How Wood Entry Doors Can Have Different Durability
Are you looking to purchase a new wood entry door for your home? Know that not all wood doors are created equally. Here is what you need to know about the differences between a low, medium, and high-quality wood door.
Low-Quality Wood Doors
If you see a wood door made out of a wood veneer, it likely is one of the least durable materials for a wood door that you could get. This is because the wood is made up of multiple pieces that are glued together, with sections joined together only at the dowel pins. As the different pieces of wood absorb moisture at different rates, the wood door will swell and separate, which will cause it to rot quickly.
A veneer wood door should only be used in situations where you have full protection from the weather, which does not make it a great choice as an entry door. A low-quality door can instead be used under a covered patio, or for a door that separates a home from an attached garage and is not as affected by the weather.
Medium Quality Wood Door
You'll see quite a difference in craftsmanship as you move up to a medium-quality wood door. The part of a wood door that is most likely to be damaged is the bottom rail, and you'll start seeing doors that have a bottom rail made out of solid lumber. Not having a core or wood joints glued together is going to make it much stronger than those glued-together pieces. When sections of the wood frame are glued together, you won't just have glue being used at the dowel pins. Instead, there will be glue across all of the joints so that there is a solid seal between sections.
The vertical components of the door may have a core within them, but a composite material is used along the bottom. This helps give those vertical components extra protection near the bottom, where the door is more likely to get wet and damaged.
High-Quality Wood Door
What makes a wood door premium is that it is constructed with solid lumber. You won't have any cores, edge strips, or veneers on the wood door that are a point of weakness. That said, solid wood doors will still have two pieces of wood glued together on each side to give them strength and stability. There are also mortise and tenon joints that are held together by a dowel that goes through the entire door.
Since a solid wood door is made out of higher quality materials, you'll often see a warranty for them that provides coverage for doors in unprotected doorways. This can give you peace of mind that your entryway door is going to last a long time.