Firstly, a little history. The Right To Buy act of 1979 was probably Maggie Thatcher’s most important legacy; the ability for any tenant to buy their council home. This alone made Britain a nation of homeowners and as any mortgage broker or home improvement company will tell you, the first thing an ex-council tenant will do is replace their front door (then the windows, kitchen and bathroom). The psychology behind this is pretty simple to understand. Homeowners take pride in their new purchase and feel the motivation to improve their property. Having a new front door differentiates between owned and rented property, council and private.
Up until about the turn of the millennium you could walk through any council estate in the UK and tell which homes were still council owned and which had been purchased and were now privately owned, simply by looking at the front door. I say that this was the case at the turn of the millennium and by inference mean that it is not the case today. Many councils have been installing UPVC doors as replacements for worn out or damaged doors for a number of years now, so differentiating between a council and privately owned property has become increasingly difficult. Indeed it is now hard to tell whether some properties were ever council owned or not as the majority of doors in the UK are certainly UPVC doors.
So, why is it that composite doors are now outselling UPVC doors?
(1) Well, apart from the physical advantages that composite doors certainly offer, psychology plays a major part. The British need to conform yet ‘outdo the joneses’ , pride in home ownership and the need to differentiate themselves “we are not council tenants” are all factors.
(2) As to the physical reasons, with UPVC doors being the norm now for almost 30 years, we are seeing the results; UPVC doors are known to ‘brown’ or ‘yellow’ with age, they do not offer the level of security needed in an ever more crime-ridden world and many doors that were installed in the 1980’s and 1990’s now look tired and common. Composite doors are available in a range of UV stable colours that do not fade, ever. Composite doors are vastly more secure than UPVC doors.
(3) Composite doors are available in a multitude of styles and colours – unlike the standard UPVC white door – and are by design more durable, more sturdy, more secure and require less maintenance, yet cost around the same as UPVC doors.
The market for composite doors is expanding extremely fast as more and more homeowners recognise the need to replace their aging UPVC door and it is becoming more common for house-builders to choose composite over UPVC, a trend which certainly looks to continue over the foreseeable future. conservatory roofs swansea
