home improvement guy

Real wood entry doors are the most attractive, but even high-quality ones require regular maintenance and eventually need to be replaced. A stainable or painted fiberglass door filled with foam insulation is attractive and more efficient than solid wood.

Because many new styles of front doors have decorative glass, the efficiency of the glass inserts is more important than the insulation value of door material itself. Still, any insulated area is better than solid wood.

Air leaks around an old warped door are generally more of an efficiency problem than the insulation value of the door construction. If you can feel the air leaking in around the door, it is in bad shape. Most often, you need to hold a stick of lighted incense or a candle near it to detect the air movement through leaky weatherstripping.

Insulated fiberglass doors remain airtight over their life. Fiberglass is basically glass fibers in a polymer resin, so it doesn’t absorb moisture and doesn’t swell. If a darkly stained fiberglass door is exposed to the sun, the hot side can expand and make it bow, but it quickly returns to its initial shape when it cools.

A properly stained fiberglass entry door is difficult to distinguish from real wood until you feel it. Natural wood-grain rollers press deep graining into the fiberglass surface. It weighs is much less than a real wood door, so hinges wear less and remain true.

All fiberglass door manufacturers offer staining kits for their doors. It is best to use a kit from the manufacturer, because there might be something unique about its surface material. Fiberglass is durable, but the stained finish will fade over time if exposed to intense sun. When restaining, always use a new staining kit, because there is a limited shelf life for the old kit materials.

As you shop for a fiberglass door, you will hear salesmen tell you that the type of insulation is important. Some manufacturers use preformed foam panels that are placed inside the skins before assembly. Others inject foam in the finished hollow door. There is not a great difference in the efficiency of these systems.

The best option for decorative glass in the door is triple panes, which result in two insulating air gaps. One of the most efficient is a decorative plastic pane between two flat glass panes. This makes it easy to clean and more secure from break-ins, and it looks like real beveled or leaded glass.