itself had started peeling from the base timber and had bubbled in several places. XL Joinery wanted nothing to do with the customer and pleaded "You did not follow our maintenance guidelines properly" despite having a 10-year warranty. That's what happens when you buy mass-produced rubbish that's pretending to bespoke quality stuff.

Definitely worth finding someone local to you to make a bespoke door, it may cost a little more but at least it'll be of good quality and sound construction and you won't have to replace it in a couple years time. If you were feeling ambitious you could probably make your own door, it's not overly complicated.

 

[AlwaysLearning]

Thanks for your insight. My door would sit between a hall and an enclosed porch. Although it will never be rained on, there's a good chance of high humidity in the summer months if I grow anything in the porch. I had an inkling the XL door might suffer.

Much as I'd like to have a go at making a door from scratch, I doubt SWMBO would be happy with the idea of me having yet another pet project to not get around to. I've been not building a large shelving unit for a few years now.

 

[Marineboy]

There is no beading. The panels are built into the door as part of the manufacturing process.

So what happens if the glass gets broken? Replace the whole door? Sounds like a daft manufacturing method to me.

 

[Rorschach]

There is no beading. The panels are built into the door as part of the manufacturing process.

So what happens if the glass gets broken? Replace the whole door? Sounds like a daft manufacturing method to me.

Sounds like a great way to make money. It also hides the fact that repairing the door would be pointless since it isn't going to last 10 years anyway.

 

[Doug71]

I generally use XL Joinery for doors but I have pretty much stopped supplying their external ones because of problems with veneer lifting etc. They have normally replaced the door but that is all, nothing towards rehanging, repainting etc so I have been left out of pocket.

I don't think they are any worse than other suppliers though, they are all built to a price, in fact I think XL Joinery internal doors are better than most.

If your door is in a porch, not exposed to the elements I reckon it should be fine as long as it is properly sealed.

You can get sand blasted glass but I guess the question is will it match.

 

[AlwaysLearning]

Likelihood of matching the glass is very slim.