The traditional choice for doors in the home is wood. Wood offers a warm heavy solid feel and loads of character. A large framed door with deep, raised and fielded panels can look fabulous. It is an excellent choice. Wood does however need tender loving care and attention form to time. If the wooden door is a bit older and made from solid timbers it will be prone to swelling and contracting, depending on the weather. The end result of this is that the door will warp and twist making it ill fitting and therefore it may not close properly or may be draughty. More recent wood doors are now made using a process known as engineered. This door making process produces wooden doors that are more stable. The maintenance issue is still there though.
Steel Type Doors
Nowadays, exterior metal doors, such as steel, are becoming more popular. They are stronger than wooden doors and offer good home security. Steel type doors were the reserve of commercial exterior metal doors, such as in factories and shops or used as exterior metal entry doors. With burglaries, break-ins etc. becoming regular occurrences almost everwhere people are looking towards more secure doors. A steel door will offer higher degrees of security especially if fitted with high security multi point locking systems. There are different grades some offering better security than others.
Steel doors are constructed using a steel tubing inner frame for added strength and over laid with heavy gauge steel sheet. The edges of the sheets are folded and sealed or welded. All steels on exterior steel doors are galvanised for corrosion free life. The core of a metal exterior door is usually filled will injected polyurethane foam however other fillers such as solid timber and other light weight materials e.g. mineral wool or Dufaylite which is a honeycomb product are also used by some manufacturers. The mineral wool and foam fillings offer energy efficient qualities reducing heat loss. Exterior metal doors are often supplied pre-hung in a frame with the ironmongery fitted. Prehung exterior metal doors fit perfectly every time and are easy to install.
Unlike some wooden doors, a steel door will not shrink, warp, swell or twist. They fit perfectly every time with an air tight seal. This is achieved as the weather seals incorporate magnetic strips that provide a perfect seal to the steel. The doors come simply with a smooth plain finish or embossed wood grain, incorporating imitation wood panels. The only down side is that the folds in the pressed panels do not have the sharp edges typically found on timber door panels. Glazed panels can be added incorporating energy efficient and safety glass. The overall unit requires very little maintenance.
Lovely collection of steel doors
The doors are primed for you to apply a paint finish on site or they can be prefinished with a polyester powder coating to a very high standard in a range of colours.