Choosing the right material for your front door

Choosing the right material for your front door

Planning on buying a new front door, but don’t know whether you should get something in wood, fiberglass or steel? Here’s a brief overview to help you understand the differences between them and make the right choice for you.

As we’ve talked about before, sprucing up your front door is an investment worth every penny! If you’re looking to fully replace your front door, you’ll need to consider the issue from all angles to make sure you get a good, durable material.

 

Insulation

Solid wood doors usually offer less insulation than fiberglass or steel. This is because they contain little or no insulation material within them, unlike, say, fiberglass doors, which contain insulated foam. Fiberglass is still not as insulated as steel, however, as fiberglass doors are usually built with thicker panels, which leaves less room for insulation. Steel is at the front of the pack, especially high‑performance versions. Novatech High Performance doors installed without a doorglass or with triple‑glazed glass offer unrivalled energy performance compared to other doors on the Canadian market, which can be a huge asset during winter. Time to shut the front door on cold air!

Porte NHP

High Performance Door

 

Durability and Weatherproofing

Steel doors take the cake when it comes to keeping in air and withstanding the trials and tribulations of everyday life. To start, they are highly resistant to swings in temperature. Some models even come with a magnetic system to maintain your door’s airtight seal even as the door shrinks during a cold snap. The only caveat is that scratches are more likely to show up on steel, although they rarely penetrate very deep and can be easily painted over. Fiberglass tends to warp more as it contains plastic: that means that when it’s hot, the material expands, and when it's cold, it can shrink, causing air leakage. Fiberglass also holds up well to impacts, though less so to scratches. Wooden doors have a strong seal but are more vulnerable to humidity, which can undermine their structural integrity. Wood also requires more maintenance to stay in good condition over the years.

One of our clients swapped out her wooden front door for a high‑performance steel model. Read all about how happy she is with her decision in our post: Front Door Refresh with Novatech!

 

Price

Fiberglass doors are more expensive than steel, as they have more elaborate finishes. Wood doors are also becoming increasingly expensive, as the price of wood has jumped in the past few years.

 

Aesthetics

There are a couple different ways to give your front door that special touch, such as paint, decorative elements or glass inserts. This last option also lets more natural light into your home. When it comes to painting your front door, there isn’t much difference between steel and fiberglass. Wooden doors on the other hand are usually chosen for their natural look and colour so that the wood grain is the star. That said, there’s no reason you can’t paint a wooden door in whatever colour you want. As for decorative elements, they give a breathtakingly modern look to steel doors and allow you to create different configurations to match your taste and personality. Although decorative elements are compatible with fiberglass, they work better with steel finishes. We don’t recommend using them with wooden doors.

Check out our stainless steel decorative elements for inspiration!

 

Think a steel door with all its benefits just might be for you? Novatech has several different models that are top of the class in durability and energy efficiency. Take a look here.