Door buying experience

[Visualizer]

Writing down my door hunting experience for benifit of everyone who is looking at doors in 2021.

So finally the Construction came to stage where I have to focus on doors and door frames. Required one main door ,+ 8 -9 interior doors (rooms, towards parking, utility, terrace etc) and also bathroom doors.

I had forgone idea of purchasing teak logs and let them season last year as decided on UPVC for windows and partitions and more eco-friendly choices for interior doors rather then cutting Lots of trees. Eco-friendly construction was always mybtop priority and I selected slag sand , GGBS RMC and PPC cement wherever possible to keep carbon foot print low.

And I thought for one main door can always go and buy ready-made door.

1. Went to Aryabhangi on residency road , lots of good carvings on teak and a standard size carved door will be approximately in range of 1.2 Lakhs and they will take 60 days to deliver. However our whole architecture style is modern and classic carved doors don't fit in the concept.
Plain designs were approx 85K+ and frame extra, clientele of AryaBhangi is mostly people looking for classic carved doors.
keep budget of 1.5 - 2 lakh for main door + frame if you are into Aryabhangi style of main doors. They use mostly Kerala teak which I trust is one of most expensive varieties though there were few of Ghana teak as well

Doors are not available off the shelf and lead time to fulfill order is 45 to 60 days. If you want very fine looking traditional carved doors befitting a Royal palace or temple this is the place.

2. Walked to Mahalsa doors some 400m away on St. Marks Road as I had checked their website , they are also mostly in to carved teak doors. They take custom jobs and people provide wood to them ( buying logs an year in advance and seasoning them) after getting seasoned wood from customer they will need 4 months to make door. Workmanship of displayed pieces was excellent. Displayed pieces could be purchased off the shelf but they were heavily carved huge doors ( 8x5 , 8x4, 7x3.5 etc)
Prices were similar to Aryabhangi.

Was disappointed at lead times ,
I had seen plain looking ready-made doors at cheaper prices elsewhere so started exploring.

Finally went to a factory in Horimavu ( Interior doors) they are supplier on IndiaMart and buyers are mostly retail shopkeepers who sell readymade doors. Teak door ( ghana teak with joinery starts at 10500 approx) in my eyes it doesn't look bad at all.. Teaks doors without joinery or may be less joints 20-26 K and good quality doors with expensive teak 38 K onwards.
The plain designs without carvings were exactly same as what i saw as plain designs in big two earlier. They also do some carvings but I didn't check much as my interest was in plain modern design.
They can provide either unpolished or fully polished as per choice. Can take up custom job and lead time is 5 days.

Also saw laminated flush doors for interiors for 4.5 k approx both side lamination. Neem wood ply as they claim which doesn't attract pests.
Thing is I am living in flat and have painted flush doors of no-name ply fitted by builder and nothing happened to them in last 17 years of rough use so quite convinced that laminated should be slightly better.

Aprt from these they also supply WPC doors and frames for bathrooms these doors also have grooves and pressed designs to make them look like panel doors. Membrane doors were also there which are quite cheap but Membrane door has lesser life than WPC.

So I think by choosing a cheaper ready-made teak main door in remaining money I can get rest of the doors + frames for house.
Perhaps a better utilization of money saved from expensive wood could be investing in solar panels or solar + heat pump water heater. Just my opinion.

Also i don't want to make it look like advertisement of particular manufacturers there may many more like this firm nor this is any kind of criticism for the two shops but just wanted to share that if you don't want to buy wood in advance and get a carpenter + CNC shop Or the uber expensive ones as seen on website there could be a third choice for teakwood as well.

[RashmiL]

Sir, can you give the address of factory at horamavu. We would like to check it.

[Visualizer]

They don't have any showroom to check whatever unpacked items are lying in godown you can check and look at catalog.

You can search for Interior Doors Hormavu in Google Maps.

I would suggest go only after plaster is completed for door frames as frames are fitted afterwards to protect wood. Door shutters should be fitted after flooring and painting is done.

[rjblr]

Very helpful input Visualizer.
Have you thought abouot putting metal doors as well.
I am considering metal doors for all external doors other than main doors like utility area door,door on FF that opens up to terrace and also rooftop doors.
I was considering nicer looking door for the door opening towards terrace. for the other two like utility area doors and rooftop doors, i can go with relatively less refined ones.
I assume frame for MS doors will also me made of metals.

[Visualizer]

I saw metal doors targeted for homes available in market fit and finish is like those Godrej Metal cupboards of 70s and 80s and once rubber beading give way they will make same clinky sound as well. The inside edges don't look good.

In my personal opinion in same price you can get very good wood doors and much cheaper price Vaneer /Laminated flush doors or even low priced teak doors.

Other kind of metal doors are fire safety doors used in industrial settings and tech parks each of them cost upwards of 40K rupees. The cavity is filled with fire retardant materialThey feel heavy and don't make clinky sound. Earlier when i heard about metal doors I had this quality in mind but domastic metal doors are nothing like them.

However I have seen metal doors in hotels in other countries hey are heavy and have good texture to touch but nothing like that I found in local market.

[rjblr]

Agree with you on look and finish of metal doors.
The reason for me has been security. For the utility and rooftop doors I am too concerned about looks since they are not going to be in sight even for us most of the time. So neat job by a local fabricator could work.
For the door to the terrace on the first floor (opening from family area), looking for a nicer looking metal door.

[Visualizer]

Agree with you on look and finish of metal doors.
The reason for me has been security. For the utility and rooftop doors I am too concerned

Just my 2 cents

Is cutting 6 to 8 mm metal rod or 1-2mm MS sheet any more difficult than cutting a 30mm flush door ? Both will take max 2-3 mts with portable power cutter.
Thieves are not going to carry cutter but may be a simple crowbar to prey open the latch and for that both will take same time.

So go as per what you like more.

[anushk]

I couldn't find the address. Can any of give me the map location details nor phone number?

[Visualizer]

https://www.interiordoors.in


Interior Doors
5, 345, Revanna Layout, Kalkere, Horamavu Post, NRI Layout, Bengaluru - 560043, Karnataka, India

[anushk]

Thankyou visualizer