Not many of us can afford a beautifully crafted front door like this, but it shows how a door can speak volumes about the owners.
How to choose a new front door
By George Jensen-Jones
a new front door can make a tremen- dous difference to the image your home projects. Front doors should be functional
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and beautiful, providing good weather protection and a measure of security. Choosing a new door takes some care- ful thought and consideration. To begin with, decide whether you
are just adding a door panel or a whole door system. The actual doors, being a panel usually between 32 inches and 36 inches wide, are relatively inexpensive, ranging in cost from $200 to $1,000 depending on the material and qual- ity of the product – fibreglass, steel or wood. What really adds to the cost is replac-
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hether you are planning to stay in your home for years to come or thinking of selling,
ing the entire door system, which includes the frame for a pre-hung door and any side windows, as well as the hardware: doorknobs, locks and such. This can take the cost up to five times the cost of the actual panel. Glass insets in the door itself will also add substan- tially to the cost. When adding a simple door panel,
be sure to measure carefully. In spite of the “standard” door opening label, there are variations depending on when the home was built and the needs of the former owner. The home may also have shifted, adding a complication to installation that it will take an expert to manage. Try to buy a new door from the company that made the old one: that should minimize the difficulty of fitting the new panel into the old frame. There are differing opinions about
whether the door should swing in or out. Inward-swinging doors are the norm here because builders and regula- tors were seeking to make the door safe from burglars, who in earlier times could otherwise just slip out the pin-hanging system and remove the whole door to gain entry. Inward-swinging doors have the pins on the inside. Today, though, pins can be made impossible to remove, and outward-swinging doors can turn out to be a good security measure because they are almost impossible to kick in. With inward-swinging doors, one
good kick in the right spot is the most common method of entry for invad- ers. And the lock systems you install are little guarantee against this type of intrusion. Choosing the material your door will
Home and Gardener Living • 25
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