What choices do I have when selecting a door for my home or non-residential project?
Answer: That depends on where the door will be used, its function and, to no little degree, on design considerations.
Question: How many different styles of door can there be to choose from?
Answer: Doors come in a wide variety of styles, but there are a few basic types that will fulfill most needs. These include wood exterior entrance doors which are most frequently stile & rail doors, interior passage doors which are most frequently flush doors, French or casement doors, swinging or sliding patio doors, louver doors and screen doors.
Question: Since it has more layers, is a 7-ply door better than a 5-ply door?
Answer: There are two schools of thought on that. Some feel that more layers make a better door. Others point out that since the thickness of each ply is varied so that the total thickness of the “skin” remains the same for both the 5-ply and 7-ply door, there is no real difference in the amount of material provided. What really determines the quality of the door is the strength of framing and joining used, and the quality of the materials that make up the “skin”.
Question: Just what is an exterior entrance door?
Answer: As the name implies, it is a door that allows entrance into a home or non-residential building. As such, the door must perform in a manner that allows ingress and egress, but keeps the outside elements from penetrating into the interior. The doors are commonly of stile & rail construction. This construction type is very sturdy and features heavy, exposed framing members, with inset panels of wood or glass. The vertical members are the “styles”, and the horizontal members are the “rails”. Sometimes flush doors are used for entry doors. Flush doors have a smooth surface with the core framing of the door covered by two or three layers of “ply” on either side that form the skin over the core and frame. The outermost ply is the veneer. If the door has two layers on each side of the core it is referred to as a 5-ply door. If it has three layers, it is a 7-ply (3 layers outside + core + 3 more layers = 7 ply).
