Solid wood and solid core doors from China have become a mainstream import product for construction companies, fit-out contractors, and building material distributors worldwide. Foshan manufacturers produce interior and exterior door products that cover every market segment from budget-grade hollow core doors to premium solid hardwood entry doors with carved detail, glass inserts, and high-security hardware. Buying direct from a Chinese door factory gives you significant pricing advantages over purchasing through local distribution channels, particularly for large-volume orders in construction projects.
Door Construction Types Produced in China
Hollow core doors with a cardboard or timber honeycomb infill are the lowest cost option and are used for non-acoustic, non-fire-rated interior door applications in residential and light commercial buildings. Solid core doors with a particleboard or timber block infill provide better acoustic performance, more solid feel, and greater screw-holding strength for hardware installation. They are the preferred choice for office, hotel, and commercial fit-out applications. Solid wood doors cut from single pieces or finger-jointed timber are the premium option, offering natural wood grain, superior durability, and the ability to be planed and adjusted on site if required. Pre-hung door sets, where the door leaf is supplied already fitted in its frame with hinges and strike plates pre-installed, are available and simplify on-site installation.
Wood Species Used in Chinese Door Production
Solid wood doors from Chinese factories use a wide range of timber species. Chinese paulownia is light and stable, commonly used in panel door cores. Rubber wood and finger-jointed pine are used in mid-range solid wood doors. For premium products, North American white oak, teak, mahogany, and walnut are all processed in Chinese factories and produced into high-quality door products. Engineered stile-and-rail construction using a combination of solid wood and composite materials provides dimensional stability in climates where humidity variation would cause a solid wood door to swell or shrink.
Finishes, Hardware, and Lead Times
Factory finishes include primed ready-to-paint, pre-finished lacquer or stain, and PVC foil wrapped surfaces. Hardware is usually supplied separately unless specifically requested as part of the door package. Lead times for standard door products from stock are short, typically one to two weeks. Custom sizes, species, or finishes require four to six weeks for production. Fire-rated door sets require additional testing certification and may have longer lead times.
Source Doors with Agent Foshan
We source solid wood doors, door frames, and door hardware from verified Foshan factories for construction companies, fit-out contractors, and building material importers. We manage quality inspection and shipping from China to your destination. Contact us with your door schedule and specifications for a sourcing proposal.
Solid wood rarely means a solid slab
The term covers several very different constructions and the difference decides whether the door stays flat.
- Solid timber stile and rail. A traditional frame and panel door in one species throughout. The most authentic, the most expensive, and the most sensitive to humidity change.
- Engineered core with solid lipping and veneer. A stable engineered core faced with real timber and edged in solid timber so it can be trimmed. This is what most quality doors actually are, and it is genuinely better than a solid slab at staying flat.
- Finger jointed core with veneer. Short timber sections joined into a stable core, then faced. Good value and stable.
- Hollow core. A frame with a cardboard honeycomb inside. Light, cheap, no acoustic value, and easily damaged.
If a supplier quotes an unusually low price for a solid wood door, ask what is inside it. A veneered hollow core door and a solid timber door look identical hanging in a showroom.
Warping is a moisture problem you can prevent
Doors warp when one face is at a different moisture level from the other. That happens when timber shipped from humid southern China dries out in a heated interior, and it happens far faster when only one face is sealed.
Two requirements. Specify the moisture content at despatch to suit the destination climate, and require that all six faces are finished, including the top edge, the bottom edge and around the lock mortice. Factories routinely leave the top and bottom edges bare because nobody sees them, and that is exactly where moisture enters and leaves.
On site, doors must be stored flat and acclimatised before hanging, never leaned against a wall in a damp new building.
Handing, sizes and the market gap
Door sizes are not international. Standard leaf widths and heights differ between markets, and so does the convention for describing which way a door opens. Left hand and right hand are defined differently in different countries, which means an order confirmed in words alone can arrive perfectly made and completely wrong.
Confirm every door with a dimensioned drawing showing the hinge side viewed from a stated direction. Confirm the leaf size in millimetres. And if the doors come with frames, confirm the frame is made for your wall thickness, because a frame sized for a Chinese partition will not suit a European masonry reveal.
Fire rated doors are a certified assembly
A fire door is not a door, it is a tested assembly of leaf, frame, intumescent seals, hinges and hardware. Changing any component can invalidate the certification, which means fitting different hinges or a different closer on site can make a certified door non compliant.
If you are importing fire doors, buy the complete certified set from one source, keep the documentation with the goods, and confirm that the certification is recognised in your destination market. Certification from one jurisdiction is not automatically accepted in another. Verify this with your own compliance adviser before ordering.
Price ranges
| Product | Approx. FOB per leaf |
|---|---|
| Hollow core, primed | USD 18 to 32 |
| Engineered core, oak veneer | USD 45 to 85 |
| Engineered core, lacquered painted finish | USD 55 to 110 |
| Solid oak stile and rail | USD 110 to 260 |
| Solid exterior entrance door | USD 180 to 480 |
| Fire rated certified set | USD 120 to 320 |
Approximate FOB ranges for the leaf. Frames, architraves, hinges, locks and glazing are quoted separately and are often forgotten in a first comparison.
What goes wrong
- Unsealed top and bottom edges, leading to warping within one heating season.
- Handing reversed because it was agreed in words rather than on a drawing.
- Frame depth wrong for the destination wall construction.
- Hollow core supplied against a solid core specification. Weigh a door.
- Fire certification not valid in the destination market, or invalidated by substituted hardware.
- Surface damage in transit from stacking without interleaving. Doors need individual protection.