How much is a composite door with side panels in Teesside?

£1,400 to £2,200 supplied and fitted, depending on one or two panels, top lights and the glass design. Decorative glazing adds £100 to £300 over plain obscured units.

Does adding side panels need building work?

Usually not. Where the opening already spans the door and its surround, the new frame fits the existing structural opening. Widening the brickwork itself is a different, bigger job, and the measure-up will say which you have.

Will glass beside the door hurt security?

No. Side panels are fixed, non-opening units in toughened or laminated glass, and being seen through them works both ways: nobody tampers with a lock while lit up in your doorway. The door's own multi-point lock is unchanged.

Can I have privacy glass and still get the light?

Yes. Obscured backing glass passes almost all the daylight while blocking the view in, and there are dozens of patterns from plain satin to period etched designs.

Do side panels make the hall colder?

The opposite. The panels are double-glazed sealed units matching the door's insulation, and they replace whatever draughty frame was there before.

Doors with side panels in Teesside

A composite front door with one or two glazed side panels, supplied and fitted, costs £1,400 to £2,200 on Teesside in 2026. The side panels are fixed glazed units built into the frame beside the door, and they transform a dark hallway without any structural alteration to the opening.

Get Quote Call 01642 056 259 From £1,400

A blue front door with a glazed top light and matching surround

The dark hallway problem, solved

Thousands of Teesside homes, particularly the 1930s semis of Acklam, Marton, Fairfield and Hartburn, were built with a front door set directly into a narrow hall with no natural light of its own. The result is a hallway that needs the light on at noon. A door with side panels replaces the whole door surround with a frame that carries the door plus one or two fixed glazed panels beside it, and the hall changes character the day it goes in.

No bricks are moved: the new frame is made to the existing structural opening, so there is no lintel work, no making good of the brickwork beyond trims, and no planning question in almost every case. It is the biggest single improvement most dark-hall houses can get for the money.

What they cost on Teesside

Expect £1,400 to £2,200 supplied and fitted: a door with a single side panel at the lower end, a door with panels both sides or a combined side panel and top light (fanlight) at the upper end. The glass specification is the main variable, with decorative and etched designs adding £100 to £300 over plain obscured units.

Getting the glass right

Obscured backing glass: the default for privacy, in patterns from simple satin to period-appropriate etched designs. Light comes in, shapes do not.
Decorative and bevelled units: coloured or bevelled glass that throws light patterns into the hall, often echoing 1930s originals.
Toughened or laminated as standard: side panels sit beside the door at low level, so safety glass is a building regulations requirement, not an option. Any quote should state it.
Double-glazed units: side panels are sealed units matching the door's thermal performance, so the hall gains light without gaining a cold spot.

Side panels, top lights and combined frames

The frame is manufactured as one unit, so combinations are straightforward: door plus one panel, door plus two panels, door plus top light, or all three together for the full glazed entrance that suits wider 1930s and Edwardian openings. On the grander semis of Linthorpe, Yarm and Eaglescliffe, where the original entrance may have had both sidelights and a fanlight, a combined frame reproduces the original proportions in a maintenance-free material.

When it is not the right answer

If the opening is a standard 838mm door with solid brick both sides, adding side panels means altering the structure, and at that point the honest advice is a well-glazed front door instead, with a long glass light that still lifts the hall. Where the aim is light into a kitchen or living room rather than the hall, French doors at the back of the house do more. A measure-up settles which category your doorway falls into, and the cost guide prices both routes.