Solid Oak External Doors & Wooden Front Doors

What is an external door?

An external door is a door built for an outside opening, made thicker and more weather resistant than a door used inside the house. Our solid oak external doors are 44mm thick and made from Grade A European oak. They need a porch or canopy over them, and unfinished ones are oiled before they are hung.

An external door has to do two jobs at once. It has to look like the front of your home, and it has to stand up to British weather for decades. Solid oak does both, which is why we have built our external range around it since 2005.

Every door here is made for an outside opening. If you are fitting inside the house, our internal oak doors are the range you want. For the premium end of the external range specifically, that is our solid oak external doors.

Overview to External Doors

• Every solid oak door in this collection is 44mm thick and made from Grade A European oak.
• Our solid oak external doors are handcrafted, and most are jointed with traditional mortice and tenon.
• Doors described as unglazed are supplied without glass, so your fitter can glaze them to your own specification.
• Our engineered doors are an oak veneer over a solid engineered core, dowel jointed, and they carry a 10 year manufacturer's warranty when finished and maintained correctly.
• Every external oak door needs a porch or canopy over it. Unfinished doors are oiled before they are hung, and prefinished doors arrive treated.

Choosing between Solid Oak and Engineered Oak

Solid oak is exactly that: oak all the way through, so the grain and the knots are the door rather than a layer on it. No two are the same. It is the choice when you want the door to be the feature. Ours are Grade A European oak, handcrafted, and 44mm thick.

Engineered oak puts an oak veneer over a solid engineered core, dowel jointed for strength. The core keeps the door stable through the seasons and resists the warping and twisting solid timber can suffer on an exposed elevation, while the oak face keeps genuine oak character. Every engineered door in the range carries a 10 year manufacturer's warranty, conditional on the door being finished and maintained correctly.

If the opening is sheltered and you want character, go solid. If it faces the weather and you want stability, engineered earns its place.

Glazed and Unglazed

Read the product title carefully, because it is precise. A door described as glazed arrives with the glass fitted. A door described as unglazed arrives ready for glass, and your fitter supplies and fits it to your specification. That suits anyone matching existing glazing or wanting obscure glass to a particular pattern.

Our stable doors follow the same rule, and the tops and bases are sold separately so you can mix them.

Styles for the Front and the Back of the house

For a main entrance, the panelled and glazed styles carry the most presence. Cottage, Suffolk, Victorian and 1930s designs all sit in the range, and each suits a different period of house.

For a back or side entrance, a stable door is worth thinking about. The top opens on its own, which is useful in a kitchen or a utility room with a garden beyond it.

Before you Order External Doors

Every external oak door needs a porch or a canopy over it. Oak is durable but it is not made to sit unprotected in driving rain, and failing to treat a door correctly, or fitting it somewhere other than we recommend, will void the warranty.

Unfinished doors are oiled before they are hung, not after. Prefinished doors arrive treated and ready to go.

A door on its own is not a finished doorway. You will also need:

• A frame, unless you are reusing the existing one. See external door frames.
• Handles or knobs rated for outdoor use. See external door handles and knobs.
• A lock or latch built for weather exposure. See external locks and latches.
• Hinges heavy enough for a 44mm door. See external door hinges.
• A weather bar along the bottom edge, which sheds rain away from the door.

If you would rather not pick each part separately, our hardware value packs bundle the essentials in one finish.