Choice 1: material
Aluminium-framed glazed: the default for retail, hospitality, office and showroom front-of-house. Lightweight, durable, finished in any RAL colour. Good for high-volume entrances. Typical doorset cost £2,000–£4,000 supplied and fitted.
APG (all-purpose glass) frameless: premium retail and hospitality where the appearance matters more than the cost. Very heavy, requires specialist patch fittings, repair expertise is rare outside large urban areas. Typical doorset cost £3,500–£8,000.
Steel: security doors, fire doors in industrial settings, back-of-house service doors. Heavy, durable, fire-resistant up to FD120 with the right spec. Not a front-of-house finish for retail or hospitality. Typical doorset cost £1,800–£5,000.
Timber: internal fire doors, traditional pubs, hotels with heritage style. Less common on modern commercial entrances. Higher maintenance than aluminium. Typical doorset cost £800–£3,000.
Choice 2: glazing
For aluminium-framed and APG doors, glazing is the major variable cost. Three meaningful grades:
Toughened (BS EN 12150): the minimum for commercial entrances. Heat-treated glass that shatters into small blunt pieces rather than shards. £90–£180/m².
Laminated (BS EN 14449): two glass layers with a plastic interlayer. Holds together when broken. Required for overhead glazing and useful for security. £140–£260/m².
Anti-bandit / security-rated: multiple-layer laminated, typically tested to LPS 1175 or similar standards. Specified for high-value retail, jewellers, pharmacies, premises with cash-handling. £300–£700/m².
Choice 3: closer type
Overhead closer: the surface-mounted rectangular box. Cheap, serviceable, easy to replace, visible. Right for back-of-house and lower-spec retail. £150–£350 for the closer itself.
Transom closer: concealed inside the frame head. More expensive, neater appearance. Right for premium retail. Sealed unit — not field-serviceable. £400–£800.
Floor spring: concealed under the threshold. The standard for heavy aluminium and APG doors. Most durable type for high-traffic use. Sealed unit. £400–£900.
Choosing: weight-of-door matters most. Doors over 80 kg almost always want floor springs. Lighter doors can use any of the three. Premium retail typically picks transom or floor spring for the concealed look.
Choice 4: lock grade
Three meaningful tiers:
Standard commercial cylinder: BS EN 1303-rated. Adequate for low-risk premises. £30–£80 per cylinder.
Insurance-grade cylinder: TS 007 grade 1 or 2, BS 3621. Required by most commercial property insurers. £60–£180.
High-security cylinder: TS 007 grade 3 (3-star), LPS 1175 lock body. For cash-handling, pharmaceutical, valuables. £180–£500+.
Check your insurer's requirement before specifying. A specification below the insurer's minimum risks a claim refusal after a break-in; a specification above adds cost without proportionate benefit.
Choice 5: accessibility provision
For any door used by the public, BS 8300 accessibility standards apply (see [[accessible-doors-equality-act-bs-8300]]). Practical spec: opening force <30 N, clear opening width ≥800 mm, lever-style or push-bar hardware, threshold ≤15 mm.
For new builds and major refurbs, Approved Document M of the Building Regulations applies and is generally tighter. Building Control sign-off depends on it.
Cost impact: minimal. A correctly-specified closer and lever set costs about the same as a non-accessible spec. Where the entrance is part of an existing facade with a high threshold, the threshold work is the main cost item.
Choice 6: automatic operation
For high-footfall public entrances, automatic operation is often the right specification from new. It removes opening-force, hardware-operability and threshold issues; it speeds throughput at peak; it removes the requirement for users to handle the door at all (useful for hygiene-conscious premises).
Three drive types: swing operator (existing swing doors retrofitted or new), sliding (telescopic or bi-parting, common in retail and healthcare), revolving (large office and hotel lobbies, manages heating costs by limiting air exchange). All must comply with BS EN 16005 safety standards.
Cost: typical UK retrofit for a single swing automatic operator £3,500–£6,500. New sliding door installation £5,500–£12,000. Annual service is a fixed cost of £180–£320 per door for BS EN 16005 compliance maintenance.
The single best piece of advice
Get the specification done by someone who is going to live with the maintenance later. The cheapest fitter, the cheapest hardware and the cheapest closer add up to a doorset that costs more across its 15-year life because every year of repair is more expensive than the year before.
Conversely, premium frame finishes, designer hardware and luxury cylinders rarely improve the door's actual performance — they affect the showroom impression and the brochure price.
Spend at the engineering layer: certified closer, insurer-graded lock, accessibility-compliant hardware, properly specified glazing for the use. The frame and the finish matter less than the moving parts.