Richard Kirman, Sales and Marketing Manager for Truedor from IG Doors explores the myth that Composite Doors are only for the front of a house.
I was in a conversation with a customer recently and the question of back doors came up, more to the point that fact that people generally don’t consider composite doors for this application.
Without thinking I asked the customer ‘who said that composite doors are only for the front of a house’? We both stopped to think, and realised of course nobody has ever said it – at least not as far as I am aware – but there is a myth that has grown up that Composite Doors are front doors, and rarely do people think about them for the rear of their homes.
Perhaps that is because business like ours, and others along the supply chain always focus on the front, pointing out the value both technically and aesthetically of a new front door as the first impression people get of your home, and of you as an individual. We all focus on the immediate impact a new front door can make to the appearance of your home and the feel good factor that goes with it.
Of course, there are lots of reasons why people by new front doors – often for purely technical reasons – a desire for more security, a desire for more thermal efficiency, simply a desire to change an ageing failing door.
The reality is that the vast majority of reasons for buying a composite door for the front are equally relevant when it comes to the rear – and in some cases more so. Let’s take security as an example. Crime statistics will indicate that intrusion through a back door is much more likely than through a front door. It is obvious really, a would-be intruder can be hidden from view and go about their business undetected for far longer than they would be able to do at the front of a property. So in fact, security at the back is more important.
There is also a feeling that back doors are ‘just’ functional, less used than the front door of a property, and rarely seen by anybody but the homeowner, so the appearance is not important – not a view I necessarily share.
Why do back doors have to be simple designs with a panel at the bottom and glass at the top, or even more commonly a ‘2xG’ – a phrase so common amongst fabricators and installers that it has become a part of the common language of the industry?
It is time to move on – the installation of bi-folding doors as a product has become one of the fastest growing trends in the window and door industry in recent years, with the marketing push being that homeowners now want to create a seamless transition between the outdoors and the indoors, between their home and their garden. Outdoor living as a concept has become incredibly aspirational, so surely it is time for the appearance of the back door – in houses with or without bi-folding doors – to take on more importance?
Back doors do not have to be simple styles, they can be as interesting as those a homeowner chooses to install on the front; the style range is as complementary to the back of a home as it is to the front – who said you cannot have a feature door on the rear of the home? They can be any colour – in the case of Truedor from our vast standard range of colours or tailored to the wishes of the homeowner from the entire range available on the RAL colour charts and mixed in our in-house paint plant.
All the home makeover programmes and magazines extol the virtues of colour throughout the home – they don’t stop at the front door, they go throughout the home and into the garden or back-yard, so why should back doors not be included in this thought process?
Most home owners who have a garden have it full of colour in terms of plants and accessories – garden rooms, benches, statues – so why should their back door not follow the same theme and be a feature, a real part of the home?
It’s time to move on as an industry and as the supply chain to homeowners – let’s explore and explain the benefits of a composite door as a product suitable for the rear of the home with the same enthusiasm as we have always done as a product suitable for the front.
Let’s bring back doors to the front of our thinking…