Having admired a Hormann front door and garage door installation that Freelance Entry Solutions completed for a neighbour a couple of years ago, a couple contacted us to see what garage door and front entrance door systems we offer that would improve the security, insulation and accessibility to their home.
Brief
The existing front door was typical of what we have come to expect from the large housing developers, just meeting the basic needs - it opens, closes and locks. So the new front door needed to be more than just ‘ok’, offering the ability to seal well, prevent draughts and provide a high level of insulation and security. As well as the doors ability to perform, the brief was for a modern style front door that breaks away from the cookie-cutter housing estate design.
The property benefitted from a good-sized double garage, but like many double garages, the design was flawed. A central dividing brick pillar left two garage door openings barely wide enough for even a small car. The best solution was to lose the centre pillar to create one large extra wide garage door allowing for one or two cars to be comfortably parked inside without the fear of damage. Being the garage is integral to the house, a secure garage door that seals well was high on the list of priorities along with a modern door design that would complement the new front door.
One final niggle was the garage back door that provided access from the garage into the back garden. This rear pedestrian door had been installed two brick courses higher than the garage floor making simple tasks such as wheeling the lawnmower or bins in and out quite the chore. It made sense to find a solution to this at the same time as doing the other entrance doors.
Solution
After a visit to our showroom to see the doors in person, the customer left confident that the aluminium front door from RK and the insulated sectional garage door from Hormann would be the perfect combination. Resisting the temptation of the widely used Anthracite grey colour, the lighter shade of Window grey turned out to be a great choice.
Front Door Installation
Using the online door configurator on our website we set about creating front door styles that would sit well alongside the design of the sectional garage door. The customer liked the idea of small windows to break up the door and decided on the RK950 aluminium front door which would be customised to have only three horizontal slimline triple glazed windows to give the impression of four horizontal panels similar to that of the L-ribbed sectional garage door.
Across Europe, a letterbox cut into a highly insulated aluminium entrance door is deemed a compromise to the security and thermal efficiency, but being so used it was one that the customer was willing to make in exchange for convenience.
The icing on the cake was the luxury of automated locking, activated via a biometric finger scanner neatly flush-fitting within the door leaf itself.
Garage Door Installation
Constructed using double steel skin panels with rigid foam core the sectional garage door is a very strong and reliable design capable of spanning exceptionally wide garage openings, making it an ideal solution for this centre pillar removal project. The sectional door mechanism means the door seals reasonably well and the 42mm thick insulated garage door panels also keep rooms adjoining the garage noticeably warmer. The simple four-panel Hormann L-ribbed design with the Silkgrain smooth finish was considered to be the more modern style and would importantly match the grey front door.
A comprehensive survey to determine the feasibility of removing the central brick pillar, obtaining structural engineers calculations, and instructing building control services meant the work went without a glitch.
Back Door
The customer was pleased to hear RK offer an entry-level door, the NET range, with the same precision and high-quality door construction but the limited and simplified designs mean a lower price - perfect for such scenarios.
We removed the completely pointless brick courses and fitted a new taller back door with a low threshold for ease of access. It was one of those jobs the customer wishes they had done years ago!
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