How to Choose an Entry Door

In homes as in personal relationships, nothing beats a great first impression. A high-quality door sets a welcoming tone and raises the perceived value of your entire home as well as provides added security.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Complement your home's architecture with an appropriate door style--moldings and raised panels for a traditional house, sleek lines for contemporary style, ornate carving for a Victorian.

2. Simplify installation with a prehung door, already framed and weather-stripped. Door-replacement kits include steel frame inserts, but are available in fewer sizes than prehung doors.

3. Get out your measurement tape and choose between a standard single door, 32 to 36 inches (81 to 91 cm) wide; an extra-wide door, typically 42 inches (107 cm) wide; or double doors. New homes with higher ceilings look better with 8-foot (2.4 m)-tall entry doors. Keep in mind that changing your existing door size will require costly structural work.

4. Choose a wood door for natural warmth and beauty, but expect it to require maintenance. Wood doors used to warp and crack over time, but today's engineered-wood cores, laminated construction and vapor barriers help keep doors weathertight.

5. Buy a steel door for strength and security. Most new models feature heavy galvanized steel around a wood or steel frame, with a dense polyurethane foam core that insulates almost five times better than wood. Choose standard steel, steel embossed with wood grain or vinyl-clad steel.

6. Select fiberglass composite for the look of wood without its upkeep. These models wrap tough, compression-molded fiberglass around an energy-efficient polyurethane foam core. Paintable and stainable, fiberglass won't rust and resists shrinking and swelling.

7. Brighten your foyer with a glass door panel, transom or sidelights. Frosted, beveled and leaded patterns range from simple to ornate, private to unobstructed. For security and noise reduction, order laminated glass.

8. Complement your door's style and scale with solid brass or bronze handle sets and locks. Pick tarnish-free metal finishes with lifetime guarantees if the door is exposed to weather.

9. Invest in quality materials that will last for decades. Prices vary between manufacturers and according to style, size, material and options. Insulated fiberglass costs more than steel but carries a longer warranty. A 36-by-80-inch (.9 by 2 m) wood door can cost $275 to $3,500, depending on the type of wood, construction, finish and glazing. Paneled single fiberglass doors start at about $600, steel at about $200.

Tips & Warnings

• Save energy with features such as compression weather-stripping, a thermalbreak threshold, an extended sill plate, a triple bottom sweep and a moisture-resistant bottom rail.

• To decide what color, take a picture of your home from across the street. Print several black-and-white copies and use colored pencils to plan different door styles. Or, take a picture with a digital camera, then try out different colors in any graphic editing program.

• Order wood and veneer doors prefinished. Finishes applied on site (paint, varnish and polyurethane) are difficult to maintain on solidwood doors.