Internal Doors

The world of Internal doors is split between the hollow and the solid. The hollow doors are like sandwiches; the casings are layers of board and the filling consists of a material very similar to egg boxes. Where you would normally place the handle and latch, they put a solid hunk of wood called the lock block and foolish would-be chippies (like me) have been known to hang these doors in a hurry, only to find that the lock block is on the hinge side of the door. If you are observant, you will hang the door on the correct side - there is only ever one lock block in a hollow door and if you look on the bottom edge you will see which side the lock block is located.

This all sounds very cheap and tacky and, generally speaking, eggbox-style doors are, but they can also be purchased with hardwood veneers, usually from some environmentally incorrect species like sapele (pronounced sa-pee-lee), and this pushes the price up to levels at which you can buy solid softwood doors, around the £25 mark. Sapele is in fact by far and away the most popular veneer in this country: the doors have 2.5mm chipboard facing onto which the veneers are ironed or steamed.

The cheapest doors you can get are eggbox-filled doors which are encased in, wait for it, hardboard. Expect to pay around £12 for one of these but don't ever kick it. A popular variation on this theme is the embossed or moulded door; they are no stronger but they imitate the fielded panels found on timber doors and some of them imitate wood grain texture. The simpler ones cost between £30 and £40 each and they look quite acceptable when painted, which is what they are designed for. Some superior ones use a type of fibreboard for the casing and they are strong enough to take glazing, although doors with glazing panels are much more expensive - around £70. All the major joinery manufacturers have a selection of these doors and, if you want to select a door, get hold of one of their catalogues. Premdor Crosby and Magnet both have good ranges. Most designs are also available in hi-fold format for use as sliding cupboard doors.