Replacing a glass insert panel in a UPVC front door

[alexfromnewport]

Hi all,

I have a crappy UPVC front door (20+ years old, not composite) which has a dated decorative glass insert on the top half which I want to replace with a more contemporary frosted panel instead. I've had a cusory glance at youtube and it seems this is a diy job (once the old panel is sized up and a new one of the same dimensions is obtained to fit in its place). To clarify though, do I just simply remove the beading, pull out the old panel, slot the new one in place, then just stick the beading back in situ? Surely if its that easy for me to do, then every burglar would gain entry the same way? Seems a bit counter productive having multi-locking UPVC doors all over the house when all you need to gain entry and nick tellys in is jemmy the beading out and remove the panels. Am I missing something?

Ta

Alex

 

[Gazman16]

Hard to tell from the blurry pics but should have one of 2 things.
A. A back wedge, Internal wedge that pushes the glass out and locks the external beads in place.
B. security clips holding the glass in. These are an ass to deal with, usually need to be cut out with an angle grinder and replaced

 

[alexfromnewport]

I see, so if I ease out one of the beads from the inside side of the door I should see what kind of system is holding it in place? Of the two possible scenarios you describe above, I take it the second one is more bother than its worth?

 

[Gazman16]

There will only be either inside or outside beads. I cant tell from your pics but looks to be outside