There are many hundreds of door styles available for front doors. Composite doors as one example can be made in many combinations of colours, glass patterns and designs.
Look on any door brochure and you’ll see a choice of contemporary styles, traditional designs to mimic timber doors and others.
Contemporary Front Doors in Aluminium.
Schuco doors are available with Adeco panels to create excellent contemporary doors.
Composite doors are a great value product and arguably the best selling type of door. But what can you provide your customers if you want a contemporary front door in aluminium?
There are many reasons why you’d want to offer aluminium front doors. First of all if you have a customer who has purchased aluminium windows and doors for their property what choices can you offer them for their front door?
A composite door may be fine, but you won’t get the colour match next to the aluminium windows, the frames are generally PVCu and even if coloured aren’t the same as the powder coated frames elsewhere.
Therefore in these situations and even where the customer simply doesn’t like or doesn’t want a composite door you should be able to offer alternatives.
Where can you purchase ready made front doors in aluminium?
Available from companies such as Dutemann, GRP Designs, Aluprof, Duration or Hallmark as well as others are a range of contemporary panelled doors in aluminium.
The products from Dutemann in particular but from other suppliers are excellent products and well worth looking at. However if you’re a manufacturer you many not want to buy a door in and sell it on again. If you’re looking to offer contemporary front doors in aluminium to your own trade partners, there are other options.
How are aluminium contemporary doors made?
To manufacture a panelled front door in aluminium is actually quite simple.
These typically feature a standard door leaf from one of the main systems companies with a panel fitted from another supplier. For example Schuco door leaves are used by Dutemann. Hallmark Panels offer their doors with the Comar 7Pi ECO door. GRP Designs have a range of panels glazed into a Smarts or Schuco System as well as Aluplast. The Duration Premium Plus Aluminium Doors are made using the AluK system.
These are then enhanced with a range of aluminium decorative panels to create a contemporary front door.
As a window or door installer you’ll already be familiar with PVCu and aluminium panels. These are fitted in the same way as glass units. They’ll be either 24mm, 28mm or other thicknesses to suit your product.
If you install aluminium panels commercially, you’ll also be aware of stepped aluminium panels, those with a stucco tray on the back and other types.
Therefore to create an aluminium panelled front door. There are three types of panels available and each give a different look to the aluminium door.
Double Sided panels.
The double sided panel is a panel in a required thickness to suit the door. The inner and outer skins of the panel extend past the glazing line to cover the stiles and rails of the door leaf. The result is a flush looking door with a smooth surface inside and out.
Single sided panels.
The single sided panel is similar to the double but only the outside of the door has the flush smooth appearance. On the inside the door looks like any other type of door with a visible bead.
Glazed Panel.
The glazed panel is similar to doors you’ll already have glazed. It is fitted into the door just like a double glazed unit with a rebate visible on one side and the bead visible on the other.
Where can you source aluminium panels for aluminium doors?
Adeco is one company that manufactures premium quality aluminium decorative panels in a huge choice of styles.
These panels are made in Germany and Adeco is a long established and well known company in the field of steel and aluminium panels for doors.
Typically lead times are about four weeks but this is actually in line with the lead time on many coloured aluminium doors from your typical trade suppliers.
Hallmark are another company that can offer either a fully fabricated panel or a complete door and frame.
Other considerations with aluminium panels in doors.
Many contemporary front doors feature architectural hardware as part of their design. Handles such as full height pole handles, D Handles, Cranked Handles and other types all work together to give a modern door.
As the hardware is part of the door leaf and not part of the panel, this should not be an issue. Your systems company should be able to provide you with a variety of locking systems such as automatic locks, turn locks and other options if you have to move away from the traditional lever/lever handle arrangement.
What about colour matching?
As you may be buying your aluminium doors and aluminium panels from a different supplier, ensuring an exact colour match is essential.
Our advice is to establish which powder manufacturer your door and panel providers use. Examples include Syntha Pulvin, Interpon, Tiger Paints, Axalta and others.
It is tempting to assume that as long as the RAL colour is correct then so should be the colour. However there can be variations in even the same RAL colour from manufacturer to manufacturer.
If your doors and panels are painted by a Qualicoat Approved powder coater and the powder is from the same powder manufacturer, there should be no reason why the colour should not be an exact match.
Putting the theory onto practice.
Adeco panels feature in purpose-designed Schueco door profiles. Schuco offer a range of door options such as 65mm and 90mm doors.
These are marketed with the Adeco range of panels. The Schuco doors themselves all feature the standard fittings. These include concealed hinges, handles and locks. The result is a contemporary looking door that is distinctive, secure and very well insulated.
Therefore if you currently buy in from your trade manufacturer AluK, Smarts, SAPA, Schuco or any other type of unglazed aluminium entrance door, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t source your own aluminium panels and create your own front doors. Or you can ask your trade supplier to source and fit these for you.
The point is, if you’re already competent enough to glaze a unit or a solid aluminium panel in a door there is no reason why you can’t glaze one of the decorative types as well.
If you’re a trade manufacturer of aluminium doors you can also add contemporary aluminium doors to your product range.
If you would like more information about aluminium doors with decorative panels please contact us and we can help.
(Images courtesy of Adeco, Schuco and Dutemann)
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