Things To Know When Choosing Doors
In older homes the doors can get to looking shabbby. If your exterior doors have seen better days, it is time to look into buying a new door. Since doors face harsh exterior conditions as well as the air conditioned comfort of the interior of your home, they face many different challenges. As a result of the constant shrinking and swelling caused by moisture changes, a door may eventually loose its elasticity and begin to come apart.
While we find most doors are very dependable, after several seasons, and facing sun and rain, the doors may warp, crack or bow. Doors can start to stick and drag or allow cold air to flow into your home.
Modern doors are very different fro the doors of a few years ago. Once, wooden doors were your only option, but now you can find many options for doors. They can be manufactured of wood, fiberglass, steel or even composites.
Many entry doors today are actually sold as entry systems. The system may include the door, door frame and threshold, lock set, hinges and even side windows. The system is already assembled and the door is well weatherstripped along all sides to prevent cold air from leaking in or out. These systems will help to increase the energy efficiency of the home.
Even if you bought a door as recently as ten years ago, you will find that there are many changes in the industry. Doors are now made using combination of wood fiberglass, foam, and wood. Nearly every door you buy today will have a foam layer in the center of the door. The foam helps to provide insulation for the door. You can also find metal doors with wood cores or wood doors with metal cores. Many metal and fiberglass doors have a wood frame.
Doors are classified according to the surface material, no matter what the core is made of. Choosing the surface will determine the cost of the door, its durability, appearance and its security. The internal materials may determine its insulation value.
If the door you choose is flat on both sides it is called a flush door. Flush doors first made their appearance around 1950. Prior to that time, doors had rectangular recesses. Inserted in these recesses were panels, hence the doors were called paneled doors. The original reason for the panels was to keep the doors from warping or cracking. At times glass was used to replace one or more panels of the doors. These windows are properly called doorlites.
Perhaps you are interested in replacing a patio door. Patio doors have a lot of glass incorporated in them to allow you to bring in a little of the outside.
A panel door which has all the panels of wood replaced with glass is a terrace door. Two terrace doors that are in one door opening are called French doors. Patio sliders are made of large sheets of glass. Only one of the patio sliders opens while the other remains stationary.
Annie is an expert furniture and interior design writer. Her current area of specialism is beds, furniture stores and oak coffee table