Looking for a well insulated door

[SteveP5B]

I need to replace a personal door that has no window from the internal entrance hall into the garage. The garage is always freezing cold, the wooden frame is rotten and the door is draughty with lots of heat lost. What would be a good replacement at the lowest cost?
Many thanks

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Hardwood frame, FD60 fire door with brush/intumescent strips, brush draught excluder at the bottom or (better still) rubber/aluminium door sill (like you'd have on an externerior door - and make sure that your door fitting is spot on with 2 to 3mm gapping round 3 sides and a proper seal at the bottom onto the rubber strip. As an alternative to brush/intimescents you could go for something like an Aquamac sealing strip, but fire door frames are available ready grooved for the intumescents whereas the Aquamac strips need a specialist cutter/tool to groove out for them

 

[SteveP5B]

Thanks for your reply, I see Wickes sell fire doors and frames that have 30 minute rating with groove for intumescent strips so probably will go with those but, nobody mentions how thermally efficient the doors are? To be honest I was thinking of UPVC, is it necessary to be a fire door?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Thanks for your reply, I see Wickes sell fire doors and frames that have 30 minute rating with groove for intumescent strips so probably will go with those but, nobody mentions how thermally efficient the doors are? To be honest I was thinking of UPVC, is it necessary to be a fire door?

Timber doors are generally more efficient that PVCu ones and fire doors are designed to be thermally efficient (after all they are designed to stop heat and flane getting through). To achieve this they have a solid core - go to a non-fire door and you'll end up with an eggbox with veneer either side (a so-called hollow core door) which is most definitely NOT thermally efficient In all probability half your problem is draught, but a combined intumescent/brush and a threshold seal will deal with that effectively. You asked for efficient, so.......

 

[AronSearle]

Some misunderstandings there.

Fire doors are not designed to be thermally efficient with regards to U-values, big difference between stopping heat from a fire getting through temporarily and proper insulation.

Hollow doors will be better insulators, though as said you need a fire door.

Look for a fire door that uses something with voids in the core to provide some thermal efficiency,

Dendrolight wood doors might be worth looking at.

 

[SteveP5B]

Some misunderstandings there.

Fire doors are not designed to be thermally efficient with regards to U-values, big difference between stopping heat from a fire getting through temporarily and proper insulation.

I agree, maybe a fire door with 25mm PIV insulation secured to the garage side of the door would be a solution?

 

[AronSearle]

You need to use insulation that does not contribute energy in a fire, or it will affect the fire doors performance.

Otherwise yes that will work.

 

[ronniecabers]

There are also manufacturers of ' Composite ' doors who do fire rated doors and therefore should have a 'u' value ( as they are used in communal areas of buildings for front doors)