More Doors

Let me ask you a question: did you find that you sold more doors than normal?

I sold A LOT of doors during the second half of 2011. Maybe people were prioritizing doors above windows as they see doors as more of a security risk. Maybe there were more knackered old doors that needed replacing than windows - especially the old timber ones with leaks and draughts all over the place, with bad weather exposing the bad areas.

People are certainly putting their efforts into the doors in their home. And why not! They use them every day. They need to be secure, high performing, good in looks and brilliant at keeping the heat out.

We've started this year in brisk fashion, and guess what we've been selling plenty of? Yep, doors. The pattern from last year seems to have carried on to the start of this year.


I'm really asking you all a question with this post really. Are you finding that over the past 6-9 months there has been a relatively obvious shift towards installing new doors as opposed to full house replacement windows.


Clearly plenty of windows are still being sold, I just think doors have taken over in the priority race right now. Do you agree?

DERs Finally Here

Doors have now joined the ranks of windows, in being judged on an A-G scale of how efficient they are.

In my opinion these should have been introduced at the same time as windows. I don't know why it has taken 4 years for it to be implemented.

Whilst windows have the A-G scale of judgement, windows can also be passed efficient based on their U-values. According to an article from Homesafe Doors, doors will also be judged on the same A-G scale. Though at a minimum U-value of 1.8, this will placed doors in band E. This means companies are going to have to spend and invest in new technologies and equipment in order to get themselves up to the minimum C band.

There are certain companies already providing certificates to show how efficient their doors are. Door-Stop are one. They have been providing certificates with their door order confirmations for some time now, and we find them quite useful. However they don't provide one with an A-G scale - will they invest the time and effort to bring these out?

Personally, I believe customers recognise the energy rating certificate more than a U-value. They make the job of explaining and selling the idea a little bit simpler.

It will be interesting to see how fully glazed doors with shape up - like French and sliding doors.

Unfortunately, there isn't much more I can dissect out of this. Very little detail has been released. So there are many questions left to answer. If anyone has any further information on this, feel free to leave a comment, or I can add your information as a guest post on here.

Doors For £800 to £1000

My most recent poll: How Much Should An Average Door Be Sold For? has finished, and the clear winner, and what most people think is that the average door in this industry should be sold for between £800-£1000. The rest of the results are below:

These are how the results were split:


£400-£600: 12
£600-£800: 3
£800-£1000: 23
£1000+: 5


There were quite a few votes for the £400-£600 option. Personally I don't know how anybody can make a decent wage out of that sort of price. By the time you take out survey costs, material costs and fitting costs, how can a profit be made?


For me, the £800-£1000 group was the right choice. When you take out all of the costs, you should still be able to make a decent profit out of a single door. But I also think there is still a market out there to be able to see doors over £1000. There are some really high quality and premium doors available which when sold in the right way, can easily command a four-figure sum.


Price is one of the biggest issues facing the double glazing industry right now. There are debates going on as we speak about how companies should be raising their prices to make a decent profit margin, reflecting the high quality of many of the products being sold.