+44 1494 778 787
+44 1494 778 787
Urban Front are hardwood door specialists. Our wooden exterior doors are custom-made to your needs and handcrafted in the UK. They feature double steel reinforcement and ventilation for maximum strength and performance. And they're designed to offer exceptional beauty and security using advanced specifications that we continuously test and improve.
Browse all our wooden door designs or keep reading below to learn more about the substantial benefits of investing in a handcrafted hardwood front door.
Hardwood is a natural product with beauty, texture and diversity. Hardwood doesn’t stay the same over time – it ages and develops its distinctive appeal.
Each door is unique because every tree is different and therefore the grain, colour, and end product are fresh every time. It is also:
As a natural product, hardwood weathers and changes so it’s not comparable to a composite or aluminium product. But if individuality and exclusivity are your preference, you won't beat a handcrafted, natural wood door.
Traditionally in the UK, most hardwood doors are made in European oak. This is probably because it is readily available from the UK and Europe. It's also a durable wood and it looks attractive with both traditional and contemporary homes. Other popular woods include walnut, iroko, larch and Douglas fir.
At Urban Front, we choose our woods based the following criteria:
The hardwoods we currently offer are:
Today’s finishes mean wooden door maintenance is simple, which makes the dream of a durable beautiful natural wood door achievable. There are two primary finishing options, oiling and lacquering. Here’s what you need to know about the two options:
· It’s easier to oil a door, and to maintain it once it's oiled, despite it needing to be done more often than lacquer (once every six months to a year depending on the exposure of the location compared with 2-5 years for lacquer). It requires a light sand and re-application of the oil. For one door this should take a maximum of one hour.
Watch our video to learn exactly how to maintain a wooden door with oil or lacquer.
Hardwood is a natural product that evolves, and, while these changes create beautifully individual finished doors, it's important to understand these quirks.
Natural movement is common with most timbers, and you will find that small cracks open and close depending on the time of year. This mostly occurs due to the difference between the heat inside and the cold outside during the autumn and winter months.
Urban Front has developed systems to minimise these movements. For example, our insulated wooden doors are fitted with a unique, high-grade ventilation system that encourages air to rotate. This helps to reduce the build-up of moisture which can cause hardwood to move, crack and sometimes warp during the different seasons. At the same time, we also combat any potential warping by using steel reinforcement within the door.
As described in the maintenance section, wooden door maintenance is very straightforward. Along with the exceptional build of an Urban Front door, simple upkeep will ensure your wooden door stays beautiful year after year. As part of Urban Front's 20th anniversary celebrations, we revisited some of our earliest customers, including the very first. Read their stories.
At Urban Front, we offer a wide range of bespoke wooden front door choices that come with the highest grade features and fittings, including:
Browse more front door styles
