Are Aluminium Doors Affected By Heatwaves?

Following two heatwaves in as many months and forecasts predicting potentially the hottest summer since records began, heat resistance is a common question being asked by customers looking into an aluminium door installation.

Thankfully, everything that makes an aluminium door thermally efficient and effective at keeping the cold out in winter makes it just as effective at keeping the heat out during the summer, ensuring that the baking sun cannot get in through your aluminium doors and window frames.

However, one common frustration homeowners have with wood and uPVC doors is their tendency to expand in summer to the point that they can get stuck in their frames, making it quite annoying, if not impossible, to get out of a home until the weather cools down.

Do aluminium doors experience thermal expansion? They do, but to nowhere near the same degree and always within engineered tolerances, meaning that it will never affect your ability to smoothly open and close a door.

How is this the case? The key is engineered tolerances. Aluminium heats evenly across the entire surface, rather than wood, plastic or glass, which cause heat to concentrate on specific points.

Because this expansion is almost impossible to notice by eye, minimal even by engineering standards and uniform in nature, engineers, designers and installers can take that into account when setting up your door frames.

There is a very good chance that you will never notice your door expand, thanks to the seals and draught proofing you have in place already. They are typically made of flexible materials that are meant to cushion the expansion of your door and ensure they retain their shape and usability.

Finally, unlike certain types of wooden doors, aluminium doors do not permanently warp; once the temperature cools down, the aluminium shrinks back to its normal temperature without any lingering effects.