Composite Front Doors on an Edwardian bay-fronted house in Cardiff

If you've got a Edwardian bay-fronted house on your hands in Cardiff, the recurring problem when quoting composite doors is the original bay corner posts have almost always been replaced in cheap 90s uPVC and now sag. Old timber and rotten 90s uPVC front doors that leak heat, jam in winter and fail break-in standards is the paired issue you'll usually hear about at the same visit. Our spec here is 48mm solid composite slab with GRP weatherproof skin. Where the original glazing bars were 22mm ovolo, we match printed bars to that width — not the modern 26mm default. Seafront elevations often benefit from a rain deflector bar over the composite door letter plate — standard spec here. The rear garden extension pattern (added 80s–00s) usually holds the tired patio door — replace it as part of the same job. Alley access at the rear is barely wide enough for a single pane of 1200x900 glass — we plan lift paths around it. Foil colour choice on a semi is a shared question with the neighbour; matched pairs read cleaner than solo swaps. Concrete cills on post-war stock are cast into the wall; the frame sits on them without needing timber packers. Marine-grade stainless furniture is the coastal spec baseline — chrome and brass fail visibly within a couple of winters. Party wall proximity means the crew works from inside the room, not off a scaffold, whenever the front elevation allows. The two-storey bay carries loading from the roof valley — reinforced steel corner cores accept it without deflection. External foil cills are colour-matched to the frame — replace as a set or the elevation reads two-tone.