The Importance Of Entry Doors For Your Home
Installing a new front entry door for your home is important, in several ways. Everyone knows about the value of curb appeal. Your home’s visual impact can make a huge difference, not only to its resale price, but also the impression it makes, on friends and strangers alike.
The Perfect Entry Door
Your entry door should be the visual focal point of your frontage. It should also make your house safe and secure, at the same time as being an eye-catcher. We often discuss, at length, the “need-to-knows” surrounding replacement windows and their significance.
This time, let’s focus on the various aspects and details with regard to entry doors for your home. This, of course, can include not only the front entrance, but also your rear garden and patio entrances.
Read more about patio doors.
Doorways play such a crucial role in our everyday lives. Let’s take a look at some of the considerations and options available to you when you’re thinking about replacement or installation of new entry doors for your home.
Options For Entry Doors For Your Home
Like replacement windows, installation of new entry doors for your home comes with a myriad of options, styles, colours, and technical details. Too often, homeowners focus on just the colour, and of course, you want your front entrance, or back for that matter, to be inviting and eye-catching. There are, however, other important considerations which should not be overlooked.
Steel, Fiberglass, or Wood Entry Door
Wood doors, although classic in visual appearance, are, in general, a poorer choice for your entry door. When comparing wood with steel or fiberglass doors, they will almost always come up short, in terms of durability, security, and energy efficiency.
The newer technologies have them beat in almost all respects. Just about everyone, for example, has had to deal with a door that doesn’t seem to fit the frame; this sort of warpage over time is just typical of many types of wood doors. Add the fact that wood can still be the most expensive of the three options, and you have very good reasons to seek alternatives.
By contrast, both steel and fiberglass entry doors are, in general, inherently superior to wood in most regards, including those listed above.
Energy Efficiency
It would be a shame to have newly installed, energy-efficient windows throughout your home, only to have your entry doors leaky and drafty all through the seasons. Good quality steel and fiberglass entry doors have significant R-factor engineered into them, along with tight seals which ensure less energy loss and lower heating and cooling bills. Wood doors simply cannot match either, when it comes to limiting heat transfer.
Read about Understanding Window Energy Performance Rating
Security Matters
Security for your entry doors – front, rear, and side, should always be top of mind. Once again, steel and fiberglass can have security upgrades designed right into their attractive looks. Here, steel entry doors probably have the edge in over-all security, versus fiberglass. Nevertheless, both options, when of quality construction and installation, offer excellent protection for your home, its occupants and contents.
Make Sure Your New Entry Doors Will Last
As far as overall durability, both steel and fiberglass entry door systems, properly manufactured and installed, should provide you with years or even decades of dependable service life. Manufacturers’ warranty, coupled with the warranty offered by the installer, ensure that, as long as you choose a competent contractor with a good reputation and track record, you will get a long life out of your entry door, whether steel or fiberglass. Make sure you check all the options; choose quality up front, and upgrades that contribute to long-term performance of all your entry doors.
Installed Cost – Steel and Fiberglass Entry Door Systems
There is such a wide range of entry door styles, designs and configurations, in both steel and fiberglass (and even wood to some extent), that it can be difficult to nail down an exact price comparison. Options such as insulating value, thickness, and hardware, can drive the installed costs up or down, depending on what you choose.
At the end of the day, both steel and fiberglass make for solid choices for your new entry doors, at similar price points.
Steel and Fiberglass Entry Doors Are Quality Choices
Here in Markham, for instance, where we are located, just take a drive around, and you will see a plethora of beautiful entry door designs, complementing and accenting the homes they front. It can be a little bit daunting for the homeowner to make a decision on which entry door system is the right one. This is especially true when you add rear and side doors to the equation. That’s why it never hurts to get hold of an expert. Ask a lot of questions; there’s no such thing as a bad one, when your money is at stake.
At the end of the day, you want your entry doors to look great, be secure and durable, and fit your budget. A top-quality entry door professional should be more than happy to help.
Get in touch with Comfort Windows & Doors to inquire about entry doors for your home.
