French doors installation

Replacement French doors: frame and doors together

Replacement French doors come as one unit: frame, two doors, threshold, hardware and cylinder. The old doors and frame come out together; we don't supply leaves to hang in an existing frame.

Fitting French doors: who does what

We make the doors, measure them before dispatch and deliver them. Your installer takes out the old doors, fits the new ones and makes good around them. Find the installer before you order: they give you the size and check the opening.

Replace window with French doors

A door runs down to the floor, so the wall below the window has to come out and the opening may need to get wider. That is building work for your builder; ask them, or building control, whether it needs approval. We make the doors to the new opening.

Installing French doors: Building Regulations

In England, a replacement door with more than 60% glass needs a U-value of 1.4 W/m²K or Door Set Energy Rating band C; other doors 1.4 or band D. Whether your job is notifiable is for your installer to check: a competent person scheme installer notifies it, or you tell building control beforehand. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.

Fitting uPVC French doors yourself

You can, if you have fitted a door before: level and pack the frame, fix it to the wall, seal it and finish the threshold. The threshold is where most goes wrong, so plan that detail before you order.

Install French doors: the delivery

The doors arrive with the delivery quoted in your offer. Check them when they arrive and report any transport damage straight away. Store them flat and dry until they are fitted.

Before you order: what to agree with your installer

Four things decide whether the new doors go in without a hitch: the size, the threshold, the direction they open and who deals with the notification. Your installer gives you the frame size and the gap they work with, and picks the threshold height, 55 or 35 mm, to suit the floor on both sides.

Inwards or outwards goes in the notes with your quote request. And ask the installer outright whether they register the job through a competent person scheme, or if you need to go to building control yourself before work starts.

Safety glass in French doors

Glass in a door, or low down beside it, may have to be safety glass under the rules where you live; your installer or building control can tell you which panes. The configurator offers laminated safety glass, class P4A, as double or triple glazing. It resists forced entry and holds together when broken rather than falling out in shards.

Cylinder and keys

The doors come with a cylinder in the lock. You can swap the standard one for a class C security cylinder, and on request every cylinder in the same order runs on one key. If the back doors should share a key with a new front door, put both in one order.

From quote to delivery

You put the doors together in the configurator and send the request. The manufacturer checks the configuration against your sizes, and you hear from us within three working days. The time needed to make the doors is in your offer.

Because the doors are made to your measurements, they fall outside the right to cancel once you accept the quote; you confirm that when you accept. Delivery to the UK is quoted with your offer.

Checking the doors on arrival

Go over the doors with the driver before you sign. Damage you can see there goes on the consignment note, backed by photos. If you only spot visible damage once the packaging is off, report it within two working days of delivery: email schade@rovenzia.com with photos of the damage, the packaging and the label on the unit.

That two-day window is only about what can be seen on delivery. A seal that leaks or a lock that starts to stick after some weeks falls under your statutory rights, which the window does not shorten.

Further reading

• French doors
• Composite front doors supply and fit
• Fitting bifold doors
• Narrow French doors
• Cheap French doors
• Doors