Exterior Doors near you

There are two ways to satisfy the Building Regulations, and GOV.UK sets both out: approval from a building control body, which is your local authority's building control department or a private registered building control approver, or an installer registered with a competent person scheme who certifies the work themselves. The competent person route is the normal one for a door swap and produces the certificate a buyer's solicitor will later ask to see.

If the door is one that does need approval and the firm fitting it belongs to no scheme, the obligation does not disappear — it simply moves to you. FENSA's guidance is that where an installer does not mention that you are responsible and does not offer a FENSA certificate or other building regulations compliance certificate, you will need to pay for an inspection by building control. Establish which route you are on before the old frame comes out.

Planning permission is usually a separate and quieter question. The Planning Portal's position is that permission is not normally needed for the insertion of new windows and doors of a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the house. The exceptions are the familiar ones: designated areas such as conservation areas, national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty may carry additional restrictions, an Article 4 direction can withdraw permitted development rights, and a listed building requires listed building consent for any significant works, internal or external — which a replacement front door on a period property very often is.

Security is the requirement homeowners most often assume is mandatory and most often is not. Approved Document Q sets standards for doors and windows to resist physical attack by a burglar, covering both robustness and appropriate hardware, but it applies only in relation to new dwellings and to any part of a building from which access can be gained to a flat within the building. Replacing the front door of an existing house does not bring Part Q into play, which means the security specification is a matter for your contract rather than for building control. Specify it deliberately — the door construction, the lock, the cylinder, the hinges and the frame fixings — because nobody else will.

Accessibility works in a similar way. Approved Document M exists so that people are able to access and use buildings and their facilities, and Volume 1 sets out categories of dwellings from visitable through accessible and adaptable to wheelchair user dwellings. Those categories bite on new homes rather than on a replacement door in an existing one, so if a low threshold, a wider leaf or a level approach matters to someone in your household, it belongs in the specification you agree with the installer.

The practical lesson is the same in both cases: the regulations set a floor for heat loss, glazing safety and ventilation on a replacement door, but the things people most care about — how secure it feels and whether everyone can get through it — are yours to write into the order.

The certificate for a replacement door matters for exactly the same reason it does for windows. FENSA describes its certificate as a declaration by the installation company that the replaced windows and doors comply with Building Regulations, use energy efficient products and are registered with the local council, and says it verifies the warranty is insured and is essential when selling the property. GOV.UK's general warning about unapproved work is that without approval you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home.

Ask about the insurance behind the guarantee as well as the guarantee itself. FENSA notes that installations completed after 2014 may have received an insurance backed guarantee policy, covering the installer's written guarantee in the event that they cease to trade. For a door specifically, also get the security specification, the hardware and the cylinder recorded in writing, since that is what you will refer back to if the door is ever attacked.

Outside England and Wales the paperwork has different names. Scotland works under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, where local authority verifiers grant the building warrant and the completion certificate against Scotland's technical handbooks. Northern Ireland's regulations are made by the Department of Finance and administered by 11 district councils, with Technical Booklet V covering glazing and Technical Booklet K covering ventilation.