Double plank door ?

[AJBaker]

In my ongoing mission to redo an old house, I'm turning my attention to the front door. The current front door is a flimsy thing that won't close properly. It's fairly thin wood with single glaze panes of glass.
To get the latch to properly engage I've got into the habit of pressing it shut with my foot, which unfortunately led to me accidentally pressing my foot against the glass and shattering it the other day...
It's now patched up with a piece of plywood, but that door needs to be replaced. Ideally, I'd like to wait until the weather warms up, in case it takes longer to install.

My first instinct is to make a stout four panel door. I should be able to by some thick planks of larch from the local council's forestry service which should do the trick.

However, there's another design I'm intrigued by, the "double plank" door. Apparently it's like a batten door, except that the horizontal battens cover the entire door. It seems to me that I've seen such doors around here, but never up close. It also seems to me that the horizontal boards face outwards, and that the planks are cut in such a way as to form a rebate around the edge. Often there is also a small square window cut into it.

Does anyone have any experience with such a door (see drawings and link below)?
I live in the mountains, it gets fairly cold, I need a fairly stout door.

Thanks for your input!

https://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/early-timber-doors/early-timber-doors.htm

 

[Agent_zed]

I wonder if you would be best to combine the suggested doors.

If you built a ledged and braced door (which is tried and tested) and then added 20mm insulation board in the gaps and then put 10mm planks over the back to box it all in, you'd have what looks like a double plank door but is better braced and better insulated.

20mm outer board - 20mm gap - 10mm inner boards = 50mm door. Could go thicker if you wanted more insulation.

I've been looking at doing something similar and looking at some of the natural insulation boards like https://www.buyinsulationonline.co.uk/product/steico-therm-wood-fibre-insulation-boards

 

[Amplidyne]

Or even framed, ledged and braced (I think that's the correct term), with the panels boarded, and insulation between the panels.

 

[AJBaker]

I'm thinking about whether insulation is necessary, or whether it'll do if the door is thick enough (40-50mm).

 

[Agent_zed]

I'm thinking about whether insulation is necessary, or whether it'll do if the door is thick enough (40-50mm).

Depends how much heat you want to keep in your house.

This is a thread I started a while back with a pic of a door on a ski apartment https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/chalet-door-design-source-or-build.146253/post-1714303 which I thought was an interesting construction and I'm assuming is insulated given it's depth.

 

[AJBaker]

Depends how much heat you want to keep in your house.

This is a thread I started a while back with a pic of a door on a ski apartment https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/chalet-door-design-source-or-build.146253/post-1714303 which I thought was an interesting construction and I'm assuming is insulated given it's depth.

Cool, did you build a door in the end?

Where in France did you see the original?

 

[Agent_zed]

Cool, did you build a door in the end?

Where in France did you see the original?

I haven't done it yet. I've just got the timber for the door frame which I'll be starting next week.

I've only recently got a big enough bandsaw to resaw some of the timber, as for the door I think I'm going to try 10mm pine, 9mm ply, 20mm insulation, 9mm ply, 10mm pine.

I am planning on having the centre section with the boards at 45degrees meeting in the middle like a chevron, so I have to have the plywood as the actual structure. If that makes sense.

It seems to be a common modern practice now e.g https://www.vufold.co.uk/external-front-doors/wooden-front-doors/stockholm/stockholm-oak-762mm if you scroll down you can see the parts of the door. I could of course just buy one of these but I don't trust the thin veneers they use. I bought a £1500 bi-fold and it's less than 3 years old and one place is starting to lift! grrr! Figure if I build one I can make the veneers as thick as I want.

The door was on the main entrance to the ski apartment I stayed in, in Meribel Mottaret, France. which is at 1500m elevation.