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| Doors can provide security and beauty to a home. |
ByANDREA ESTRADA
South Coast Beacon
Your front door is hardly the most complicated architectural component in your house but it may be the most visible.
Think about it. Everyone who steps into the entryway, from the pizza delivery guy to your mother-in-law, sees that one design element.
The right style door can make or break the look of the entire exterior. Even a fresh paint job or newly planted flower beds look aged and weathered next to the dings, gouges and faded color of an old door.
Fortunately, installing a new door is a relatively easy proposition once you choose the size, style and type.
The first question to ask yourself is whether you want a plain door or a pre-hung model.
"You can buy a door only and put it in the existing jamb," said Joey Almeida of Hayward Door & Window Showroom. "You just switch out the hinges and buy a lock that will fit into what's already in the jamb."
A pre-hung door comes with an entirely new jamb, new weatherstripping and new hinges, he added.
Almeida advises against trying to hang a new front door yourself because it's too easy to miscalculate on measurements.
"If it's off a 16th or an 18th of an inch it's not going to close right," he said. "And if you're planing it improperly you can ruin the whole thing. That's not as true on a prehung door where everything is replaced, but using an existing jamb is hard."
The next thing to decide is the kind of door you want, and what you choose depends on how much exposure the door will have to wind, rain and direct sunlight.
"Ninety-five percent of the doors we sell are made out of wood and so many people want to put a clear finish on it to show the wood grain. But if it gets a lot of sun and water it will require a lot of on-going maintenance," said Almeida.
Paint is the best protective coating you can put on a door, he continued, and your choice of stain or paint determines the kind of wood you'll want. Mahogany and oak take well to clear stain as do cherry, maple and alder.
Front doors come in two main styles: slab and stile and rail. A slab door, whether solid or hollow core, is one piece. A stile and rail door has separate sections that come together at finger joints at the top and bottom.
When painting or staining stile and rail doors it is important to coat not just the front and back of the door but the top and bottom as well. These areas come into a lot of contact with moisture that can seep into the wood and cause it to warp or the joints to buckle.
Although most doors are constructed of wood, many now are being made of synthetic materials such as fiberglass or composite materials like medium-density fiberboard.
ñTheyÍre for when you want the beauty of an oak door but not the maintenance,î said Almeida. ñWe also have composite materials that look like cherry wood. In a lot of the tract housing in Goleta, theyÍre using fiberglass or steel doors. Some of the fiberglass doors come with a 25-year warranty.î
A good fiberglass door costs roughly the same as a wood door but steel doors are significantly more expensive than either. A fairly plain panel door ranges from $200 to more than $2,000 depending on the type of wood and the design elements.
ñThe more decorative glass you use and the more circles and arches, the more expensive they are,î Almeida said. ñSometimes there will be as many as 200 pieces of glass that have been fused together.î
In doors that have caming and leaded glass panels, the window is usually triple-glazed for safety and noise factors, he continued. The decorative panel is sandwiched between sheets of glass that protect it and make it easy to keep clean.
Whether you choose a solid door, one with a single window, sets of windows or even side light windows that run the length of the door, depends on the amount of money you want to spend and the look you want to achieve. Most popular right now are the Southwest-style rustic designs with real or faux knot holes, dark hardware and an aesthetically distressed appearance.
ñ(That style) has lasted a lot longer than I thought it would,î said Almeidar, ñthough in Santa Barbara that makes sense because of the local architecture.î
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