uPVC French doors

How well do uPVC French doors insulate?

A uPVC door with us sits at Uf 1.10 W/m²K, and for French doors that's ample: they're two hinged leaves in an ordinary frame, not a sliding system with building work of its own.

Door sizes

The sizes are those of a door: 600 mm the narrowest leaf, 2,500 mm the tallest. Two leaves therefore give an opening from 1,200 mm. The Gealan profile itself goes up to 3,200 × 3,200 mm, but the 2,200 mm door height is the limit that binds.

The threshold on French doors

Watch the threshold. On French doors it sits where you step outside, and that's where weathertightness, insulation and threshold height have to come together. We supply, we don't install — discuss the threshold detail with your installer before you order.

Which profile should you choose?

Within uPVC the profile matters less here than on a window, because the sizes that bind are in the door itself and not in the profile: 2,500 mm tall, 600 mm the narrowest leaf, 180 mm the narrowest side panel. What's left is the sightline: 119 mm on every uPVC window profile we carry. With two leaves side by side you see that frame more often than on a single window, so those 14 mm weigh more here.

What you need to measure

You're already two steps further than where the configurator starts. It first asks what the door is made of and then which profile, and that's exactly what you decide on this page. What it then asks of you is the size and the layout, the glass and the colour. For the size, measure the structural opening at three heights and three widths; the smallest figure is your size. Two things count extra with French doors: the threshold height, because you step over it, and which of the two leaves is the active one — the one with the handle. The other normally stays shut and only opens when you release it.

Security on French doors

French doors open onto the garden, which makes security matter more here than almost anywhere else in the house: a door onto the garden is the accessible element above all others. A security class such as RC2 (EN 1627) applies to the complete element, including hardware and the fixing, not to the profile; that's why we don't list an RC class per profile.

Cylinder, handle and threshold in the configurator

Of the nine choices, four really belong on French doors: the cylinder, the heavier class C security cylinder, the handle and the threshold. Locking hardware is fitted as standard, so you don't choose it separately. On uPVC the threshold is the hardest of the four, because the wider frame needs more room at the bottom than an aluminium door — if you want the threshold low, that's a conversation with your builder, not a tick box. An insect screen is almost never practical on an inward-opening French door: it goes on the outside and is then in the way of the leaf you want to open.

uPVC French doors with frame

uPVC French doors always come with their frame, as one unit: frame, two doors, threshold, hardware and cylinder. We don't supply a single door leaf for an existing frame.

uPVC French doors with side panels

If you want fixed glass beside the doors, it becomes a uPVC set with side panels. Put it together in the configurator as one quote.

uPVC French doors supplied and fitted?

We don't offer that combination, because we don't install. You fit them yourself or have an installer of your choice do it.