Exterior Doors

When looking for a door, the points to consider are:

Performance - How well does it insulate. How well does it hold up to various types of weather. What is the required maintenance. How well does it prevent unlawful entry.

Material - doors are available in wood, steel,and fiberglass.

Cost - products can easily exceed $1000.

Appearance - It should reflect the style of the home. In fact, potential purchasers often base an immediate opinion of the house based on the front door.

Wood Exterior Doors

PROS

Beautiful - In my opinion, wood doors exude both class and beauty. Wood is timeless.

CONS

Wood expands and contracts with the temperature. This can lead to warping, twisting, cracking and sticking. The higher quality the door is, the less this is likely to happen.

A wood door will require maintenance at some point. The weather can break down the protective coating on a wood door creating moisture problems which can lead to warping, twisting, cracking and sticking. Again, the quality of the door will determine how many years the door can go without being maintenanced.

Wood doors are heavy. This can cause sagging over time.

Wood doors do not have very good insulation properties as compared to fiberglass or steel doors.

Fiber Glass Exterior Doors

PROS

Good insulation properties. Much better than wood. How much better depends on the quality of the fiberglass door.

Available in many colors. Can be made and/or stained to look like a wood door.

The door itself is weather resistant. The gloss coating or stain may have to be top coated every 2 or 3 years. Resistant to warping, cracking, twisting and sticking.

Lighter than wood doors which helps prevent sagging over time.

CONS

Fiber glass can be more expensive than wood doors.

Manufactures claim that there doors look and feel like real wood. In my opinion, nothing feels and looks like real wood except for real wood. That being said, the majority of people that enter your home will think your door is made of wood.

Steel Exterior Doors

PROS

Superior insulation properties as compared to wood. Similar insulation properties as compared to fiberglass.

Steel doors offer greater security than wood or fiberglass. Steel doors can have high fire ratings. Most inspectors will require you to install a fire door in the entry from the garage.

Steel doors are lighter than wood doors helping to prevent sagging.

Steel doors are inexpensive.

Resistant to warping, cracking, twisting and sticking.

CONS

They are not as attractive as wood or fiberglass doors.

Where to buy

A good place to see a lot of doors are the big suppliers like Menards, Lowes, and Home depot.

I have had good luck with Weather King doors. They are a Michigan made product and you can see their products at there web site. The down side is they do not have a show room in the area where you can see the doors.

Any of the local lumber yards such as Glasers, Eikenhout, and Wimsatt sell exterior doors as well. They have a few doors in their show rooms, but most are ordered from a catalog.

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