I don’t know if you’ve you’ve noticed - but prices for building materials have been going up over the last year. Thankfully this hasn’t affected our reproduction sash windows yet - but our favorite UK composite door manufacturer (Solidor) hiked prices by 20% recently, citing the increased cost of raw materials.

We’ve not given up on Solidor yet - as it’s still a great product - but, as I’m always checking on other ways to get value for money on a home makeover, I’ve been looking at reclaim doors as an alternative..

For example, I found this door on ebay last week for £500 - ok, that’s not small money but on the right property it would look fantastic.. and there are plenty of others around (don’t forget reclaim yards) if you know what to look for.

In terms of performance, you’ll obviously be losing some heat from any single glazed glass surfaces - but in the overall scheme of things this isn’t a lot, and draughts (the biggest culprit when it comes to energy loss) can easily be taken out of the equation with good quality ‘around door’ seals like these from Toolstation.

Finally - (and, yes, we’ll be talking about Toolstation in my next blog) - here’s my top tip for Victorian Style door hardware c/o my favorite place to buy this sort of thing - fleur de lys style handles; great value & looks at just £7.52 a pair.