1 £3,000 door

[Caged]

PM me for bespoke staircase work

Working for uber rich clients can be challenging, but at least some of them appreciate proper craftsmen.

A lot of them will never get to talk to the craftsman behind the job as they find it to be below them. I sometimes do work in very expensive houses to get secure links set up back to the offices of the companies they are often directors or at least C-levels of. I never actually see the people who live there because they insist on the work taking place when everyone is on holiday and any discussion happening through intermediaries. Means every job has to have multiple attempts to hit the actual solution they were after, takes longer and then by definition costs multiple times more than it should have.

 

[D.P.]

Yes so they took a lump of mdf, and wanted a little feature to run across the board, so they routed out a gap, then as mdf doesn't reroute well, had to stick in actual hardwood into the hole they had made, then routed that, and then stuck veneer to the surfaces.
It all needed polished in to make the join lines not seem awful.

Obviously, one would need to see it in reality to judge it, but in cross section, it doesn't really impress me at all.
Its still an mdf veneered door.

Does this technique make the edges resistance to damage, chipping etc?

I disagree, have never seen any veneer aged well, not going to start now. This method is not time tested.

Show the door to me in 100 years and we can talk.

Ever seen a Chippendale queen Ann period peace in the antiqued road show?

 

[LeeUK]

£3K for an MDF door. It says more about money status than anything else.

 

[Participant]

Well I've learnt a lot about doors reading this thread, but I still don't know if the op is any good or not!

MDF though? In my albeit limited knowledge of doors, isn't MDF what cheap rubbish is normally made of?

 

[Maccapacca]

You'll find that mdf and other composite reconstituted timbers are what most timber products are made of.

Engineered floor
Timber flooring
Kitchens
Furniture

For some context we competitively tendered this against two other carpenters and we are looking to start October. We have a good reputation for quality and programme so although price isn't the greatest consideration we certainly are competitive or the cheapest. Two others would be more expensive.

Again for context as all contracts are signed under deed we have to warrant these and all products from defects for 12 years. We also don't want to be adjusting doors continuously which is the risk you have with solid timber doors.

Maybe mdf shouldn't have been mentioned as it's detracting from the technical veneer and inlay which was what really the post was about.

As I said before your leather interior is very far from leather it's more of a vinyl. This is the same.

 

[tom_e]

Timber flooring is only halls and living rooms. The rest is stone and carpet I won't post the carpet cost because some people may faint.

The company I work for has put one off carpets into a lot of Vegas casinos and various other high end places, the cost is pretty mental but then so is the work that goes into them even with the machinery.

 

[koolpc]

Maybe mdf shouldn't have been mentioned as it's detracting from the technical veneer and inlay which was what really the post was about.

No, glad you mentiones about mdf. Plus, the pic would have shown it to be mdf anyway. It may be a good product for many things but mdf has always had people thinking of it as a cheaper alternative to 'real' wood.

I would much prefer a 'real' wood door. Something with character!

Have you got some pictures of the doors in situ please?

 

[Amp34]

When people have more money than they could ever spend anything goes!

they are probably 2-3 bedroom apartments in central London selling for £5milion. I.e. Your average London apartment. If I was buying one I would expect high end products not B&Q doors... The cost of the interior is completely irrelevant to the cost of the land so you may as well spend a lot.

That said most will probably never be lived in for more than a week or two a year anyway...

Hand made is much more personal and unique.

You mean each has their own quirks, don't quite fit right in the frame, needing extra work to fit each one?

For some things personal and unique is a positive, for doors and a lot of building stuff, not so much.

 

[koolpc]

they are probably 2-3 bedroom apartments in central London selling for £5milion. I.e. Your average London apartment. If I was buying one I would expect high end products not B&Q doors... The cost of the interior is completely irrelevant to the cost of the land so you may as well spend a lot.

That said most will probably never be lived in for more than a week or two a year anyway...



You mean each has their own quirks, don't quite fit right in the frame, needing extra work to fit each one?

For some things personal and unique is a positive, for doors and a lot of building stuff, not so much.

Have seen many 'Hardwood' internal doors that are 100 times better looking and really do 'fit' well and if fitted correctly will need hardly any tweaking!

 

[M1k3H]

Have seen many 'Hardwood' internal doors that are 100 times better looking and really do 'fit' well and if fitted correctly will need hardly any tweaking!

I'm a fan of solid wood, I really am.

Parent's house everything was solid wood, nobody even knew what ikea or flat pack furniture were.

The furniture, sure, 25 years on still going strong, including beds which saw a lot of abuse in the context of two boys (me and my brother) jumping up and down until we couldn't jump anymore.

The ceiling in the bedrooms has some real wood flat beams going across, sort of a fake ceiling, all connected with each other and to two edge beams running across the length of the rooms. After 20 years, two of them fell down on my parents' bed*. The continuous expansion and contraction of the beams due to moisture, heat, etc has rendered them impossible to re-connect safely so they have to change all that.

The doors as well, solid wood frame, they can't open/close without rubbing on the floor. Not a good thing when you go to the loo at 3AM and because you've closed the door everybody is awake due to the door rubbing on the tiles*

After 5 years our main (hall/lounge) door (this was the only door that was solid wood throughout, not just the frame) could not open without a LOT of force... They stopped using it, and used the kitchen door (aluminium I think) instead. They bought a composite/pvc door 5 years ago.

So, for things that interact with other things solid wood is not a material you'd want to use.

*Although the ceiling beams fell down after 20 years, they looked pretty bad after about 10 due to not looking straight etc. Doors as well I remember when I was 10 they made those noises so about 10 years as well before they got annoying.

 

[koolpc]

Had sold wood doors in my last house. Lived there 16 years and never had to alter the doors! They opened and closed superbly.

 

[Raymond Lin]

The forbidden city in China is made of solid timber, built in 1406.

I don't have a problem with MDF being used here, clearly there is a reason but £3,000 each? When you are ordering 400? Surely there is some buying power to drive to costs down, it is after all, MDF and £1.2m in tender.

 

[koolpc]

'Real' wood moves, breaths! Give me that any day of the week. I love Oak built Timber frame buildings! Nothing beats that look. Can you imagine the same in MDF, Veneered!!

 

[Mark A]

Maybe mdf shouldn't have been mentioned as it's detracting from the technical veneer and inlay which was what really the post was about.

There is nothing impressive about that either. Technical veneer makes it sound really fancy, but its just laminated timber, cut into a veneer. The inlay is standard procedure if you are to have a groove as a design feature. Nothing about that reinforces the ridiculous price tag. I think the thread was more about trying to make us peasant folk jealous but it backfired as everyone thinks its crap .

 

[koolpc]

Yes! Total crap fro £3k

 

[Maccapacca]

I think the thread was more about trying to make us peasant folk jealous but it backfired as everyone thinks its crap .

I can assure you that was not the point of the thread.

It's not my door. Trying to make people jealous? That's like saying I'm showing off posting a veyron in the motors daily encounter thread which I walked past.

I've never priced a door so expensive and thought H&G would appreciate a look.

 

[koolpc]

I can assure you that was not the point of the thread.

It's not my door. Trying to make people jealous? That's like saying I'm showing off posting a veyron in the motors daily encounter thread which I walked past.

I've never priced a door so expensive and thought H&G would appreciate a look.

So glad you made the thread. Opens peoples eyes

 

[Caged]

My biggest issue with MDF is that it tends to balloon quite nicely as soon as it gets slightly damp - see MDF skirting boards in the houses of careless people for an example of this. Are these doors treated in some way to avoid that?

I'm not particularly concerned whether things are real wood or not - veneered MDF is a great way to get consistent results. I'd hope that the £3k figure actually includes an installed door frame, track systems etc and not just a single veneered MDF panel with some hardwood inlaid into it.

 

[Maccapacca]

My biggest issue with MDF is that it tends to balloon quite nicely as soon as it gets slightly damp - see MDF skirting boards in the houses of careless people for an example of this. Are these doors treated in some way to avoid that?

Hardwood lipping to all 4 edged and with the veneer no mdf is exposed. If the mdf has a chance to get wet in your apartment you have bigger problems than a few doors.

I'm not particularly concerned whether things are real wood or not - veneered MDF is a great way to get consistent results. I'd hope that the £3k figure actually includes an installed door frame, track systems etc and not just a single veneered MDF panel with some hardwood inlaid into it.

That's everything fully installed, insured and warrantied for 12 years.

 

[koolpc]

Still a massive outlay for MDF!!!