How to meet rising consumer security expectations

Doors and windows have a major contribution to make in the creation of energy efficient aesthetically pleasing homes. Just as importantly, security is a major deciding factor for homeowners with the latest crime survey showing that around one in 30 homes are broken into each year. Designing an entrance door that meets all these criteria therefore allows fabricators to take advantage of this sizeable market opportunity and although the total entrance door market is mature, certain sectors within it are growing at an encouraging rate.

For many years, the PVC-u entrance door has been the dominant product making up just over half of the 1.5 million doors supplied each year. However, the market for PVC-u entrance doors is now declining so that the 825,000 PVC-u doors sold in 2006 will have reduced to around 617,000 in 2010, representing a drop from 55 per cent of the market to just over 40 per cent. The reduction in volume within the PVC-u sector is being taken up by composite entrance doors which are growing at around a healthy 20 per cent each year, offering fabricators a major sales opportunity.

Eurocell has always supplied PVC-u door panels and it was therefore the obvious next step to offer a range of composite doors – it fitted in with the company’s philosophy of offering fabricators a one-stop-shop. ‘The Dales Collection’ of composite doors is named after the Derbyshire Dales, the county in which the company is based. This is a fitting name for a range of doors that has an appealing traditional look that would complement many of the properties in the county that typifies a quintessentially English style of architecture.

Knowing that homeowners, housebuilders and specifiers are generally interested in the same features that help them create homes that people want to live in – energy efficiency, security and aesthetics, gave the company the basis for developing what looks to be a winning offer. Take for instance security. The Dales Collection has Secured by Design and PAS23/24 as standard across the entire range and with all homeowners concerned about break-ins, it offers fabricators a real benefit to offer their customers. The fact that the new range is supplied to these enhanced security levels, as standard means that fabricators are less likely to lose the sale by having to add on additional security features, pricing the door out of the homeowner’s initial budget expectations.

Within the area of security, bumping of locks has become a serious concern for homeowners. This is a practice used by burglars on traditional cylinder locks to gain entrance to a property in seconds. Placing a ‘bump’ key (available widely on the internet) in a cylinder lock and then applying a slight pressure to the back of the lock plug before giving the key a slight tap or ‘bump’ causes the pins to jump inside the cylinder. This allows the plug to slide out freely, thus enabling the burglar to gain entry in seconds. The most worrying part of all this is that the majority of entrance doors in the UK supplied over the last 20 years have been fitted with these traditional cylinder locks, all of which are vulnerable to bumping!

To make matters worse for victims, insurance companies, when they cannot see evidence of forced entry, often refuse the insurance claim. The loss of personal possessions, plus the huge amount of stress and turmoil caused by this type of break-in is therefore the main reason why the company designed The Dales Collection with a unique cylinder-free lock. Still retaining classical keyhole aesthetics, the lock gives exceptional levels of security and one the company is confident enough to back up with a £1,000 guarantee, giving fabricators another element of differentiation.

The increasing occurrence of wind driven rain in the UK meant that the doors had to remain watertight even in the most extreme weather. Again, the growth in the composite market can be partly explained because of the robustness of the product. The doors offer an impenetrable barrier to the weather and this has been further enhanced on The Dales Collection with the addition of two brush seals and a gasket seal.

Creating a weathertight seal depends on achieving an adequate level of installation and here the company has not lost sight of the need for fabricators and installers to achieve a quick turnaround on site. The three-way adjustment on the hinges speeds up installation significantly, as does the deep frame section which allows for a better plaster reveal clearance.

The rate of growth currently being experienced in the composite door market is partly driven by the end user advantages. Tough GRP door leaves avoid the problem associated with other materials such as splits and cracks and the hardwearing through-coloured finish ensures no painting, sanding or varnishing is required by the homeowner. With thermal efficiency up to six-times that of timber, there are also sound environmental reasons for choosing composite.

Selecting the glass, door furniture and hardware options to offer fabricators an element of differentiation in the market was crucial to this launch. With 10 different doors styles and seven colour options, along with a selection of gold, chrome and white furniture, there is enough choice to create a distinctive looking door.

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