Factors to Consider Before You Buy a Door

Repair or Replace

You can repair some door problems, and some you cannot. If a door has rot, has severe weather damage or multiple deep dings, or is severely warped it may be beyond repair and require replacement. If your door is improperly hung, has trouble closing or latching, is slightly warped, or is sticking, these problems may be well worth fixing.

Doors that are original to your home and matched to your home’s architectural design are worth extra effort to repair. Doors that are poor quality or do not match your home’s style are worth less effort to repair.

There may be functional advantages to replacing your doors. A new entry door can increase the energy efficiency and security of your home. New interior doors can block sounds from traveling beyond closed doors and improve your privacy.

Interior vs. Exterior

Are you shopping for interior or exterior doors? Interior room and closet doors are usually identical throughout a home. The door knobs may have an integrated privacy lock, but security is rarely an issue when installing interior doors. Exterior doors are the portal to your home. Many homeowners are willing to buy premium exterior doors to make their homes first impression a positive one. Exterior doors can also be designed to enhance home security, and to insulate your home.

Brands

Masonite, the most popular door brand, is known for lumber products. Pella and Anderson manufacture windows as wells as doors. Most of the top brands have doors in many styles and sizes. Click here to see our selection of Top Door Brands

Cost

A premium front door can cost as much as $15,000, plus installation. A simple-but-attractive, unfinished front door can cost as little as $150 plus $75 for knobs and locks. Installation and finishing are variable, but start at $750.

Get Help or Do-It-Yourself?

Before deciding to install a door yourself, you should have the answers to three questions:

• Do you have the skills to do it?
• Do you have the time to do it?
• Are there vendors who will inform and support you through the installation process?

Read on for some help answering these questions.

Skills required: High. Installing doors is harder than it appears. To install a door, also called hanging a door, you need to have professional level carpentry skills. If you do not have those skills, you should hire a professional.

Time required: Three to eight hours per door installation, depending on complexity and your skill level. Additional time may be required to paint an unfinished door or doors.

Vendor support: Low. Vendors who sell doors cannot teach you all the skills required to install a door, so most don’t attempt to. Pre-hung doors are somewhat easier to install and tend to have a moderate level of do-it-yourself support. However, pre-hung doors still require advanced carpentry skills.

Insulation

Many entry doors are now designed with home insulation in mind. Some doors are so well insulated that they meet Energy Star requirements. Insulation provides no benefits to most internal doors, but you should install an insulated door between your attached garage and your home.

Security

Security is important to most homeowners installing a new entry door. Thieves enter by kicking in an entry door in more than 50% of all home burglaries. Perhaps that is because it only takes less than one minute and three kicks to kick open the average residential entry door secured with a deadbolt. With a little effort and investment, you can make your doors more difficult to open and frustrate the burglars. The security of the door is related to four factors:

Door: If security is a concern, you want a door than will not easily splinter or buckle when kicked, hit, or hacked.

Locks: A deadbolt lock that slides its throw into the jamb at least one inch is a minimum requirement for security.

Jambs: A deadbolt does little good if the door jamb that holds it splinters easily. There are a number of products available that will help reinforce your door jamb, and make sure your deadbolt remains secure.

Vulnerability points: It doesn’t make sense to strengthen your doors, locks, and jambs if you leave points of vulnerability, like a glass window next to your door lock. You can eliminate these vulnerability points by replacing all of your ordinary glass with wire-reinforced, laminated, or tempered glass or with plastic. Also, consider installing a perimeter alarm system.

Sound blocking

The hollow core doors frequently used as interior doors have poor sound blocking properties. Replacing them with a solid wood or solid core door will reduce the sound transmission from room-to-room.

Pre-hung vs. unassembled doors

Pre-hung doors are doors that are sold already hinged and hung on a fully assembled set of side and top jambs (if it is an exterior door, a threshold along the bottom is included). Pre-hung doors are the easier to install than unassembled doors. However, in order to install them you have to remove the old door and jambs or create a new rough opening, and that sometimes makes the job more involved than it has to be or creates a different set of problems.

Materials

You have three choices of materials when shopping for a door:

Wood: Solid wooden doors are the most expensive doors. Solid wooden doors also have the solid look and feel of a traditional door. If you want a wood door but don’t want to spend a lot, you have an alternative. Most mass-produced wood doors are made with an engineered-wood core that is faced with a veneer. An advantage is that engineered-wood core doors are less prone to warping and somewhat easier to maintain than solid wood doors. A disadvantage is that veneers are easily damaged, particularly if the veneer is 1/16 inch or thinner.

Steel: Steel doors are the most secure and durable doors sold. The least expensive often have a wood grain pattern embossed on top of the steel. If you spend a little more you’ll get a steel door with wood fiber on the front, which can be stained. The most expensive steel doors are covered with wood veneer.

Fiberglass: If your entry door is subjected to very a lot of sun, rain, or humidity, you would benefit from the durability of a fiberglass door. Fiberglass doors are low maintenance, and can withstand the elements better than any other door material.

Finish

Doors are available either unfinished or pre-finished. Wood doors need to be thoroughly primed prior to finishing. You can finish any door with paint. You can stain a wood door, as well as some fiberglass and steel doors.

Style

Style generally refers to an overall look and feel of a home. Style can reflect a tone like casual, formal, or traditional; style can reflect influences from around the world, like French Country, Japanese, Swedish, or Tuscan. Style is an expression of your personal tastes. A door is one element of an overall design. All of the elements translate to a style. It is important to get the design elements of a home working in concert. You do not want to use a Victorian entry door if your home’s architecture and decorations are modern. There are also certain elements of a home that traditionally relate closely to each other. A door and its doorknobs should have a close design relationship. The entry door usually also relates closely to the front entry light fixture. If you are not familiar with how specific styles are reflected in doors, it is a good idea to go to a door showroom. If you are unsure of what style each door represents, ask a salesperson.