Reputable European oak door supplier?

[LancsRick]

I'm still getting my workshop up and running in the new place so I have no wish to go about building my own doors at the moment, although I'll fit them myself. I'm after a glazed European oak interior door (several of them), and most of what I find seems to be thin AWO veneer with minimal lippings, which just makes me think the whole thing has been made for the lowest budget possible.

Can anyone on here vouch for any particular manufacturer or retailer?

Cheers.

 

[mumble]

You could try British Hardwoods.
https://www.britishhardwoods.co.uk/oak-doors.html

 

[Peterm1000]

We have Deanta Eton doors in our house. Not quite as bland as most of the doors you can buy - veneer is crown cut. 18mm lippings all around and heavy doors. I think I paid about £85 a door. We also looked at www.ukoakdoors.co.uk which have solid oak doors, but we needed 17 doors so the Deanta doors were a big saving.

 

[LancsRick]

Thanks, but again they're AWO. All the other woodwork is European so once oiled I'm concerned they will look really quite different.

 

[AJB Temple]

I've trod this path for 15 internal solid oak doors last year.

The only way you will get solid oak of consistent quality using English or European (inc East European) oak is to find a local joinery shop and spec it up or do it yourself.

If you are paying retail (through the nose) you are in the £500 - £700 a door area unless you are just looking for planked, ledged doors.

 

[LancsRick]

Bugger. What about decent veneer and kipping rather than solid?

 

[AJB Temple]

Hi - I know you sent me an email, as I had a notification from Charley, but I can't find how to reply.

In my case I wanted solid oak, not veneer. For oak supplies if I am not buying directly from France (which I do for big stuff) I get my oak from Mike at Wealdon Oak. I know where he gets his oak from.

He also works with an old fella who made a few top notch ledged and braced doors for me, as I was in a hurry for a few. The remainder (more complex) I made myself.

 

[LancsRick]

If you click in the top right where your account is you can go to private messages and it will be there.

Starting to wonder if I need to bite the bullet and make the doors...

 

[AJB Temple]

I did that and there is no message! all I received was an email notification from Charley, with the text of a message but no means of replying.

 

[LancsRick]

How strange. No idea I'm afraid! I've found one place that I might enquire and see what they're like, otherwise I think I'm going to end up building my own. Maybe I should have got AWO skirting and frames, but then again european looks much nicer to my eyes.

 

[AJB Temple]

Ina lot of cases American white oak looks very similar to European white oak, especially in solid joinery grades I find. I actually like some of the watery grain characteristics and knots you more usually find in English and European, but my house is an old barn and so that suits the building. Typical AWO veneers look very uniform and unattractive most of the time, and don't really justify a premium price.

A lot of the better European flooring oak comes from a long way East and is often of really high quality in my experience if you use a good supplier. I have had about 200 sq metres of random lengths oak flooring from Slovenia / Croatia, 22mm thick T&G and it has been very consistent, 4 widths of boards up to 26cm, mostly long boards. Very low wastage. Might be worth looking for a supplier of oak from that region. Mine came from Wealdon Oak as above. Trade supply.

 

[yetloh]

I liked the idea of solid oak doors too but, in the end bought veneered and lipped doors from Howdeans and am very pleased with them. Yes, they almost certainly are AWO but they still fit nicely with the European oak newel posts and hand rails of my 1930s house which I have modified by getting rid of the original fibreboard panelling and substituting european oak stop chamfered ballusters and bottom rail on top of the painted string , giving a quality authentic '30s look. The beauty of the veneered and lipped doors is that they are very stable which is very hard to guarantee with solid timber. I have seen lots of solid timber internal doors which have developed a twist and even quite a small one can ruin the look.

Jim

 

[LancsRick]

I think I'm going to have to go the AWO route and ignore the colouring difference. This will change over time I expect. I don't mind if they are veneered but I want a decent quality piece of work.

There have been some really helpful suggestions and food for thought so far, so thank you to everyone who has replied.