We have three external wooden doors, supplied with the villa when it was built, which have cracked badly after 5 years in full sun, and the winter rains...
We need to replace them, but do we go for wood again (and make sure it is treated properly before it is installed and well-maintained), aluminium or UPVC!
Does anyone have any advice or opinions and recommendations of suitable suppliers?
Thank you

Your caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

UPVC is liable to degrade with UV rays from the sun.

Aluminimum is likely to suffer condensation on the inner face in winter.

Wood is hard to get (quality) and will need constant maintence with one of the better wood stains which will allow it to breathe (Sikens or similar)

On balance I would go for aluminimum but thermally broken to mitigate the winter condensation but they are not cheap.

Mine is a security door, eight lock bolts and cost abt €400 iirc

Defo not wood - horrendously expensive and tend to rot. I would go for uPVC.

Condensation isn't a real problem in most coastal areas of Spain. Yes, there might be some on the aluminium on some mornings but it's no big deal.

Aluminium windows can be made up very cheaply from your local Carpintera de Aluminio - when we built our house 7 years ago we got about 60m2 of windows and doors including the double glazed panels for well under €10,000.

And they were in a special green finish!

That may be true on the Med Coast but here on the Atlantic we have pea soup fogs in winter humidity 98% so if you have not got central heating it can fog up inside.

Thank you everyone for all that information ... on the face of it, when cost is taken into consideration, we will probably go for the UPVC option, although recognise that aluminium is possibly the best option if cost is no consideration

UPVC is cheaper than €400 for alluminium then?

I almost choked on my beer when a friend told me he just paid £920 for a Upvc door. I would rather cut my own tree down and make it myself than pay that sort of money.

Where can you get aluminium for 400€? All our quotes are significantly higher, but a little 'local' knowledge would be great! We would have to pay for fitting too, as we are going back to UK in a week's time and are bound by holiday allowance at work!

Trouble with wood is, you have to be there to paint the bl**dy thing! We have painted ours every year, but the sunshine and the sea-salt laden winds take their toll

I went to a local window shop and they sent a guy around to measure up. Its white, has 10 bolts down the front for security, and doesnt get condensation any time :-) However it was local to us

When we replaced all our windows and doors as part of our reform our quotes low to high were White Alu, Wood effect Alu, White pvc, Wood effect pvc. the difference between Aluminium and UPVC was in the thousands, this for 11 windows and four doors.
There is minor condensation on the frames in winter but it soon dries or wipes off.

Our doors are steel, and suffer from a bit of condensation in the bedroom of a cold morning, but there's ways round that. The panels can be insulated, and you can hang a curtain over it.

we got a very good wooden door for 200 euros, at the local fair. The seller was well known and recommened by many local people. The choice for wood was because the door is never in direct sunlight

If I can find the guys biz card I'll pm you with the number and you can check if he comes anywhere near you (he's Madrid based and does many fairs)