How would you define a “Pretty Good” front door?
Trying to pick a front door for our house. It’s a large opening, and we’re planning for a front door that includes sidelites and a top-lite/transom above the door. So it’s simultaneously a door and a window.
I have a decent sense of what to look for in a pretty good house window, but am struggling with the front door. Ideally, I’d like to use a solid wood front door, but it seems like this means definitionally I’d top out at about R2 performance (assuming wood has an R value of ~R1 / inch).
Alternatively I can find doors that are made of foam sandwiched inside a shell of steel or aluminum with a faux wood wrap applied on top. Or something similar made out of fiberglass or PVC. All look kinda ugly if I’m being totally honest.
I have been unsuccessful in finding a door made of foam sandwiched within a real wood veneer on both sides — do these exist?
What have others chosen for their front door on a Pretty Good House?
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Replies
I think high-performance wood doors are an oxymoron just like wood windows or "high efficiency" small duct HVAC systems. They will never have the high R-values (>R4) that vinyl, or even better, fiberglass can achieve. And they're probably more expensive. You can get a fiberglass door with no lites up to R10. And you can probably gang some R10 windows along the side and top and make it look unified. If you are set on having a real wood door, consider some arrangement with two sets of doors. One wooden door that enters into some sort of unconditioned vestibule area and then a better insulated door to open into the conditioned area of the home.
Check out Duxton, a Canadian Manufacturer of fiberglass doors. I haven’t seen them in person, but their website and catalog is impressive.
For patio doors and other "back" doors I always try to use the window manufacturer's door line; they typically have good performance numbers, they just don't look convincingly like a traditional wood entry door. When appropriate (i.e., when clients let me) I use them for entry doors as well. That could be Marvin or another North American brand, or it could be a European brand, which has doors that look a little different from typical North American doors. Performance and cost should feature highly compared to preconceived ideas of aesthetics, in my opinion.
Not all of my clients will go for those options, though. At my own house, an old farmhouse, and for many clients, I use ThermaTru insulated doors, with or without insulated glass. They perform somewhere around R-8, which is pretty good, or less the more glass there is, since they aren't available with triple glazing. I spec their Smooth-Star line which has crisp, traditional details. Their weak point is their gasketing and latching systems, which allow air to leak at the corners. They have an optional 3-pt latch which used to be a huge upcharge but it's now pretty reasonable and helps greatly with long-term air-sealing. Any door should be airtight the day it's installed, but over time the door can warp and gaskets get stiff or shrink. I nearly always use Smooth-Star doors for attached garages.
If you really want a solid wood door, I often use Simpson Door Company. They have a wide range of styles and details and have been doing it long enough that they don't make a ton of mistakes. (A recent order that took five tries to get right had more to do with the local distributor who couldn't get my custom jamb depth right.) They used to have an optional foam panel between wood panels but I don't usually end up with that. I would not use this kind of door if you're going to spend any time next to it, as it will feel cold, and it does waste energy, so I try to only use them when the walls, windows and other doors are all as good as they can reasonably be.
There are plenty of other options out there and I encourage you to stretch your aesthetic desires as far as you can to get higher performance. There are many other options out there; these are just the ones I have the most experience with.