When you get stuck into a new composite door project, there’s a lot to consider. You’ve likely thought of the colour, the style, and the hardware and toyed with multiple ideas. There are plenty of ways to personalise your new door and give it a touch of your personality. But while it’s fun to get carried away in the design stage, there’s one factor that’s likely to give you a moment’s pause; planning permission.
First of all, let’s clear this up right now: in the vast majority of cases, you will not need planning permission to install a new composite door. There are exceptions, but if you are replacing an existing door with a new one, it will fall within your permitted development rights as the homeowner. This also applies to any minor alterations you need to make, such as replacing a handle or letterbox.
We would always recommend checking with your local authority, but it’s likely that you won’t need to obtain planning permission. We’ve only encountered a few cases where it was necessary and they were mostly in listed buildings. The regulations were stricter for them, but providing the owners stuck with the overall style of the property, permission was usually granted.
The other scenario where this gets a tad more complicated is if installing your new front door requires major structural work. For instance; maybe you don’t like the door’s location and want to move it to another part of the house. This would involve creating a new entranceway and filling in the old one, so you’ll have to involve a structural engineer and ensure it’s safe to do so.
