Doors

Historic doors can be an important part of a buildings appearance and to replace it, if you live in a listed building, will require Listed Building Consent. If you live in a listed building will normally be expected that a historic door is retained, unless it can be demonstrated that it is beyond reasonable repair with a condition survey. This should be produced by a traditional carpenter joiner, or someone experienced in repairing traditional doors. Please see the Council’s Condition Survey example for a guide on this.

If is often possible to improve the energy efficiency of a historic door just by carrying out routine maintenance. This is a normal part of owning a traditional building and many parts of a door can easily be repaired and replaced, which is much cheaper than buying a new door.

Once you have carried out repairs to the door and made sure that it is opening and closing properly, there are other ways to improve its thermal efficiency:

• Draught-proof the door and letter box.
• Install a heavy curtain and use a draught excluder.
• Reinstate missing secondary doors to porches and vestibules (this will require Listed Building Consent).
• Applying an aerogel insulation to panels internally (this may require Listed Building Consent).

Further information

Historic England’s Draught-proofing Windows and Doors is a helpful guide on this subject. Additionally, Historic England have also provided advice on replacing a door, which can be found at I Want to Alter a Door.

SPAB has produced a useful Q&A page on repairing old doors – Doors.

Doors - pdf - 97 Kb