Seven mistakes people make ordering a front door in Ireland
Most of these cost nothing to avoid and a few hundred euro, or the whole SEAI grant, if you miss them. Here is what actually goes wrong, in the order it usually happens.
Written by the Kilgate Doors team, with figures from the manufacturer's documentation and our installer's practice.
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A front door order runs for ten to twelve weeks before anything arrives, and most of the decisions that matter happen in the first phone call. By the time the mistake shows up, it is usually too late to fix cheaply. Here are the ones we see most often, roughly in the order a buyer hits them.
Starting the work before the grant is approved
The SEAI grant pays €800 per external door, up to two doors per home, but only if the paperwork runs in the right order: application submitted, approval received, then the door goes in. Doing it the other way round, because a tradesman was free that week or the old door was already off its hinges, voids the claim. There is no appeal for this one. If you intend to claim, wait for the letter before any work starts, and use a SEAI-registered installer. We have written up the grant rules in full, including who else besides owner-occupiers can claim it.
Measuring it yourself and trusting the old number
The opening is not the same as the old door. Frames settle, houses move, and a door bought "the same size as what's there now" can arrive a centimetre out in a direction that matters. Width, height and whether the opening is actually square all need checking, not assumed from the door you are replacing. A proper measurement, even done over a video call, catches this before the door is made rather than on installation day when it is nobody's idea of a good surprise.
Ordering too close to a date
Ten to twelve weeks from order to fitting is normal, because the door is made to your opening rather than pulled off a shelf. If you are working backwards from a sale completion, a wedding, or someone arriving, that lead time has to be in the plan from the first phone call, not discovered when you ring looking for an update in week nine. Ask for the current lead time before you commit to anything, since it moves with demand.
Choosing the glass before thinking about who can see through it
Clear glass beside a front door looks good in a photo and less good from the footpath at night with the hall light on. Frosted and reflective options exist specifically because a sidelight or toplight is still a window, and it faces the street. Decide what you actually want people to see, in both directions, before picking the glazing rather than after it is fitted.
Buying on the material name alone
"Composite" and "aluminium" describe a wide range of doors at a wide range of prices, and the label on its own tells you very little. What is inside the leaf, what the frame is made from, and what the declared U value actually is (not the catalogue's best case) matter more than the category name. Ask for the numbers behind the description.
Treating the quoted price as the final one
A base price covers a plain door with no glazing and no sidelights. Paint, a long pull handle instead of a lever, a toplight, a sidelight, these all add to the total, and several of them depend on the exact size and model rather than a flat fee, so they are correctly priced at survey rather than guessed on a website. Ask for a full written breakdown before you order, not a headline figure you assume covers everything.
Assuming the warranty means the same thing in year four as it does in year one
Our warranty runs 5 years on the door and 2 years on the lock, hinges, seals and other hardware. In years 1 and 2, the part, the call-out and the labour are all covered. In years 3 to 5, the replacement part for the door is free, but the visit and the fitting are charged, quoted in advance before anyone comes out. Nobody reads this line until something breaks, which is the wrong time to find out what it says. The full breakdown is here.
What this adds up to
| Mistake | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Work starts before grant approval | The entire €800 grant, no appeal |
| Opening measured by eye | A refit, or a door that never closes quite right |
| Ordered with no lead time margin | Missing the date you needed it for |
| Glass chosen before the privacy question | Fitted glazing you then want to change |
| Material chosen on the label alone | A door that looked the same price and was not the same door |
| Quote read as a flat price | A bill bigger than expected at the worst possible moment |
| Warranty read for the first time at a breakdown | A call-out charge nobody budgeted for |
None of these need a specialist to avoid. They need the order done in the right sequence: grant approval first, an accurate measurement second, a full written quote third, and the warranty terms read before you need them rather than after.
If you want to see where your own opening and your own choices land before committing to any of this, the 3D configurator lets you build the door first. A free WhatsApp video measurement sorts the one number that actually determines the price.