Made-to-measure interior doors, fitted by us

It depends almost entirely on when you decide. The pocket door is the cleanest solution, the leaf goes into the wall and nothing shows, but it needs a pocket frame inside the wall: it goes in when the wall is built or demolished, not afterwards. In that stretch of wall you can then no longer chase in services or hang heavy shelves.

The surface-mounted one is fitted with the house finished, in half a day, because the track is fixed onto the wall. It stays visible, you can see the leaf parked to one side, but it is the only route if the wall is already plastered or if there are pipes inside.

Hardly ever. If the subframe buried in the wall is sound and square, the new door is fitted onto it: the old one comes off, the new frame is fixed and the sides are closed with architraves, which are telescopic and open out to the real thickness of the wall. No demolition, no plaster to redo.

The wall is only broken into in three cases: the subframe is rotten or out of square, you want to change the width of the opening, or you are moving to a pocket sliding door. In those cases there is demolition and making good, and we say so at the site visit because it changes the price.

You measure the clear opening as finished, that is, the width and height of the hole with the floor laid: the width at three points, top, middle and bottom, because the three numbers are nearly always different and the narrowest one counts. Then the thickness of the plastered wall, again at several points, which is what determines the architraves.

You also note the way it opens, looking at the door from the side you push, and whether there are skirtings, radiators or switches too close. If you would rather not get it wrong: we take the measurements, and the site visit is free.

The price of an interior door changes mainly for five reasons: the opening type, the finish, how much glass there is, the type of frame and the state of the existing subframe. A laminate hinged door on a sound subframe sits at the cheap end of the scale; a flush-to-wall pocket sliding door lacquered in colour sits at the other end, because it is a bricklaying job too.

When you compare two offers, check that the same things are inside them: many prices you see around are the leaf only, with no frame, no fitting and no disposal of the old one. On our quote the items are listed one by one and the total is the final one.

There are four families. Laminate is the most resistant to scratches and damp and copes well with the hallways of a house with children and dogs. Lacquered is painted: it is the best-looking in a solid colour and can be touched up, but it marks more easily. Real wood veneer has authentic grain and no two panels alike. Glass, on its own or in a frame, is used where light is needed.

The practical rule: laminate where people pass and knock into things, lacquered where people look, wood where the rest of the house is wood, glass where it is dark.

A lacquered door is painted over a substrate: the colour is full and deep, it can be matched close to the wall shade and, if it gets scratched, a coach painter or a decorator can touch it up. The downside is that it marks more quickly, especially on the edges and near the handle.

A laminate door has a printed, melamine-faced surface that is much harder: it resists scratches, knocks and damp better than lacquer and is the sensible choice for bathrooms, hallways and houses with children. If it does get damaged, though, it cannot be touched up; the leaf is replaced.

uPVC has one precise advantage: water does not swell it. It is the right choice where there is constant damp, so windowless bathrooms, utility rooms, cellars, basements and taverns, and it cleans with water and soap without any trouble.

In the rest of the house wood, or a laminate-faced panel, stays ahead on two counts: it weighs more and therefore insulates sound better, and to the eye and the hand it has a quality uPVC does not reach. In practice it is common to put uPVC in the bathroom and the utility room and wood or laminate everywhere else.

In landings, windowless hallways and between kitchen and living room, yes, and the difference shows immediately: the little light coming in from a room with a window also reaches where there is none. With satin glass the light passes but shapes do not, so it is fine on a bathroom too.

Two things to know first. Glass is heavy, so hinges and frame have to be sized to carry it. And if there are children in the house you ask for toughened or laminated glass, which does not break into sharp shards.

Interior doors do not fall under the Italian ecobonus, because they do not separate the house from the outside and therefore do not save energy. They do fall under the renovation bonus, but only on one condition: that they are part of extraordinary maintenance, restoration or renovation work, or of work on the common parts of a block of flats.

Changing only the interior doors of a flat, with no other work, is ordinary maintenance and on its own does not give the right to the deduction. If you are renovating, though, the doors count as part of the spend: you need the reference-bearing bank transfer quoting the legislation and invoices in the name of whoever claims. Rates and ceilings change every year with the budget law, so have them confirmed by whoever handles your paperwork.

Nine times out of ten it is not the door, it is the hinges. Concealed hinges have three adjusting screws, one for each direction: they raise or lower the leaf, move it sideways to recover the gap, and push it forward or back so it beds down better on the stop. You move one screw at a time, half a turn at a time, checking the gap after each turn.

If the door only rubs in summer it is the wood that has taken up damp, and it usually settles back by itself. If it rubs all the time and the hinges are already at the end of their travel, the frame has moved: there you need to put it back square. On doors we have fitted, we come and do the adjustment ourselves.