Mrs McCarthy has lived in her home in Billericay for nine years. For all those years, her front door had been a source of daily irritation: “Sometimes the old wooden door would stick so firmly in the frame I couldn’t open it, other times it would swing back and forward,” she told us. “It felt like a constant process of the wood swelling and shrinking and it was embarrassing – when people came to visit I would often be tugging at the front door handle to let them out!”
The family had inherited the door when they bought the house – nearly a decade on, having been re-painted twice, the problems with the door got progressively worse and Mrs McCarthy decided that there had to be something better out there.
“I didn’t know about composite doors,” Mrs McCarthy explained. “But a friend of mine had a Solidor she was pleased with so I knew I wanted to look into it. The Urban Door Company is close to where I work so I popped in to have a look at the doors they have on display. I told Paula from The Urban Door Company I wanted a door that would need no maintenance – with my husband, that’s just a no-no!” she joked. “Paula talked me through the various door styles, asked me about the position of the door in terms of whether it’s in a shaded spot or in full sun all day and prompted me to start thinking about all the other things I would need to decide on – types of lock and handle, and the height of the door sill, for example.
Paula introduced Mrs McCarthy to Solidor’s online door designer: “I was immediately hooked,” Mrs McCarthy said. “I went home and had a great evening designing the perfect door, trying out different colour and style combinations – being able to do that in my own home was just brilliant. The door designer is a fantastic tool and gives a good representation of what the door is going to look like.” In fact Mrs McCarthy was so happy with her creation using the door designer she ordered a style she hadn’t seen in the showroom, but was confident it was the right choice.
The McCarthy family swapped their old white door for a smart black Solidor Genoa. “The fitter was superb, so professional – he even brought his own teabags!” Mrs McCarthy recalled. “I couldn’t believe he fitted the door so well, keeping the area so neat and in such a short space of time all on his own – he really was excellent.”
The new door has transformed the McCarthy’s front entrance: “Before, the windows and the door seemed mis-matched,” she said. “Now it all fits together perfectly. The Solidor door looks really good and feels very solid – the lock is excellent, so much more secure than our old wooden door with its various locks and ugly bolts. We absolutely love it.”
Paula from The Urban Door Company was pleased she could help put an end to the years of problems the McCarthys have had with their entranceway. “At 48mm thick and with a solid hardwood timber core, a Solidor is exactly that – solid,” she explained. “There will be no movement, no twisting, no warping – with the appearance of timber but the benefits of modern composite materials, the McCarthys need never again worry about their door sticking.”
“The Urban Door Company has been fantastic – I can’t praise them enough,” Mrs McCarthy ended. “We were given excellent service and I’m so pleased we decided to use them.”
