Short Guide for Replacing Your Front Door

Buying a front door seems like rather simple task, but only at the first glance. Like any other thing in existence, life found its way to make even this more complicated than it should have been. For example every entry door should be able to withstand a lot of abuse and harsh conditions, ranging from heavy rain to scorching sun, keep potential burglars and intruders out and remain good looking so it can make a good impression on all guests who are entering your house. Enough to give you a headache yet? Still, with all the heavy duty front doors are taking, they deserve equal amount of care so here are few tips for replacing them.

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Making Preparations for New Door
First of all, we have to point out that replacing or renovating door rarely includes only exchanging one door slab with another. That’s why you will have to look very carefully for all the imperfections, because it is entirely possible that you will have to replace whole door framing. So, if you don’t check is the wooden frame rotten or are the wall studs bowed and out of square, your money will be wasted and your buying won’t be worthwhile. Still, you can fit new door into out-of-kilter frame, but you will have to plane the top and bottom or trim some of the edges in order to hang them correctly.

Choosing the Right Material
Before proceeding to stylistic decisions, which people tend to give most attention to, we will have to take a short break and talk about door materials, which are, in the end most important factor that will determine quality of your front door. Let us stroll through some of them:

• Wood – This is the most widely used material and its beauty and versatility certainly contributed to this fact but because of its vulnerability to moisture and sun, if you opt for wood, check its condition at least once per year. Still, some of the wood doors are veneer skins applied over an engineered wood or steel core, which helps them to resist warping, a common problem of this type of material, without sacrificing their quality of being able to take almost any kind of stain or paint.

• Steel – Opposite to wood, steel won’t wrap nor crack over time, but, unfortunately, it can dent and if the dent is big enough it can be cause for replacement. Minor damages can be dealt with some paint and auto-body repair kit. Depending of what kind of core they have, steel doors can be more or less energy efficient, but generally they are not that suitable for extreme climates.

• Fiberglass – This material is tough and maintenance-friendly, so it is very well suited for harsh or humid climate. From the outside it can mimic the look and feel of wood with grain texture, but beneath the molded surface, there is foam core, which is an excellent insulator.

Visual Appearance
After you’ve found your ideal material you will finally have a chance to play with exterior design and make some decisions regarding these two factors.

• Style – While panel doors (made out of four horizontal rails and three stiles) and flush doors (simple solid slab) are most commonly used choices you can still have some fun with French doors for extra wide entrances. In a recent chat with Furniture Down Under doors supplier we found out that even the pocket doors which slide into the wall when opened are becoming very popular solution because they don’t take any space on the ground which makes traffic much easier. If you want classier feel, carved-wood doors are your way to go.

• Color – If you want to follow unwritten conventions your front door would have to accompany outdoor look and color scheme of your house. Going in the opposite direction will make interesting contrast though, so if you paint doors in bright and garish colors you can create more interesting and merrier atmosphere. Just keep in mind that colors tend to look bolder indoors because natural sunlight drastically changes how some of them look. Find some sample surface and paint it in different tones and color densities to find solution that suits you the most.

Now that you know what are the questions that you have to answer and you have a few hints of how to answer them correctly, we hope that your life will be if just a bit easier and replacement of old front door nothing but a breeze. Look through all the options, search for things that will fit your own vision, consult professionals if necessary and we are sure everything will be OK.

By: Diana Smith