Which would you chose and why? They’re for bedrooms if that makes any difference at all.

The difference in cost is ~ £450 over the 7 doors.

M

Solid oak but make sure they are solid oak not chipboard core , labeled as engineered timber, theyre crap.

yeah, you won’t be able to buy solid oak internal doors…they are solid core with a veneer. Having said that, the latter will be more stable and less likely to warp or crack. A good quality solid core oak veneer door is absolutely fine. Attach a link to both doors so we can check em out?

Until the veneer lifts, or you have to take more off the edges to get them to fit than there is a oak edging, or that there is actually timber under the edging not chipboard that want hold the crews in place, due to a fault in manufacture.

Link to vaneer door

Link to solid door

Normally I’d just buy the higher quality item, but it’s a 1970s house and I’m not sure that (especially for bedrooms) that it justifies the extra cost.

The solid door is just that, solid, not an engineered core.

The solid doors will be better for keeping sounds in/out of rooms. Not sure if that matters to you, I just like the feel of a house where closing a door actually separates one space from another. As an FYI: it’s veneer, not vaneer.

There’s actually only 2kg difference in weight between the doors. The V door is 28kg, the solid is 30kg. One of the reasons I’m replacing the doors upstairs is that the original doors are around 6kg and stop no noise at all.

They look remarkably good lots to plane off the sides, the shed ones, band q and wickes have about 6 mm each side,theyre very heavy so use 3 x 3 inch ball bearing hinges, to take the weight, and also best to plug the screw holes in the original hinge rebates with splints and glue before fitting.

Hope the joiner comes with muscles like popeye as theyre heavy to drag up and down stairs on your own or even with help safely.

The solid one is engineered as well, made up from blocks of oak and covered with a veneer front and back.

I’d choose veneered over solid, as long as it’s lipped all round with minimum 10mm lippings, and I’m from a 30 year joinery background, pure and simple stability, and household internal doors don’t take that much hammer, commercial and external is totally different, ps an even nicer to have would be if the veneer was a 1.5mm – 2mm thick rather than standard 0.6mm, also makes a difference is the finish, I’d have mine sprayed with 3 coats a/c lacquer and will last for ever, another tip is fit the door and all ironmongery, then take off polish/lacquer all round inc top and bottom edges then re-fit

Yeah those veneer ones have good solid oak lipping so seem very good quality. I’d go for those myself.

Apologies for hijacking the OP’s thread but, since there are some door experts around, I had a quick question too.

We’ve just bought an internal oak veneer door to be used as a pocket sliding door to our en suite bathroom. We’ve bought it unfinished, in the hope that we can oil it with tung oil (or similar) to match a cabinet that we’ve got in the bathroom. Anyone know if this will work, and do you have any hints or tips as to how to go about it?

Thanks!

legolam

Check the instruction sheet that came with the door to see if you can oil it, some suppliers forbid oiling as it lifts the veneer, if oiling place door down flat and oil or varnish the whole door one side at a time, that way you get even coverage, no runs and dont forget top and bottom of door.

Yikes, knowing what I know now about the ability of wood to absorb moisture, there’s no way I would use an un-varnished or un-painted door for a bathroom. Doors need three layers of paint or varnish on all surfaces including inside the hinge rebates to seal them. Having cut, fitted and varnished 12 veneered doors in our house I’m glad I took this seriously as ten years on they all fit perfectly and close with a satisfying click from the latch.

I used Dulux Trade Polyurethane interior varnish in satin, rubbed down and carefully dusted off between coats. It shrinks down well on drying so is very forgiving of dribbles and brush marks. It’s a ballache but worth doing properly as a warped door will haunt you for ever. The satin version gives a nice waxy-looking sheen.

Thanks chaps. Presuming the door is ok to oil (the place I’ve bought them from suggested it would be fine, but I will check), should I therefore oil then varnish to protect from moisture?

Thing is, a wax/oil treatment like Osmo resists water far better than polyurethane, yacht varnish or even melamine lacquer and is far easier to apply. Varnish is shit!

So just use Osmo/Treatex or similar?

I’m trying to vaguely match a handmade cabinet that we have in the bathroom that has been finished with tung oil so has a slightly yellow/reddish colouring to it. I’m not sure if any of the Osmo oils have this tint, but will investigate.

Whatever you do, the wood will darken in a couple of years.