Where to Put Fixings in a New Frame

[DIYWell]

Over the next few days I'm going to replace our old wooden backdoor with a composite.

Instructions are clear enough, and I've watched a few YouTube videos so have enough knowledge to bodge with confidence. My only concern is drilling into the concrete lintel

Now where I'm a little puzzled is the instructions have fixings through the transom, but I've not seen it done in any of the videos. My amateur brain thinks four fixings on either side would make the fitting pretty solid. Do fitters who do this sort of thing day in day out put them in or not?

 

[foxhole]

Standard door sizes should be fine with side fixings , I only use top fixing on wider ( patio) door frames .

 

[DIYWell]

Standard door sizes should be fine with side fixings , I only use top fixing on wider ( patio) door frames .

Thanks. My opening is 950 for a single leaf door so I'm going to fit without top fixings.

I could always add them at a later date if there's movement though I don't see why there should be.

 

[DIYWell]

Just for the sake of it ....

The old door

And the new door

Took a bit longer than I planned, but I had to replace the concrete sill with discontinued imperial bricks. Quite by chance a neighbour was having an extension built and were happy to swap some for a tub of Heros.

Other "fun" was the absolute knuckle dragger of a builder who couldn't cut brickwork. Originally that doorway was a window so the top half of the opening is nice but when he cut downwards, couldn't cut straight, square or vertical. Bottom left needed my skills with the angle grinder to take up to 10mm off and bottom left bows outwards an extra 20mm at it's worst before wandering back in.

Original frame was 120mm, new is 50mm, so there was a gap to fill in the floor and replaster the rebate. Before anyone says something, I couldn't set the door back as it would have exposed the cut bricks and with the lack of a straight edge, hiding it with UPVC wasn't an option.

Still, job done. Kinda fun, not particularly difficult.