Recommendations for Fiberglass Exterior Door
Our zone 5 deep energy retrofit included replacement of the front exterior door assembly. Direct southern exposure, no overhang. Wood door from a supposedly quality manufacturer was installed. We were warned against dark paint colors and southern exposure, but the expectation was set that annual maintenance of the finish will be required and adequate.
Less than 3 months with outside exposure … substantial panel, rail, and threshold splitting is happening. The manufacturer is offering to provide new panels and panel trim made of Extira (from a competitor), and recommending the stiles be re-fastened with construction screws. Manufacturer will not pick up the labor costs of the repair.
I’ve seen enough of wood doors and am looking to replace this assembly with a fiberglass option. Who should I be looking at? Therma Tru, Jeld Wen, etc. Thanks much!
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This thread has a lot of useful information: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/a-better-door-and-slider-for-an-energy-efficient-home
The highlights:
"The way the door supply chain works is kind of complicated. In many cases there is a value-added distributor that buy slabs from somebody like jeld-wen and assembles them with hardware and a frame to make a prehung unit, which you then buy from a building supply company or lumber yard. "
"Key takeaway: air sealing is probably more important than R-value for doors."
"Keep in mind that standard exterior doors are only 1.75" thick, so there's a limit to how much r-value you can get. With a solid wood door you might have R-1.5, the glass probably has more insulation that the frame. If you go to a thicker door you're not standard any more, and you have to worry about issues with hardware and mounting."
So the most important part of the door is the air sealing, because standard doors are too thin to have meaningful insulation. But the air sealing isn't done by the manufacturer whose name is on the door, it's done by a distributor. So shopping for door brands for performance isn't really possible.
Agreed that air seal is more important than R value. This was the only reason I agreed to the wood door, which I explained is now failing a mere 6 months in.
I'll check out the other article. BTW that article does not show up in the first few search pages for "door". Cheers
Anecdotally, I can recommend Therma-Tru. I replaced all six of our exterior doors with Therma-Tru fiberglass doors starting ten years ago. Most of them are deeply shaded, but one of the doors is in direct Phoenix sun most of the day.
I've had to refresh the finish on that particular door a few times over the years since no finishes work well in the sun around here, but the slab itself is still in fantastic shape!
So yeah, zero complaints from here on Therma-Tru fiberglass.
Without an overhang, roof or storm door most doors are likely to allow water to get pasted the seals and into your building. I have 2 Masonite brand doors that leaked badly without storm doors.
I spec a lot of ThermaTru doors, and installed two at my own house. Not the highest performance but reasonable, and reasonably priced. You can get them with a 3-point lock if you want extra air sealing, though it's a pricy upgrade. Locally I can get them with a jamb and sill up to 11 1/4" deep, convenient for thick walls.
I'm going to repost something from my post above: " In many cases there is a value-added distributor that buy slabs from somebody like jeld-wen and assembles them with hardware and a frame to make a prehung unit, which you then buy from a building supply company or lumber yard. " (not my words, I copped it from the linked post).
When you buy a door that says ThermaTru or JeldWen, that door wasn't assembled by ThermaTru or JeldWen. It was assembled by the local distributor. The air sealing was put on by the local distributor. The latching mechanism was put on by the local distributor.
So a ThermaTru door in one part of the country is not the same product as one in other parts of the country. Particularly when it comes to the things we care about here. Similarly, if the same local distributor handles multiple brands, you're going to get the same preparation with all of those brands, for better or for worse.
I'm making a point of this, because I find exterior door buying incredibly frustrating, and this is one of the reasons. You can drive all over town looking at different brands of doors, and the sealing and latching on them are all the same, because all the stores are getting their doors from the same distributors. Even the big boys like HD and Lowes get their doors through local distributors. These companies are mostly anonymous but hugely important.
It's an interesting point about the local distributors, but I have to ask do ALL the companies use them? I'm wondering if Andersen, Pella, and the other big window manufacturers who also make doors do that too.
From what I understand doors made by window companies are a completely different distribution system.
My limited experience is that window companies provide the full unit rather than working with a "value-added" distributor. (No offense to the the showroom I bought my windows from, that provided a lot of added value in helping me navigate the choices.)
For the specific question posted, though, I'm going to assume that the doors ARE identical everywhere. Wooba Goobaa says nothing in his post about air sealing or latching or anything of the sort, but rather describes how the door slab is disassembling itself - the panels are splitting and the rails and stiles are coming apart. Given that, he needs a new door slab, not a new door assembly and wouldn't those be identical everywhere?
That is correct, the wood slab is failing. The retailer understood the location into which this door was going. We are not without blame here, but I don't understand why the panel upgrade was not offered at the outset. And given the alarming rate at which this door is failing, the door should not have been presented as an option.
I'm quoting a Therma Tru equivalent for this door and will balance that versus the repair options. Pic of some of the damage is attached.
Wooba Gooba,
FWIW, I have three Therma Tru fiberglass doors that are all a deep red brown. Two are well shielded by porch roofs and the third east facing is set much like your south door, no over hang and full sun until about 2-3pm in the summer. This door is surviving fine as a door, not so much for paint and definitely not the jamb. I have no way of knowing if the jamb was Therma Tru or added by the vendor I got the window/door package from.
The jamb is a major fail in my opinion. It leaks in heavy rain and the side jamb wood is sucking up water that hangs on the threshold thanks to small ridges meant to provide some traction. The metal exterior threshold's profile and setting into the side jambs pretty much guarantees water will enter the inside at the corners. The weather stripping tracks water down to the intersection of the adjustable door seal and the threshold which means the channel for the adjustable door seal fills up with water. I have been forced to put a storm door on it to keep out driving rain and keep snow from piling up against it which further aggravates the leaking. The weather stripping has foam inside that acts like a sponge to further supply water leakage after the rain stops.
Perhaps they have adjusted the design in the 6-7 years since this unit was offered, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have not. I have pulled out too many doors over the years with similar failures to have much hope. I would look very closely for thermally broken thresholds that provide a raised lip or something that prevents water from draining in at the corners. I seem to recall promotions from Anderson (?) showing synthetic materials on the lower part of the side jambs. At least this way, setting the threshold into a slot on the side jambs doesn't give water a capillary path to eventual rot.
When I go looking for my next doors, I intend to look at ProVia which does offer lifetime warranty (with fine print of course) and synthetic jamb materials. I haven't taken time to see what R values are available. I do like the fiberglass over metal even when the metal is foam filled because the sun seems to warm the fiberglass much less. Some fiberglass doors have very realistic wood graining molded in, which if finished properly make them look less fake. The metal to metal perimeter frame detail in the one door I have experienced brought the heat to the inside perimeter of the door. Mid field was okay.
Anyone able to share pro/con re: Provia fiberglass exterior doors, interaction with Provia, etc.