We are fortunate that modern methods in manufacturing present an ever proliferating number of choices for front door materials. The three that are most well-known to most people are steel, wood and fiberglass.
By far the most popular, steel doors, are an excellent choice for safety and resistance to humidity or heat. High quality steel doors can contain an insulating core that increase the R-factor, or insulation rating, of such doors. The only drawback is that steel is unable to replicate the classical aesthetics of the wood door. The wood door is second in popularity, behind steel because it's slightly pricier. Wood is also highly craftable, available in a wide-range of styles, sizes and designs. The drawback to wood is that it's not robust against sun light, which break down chemical bonds in the cellulose.
Wood is also affected by humidity. The last of the three, fiberglass, stand somewhere between steel and wood in terms of these considerations.
Fiberglass itself is an interesting composite material, made of up fine fibers of glass that bonded by polymer resins. It is used heavily with mold-assisted manufacturing to produce a rather large number of products such as skis, helmets, boats and car parts. The versatility of fiberglass, its aesthetic qualities and its low cost are reasons it has been incorporated into some many products.
The same qualities have lead to the production of fiberglass entry doors. Manufacturers have exploited properties of the material to make it mimic wood to startling likeness. As a result, wood textures such as oak, cherry and mahogany can be replicated to high accuracy even under trained eyes. A fiberglass entry door is also very light, able to accommodate an insulating core like steel doors. This leads to impressive R-factors that rival those of the insulating steel doors. Finally, because the material is so resistant to moisture, most doors made of fiberglass will be highly resistant to cracking, peeling and warping.
However, low quality products can still suffer from these problems.
There are many possibilities when it comes to a specific choice. For example, if the homeowner is interested in an entrance from the house to the back yard patio that also lets in a lot of light, a fiberglass french door would be perfect. The glass panels of the french door mean that light spills into the house, and people inside can keep an eye on what's happening outside. Homeowners may also purchase comprehensive entry systems that consist of not only the door, but the frame (or jamb), threshold, transom and side lites (technical term for the small glass panels).
Door systems increase the consistency of the aesthetic qualities. Homeowners who concurrently own cars may find a fiberglass garage door to be quite useful. These have many of the same functional properties of entry doors. Famous manufacturers have garage doors and fiberglass doors have banded together to make such possibilities.
Vernon Stanford is an amateur home improvement hobbyist who has been contributing to a site that gives information on fiberglass french doors and also about fiberglass garage doors.
