Entrance Doors To A Private House: Nuances Of Choice

 

When choosing a door for a private home, the owners will have to solve the problem of the optimal ratio of price, reliability and heat insulating properties. There are many variants, each of them has pros and cons. In this article we will consider the main types of entrance doors in terms of the listed requirements and help to determine the best one, as well as tell you what to pay attention to when choosing.

 

What should be the entrance door to a private house: basic requirements

Good entrance doors meet two main requirements:

 

<![if !supportLists]>●       <![endif]>They provide reliable protection against intrusion;

<![if !supportLists]>●       <![endif]>prevent cold air from entering the room from the street.

 

These qualities depend, firstly, on the properties of the material from which the door is made, and secondly, on the features of the construction, in particular, the presence of insulation.

 

Entrance doors are most often made of metal, reinforced with PVC profile, natural wood.

 

What to pay attention to when choosing an insulated entrance door

As can be seen, the construction with thermal break can be considered an optimal variant of the entrance door for a country house. This popular solution is available in the collections of many manufacturers like Top Doors, but not all models can meet the requirements of the owners. Reliability, thermal insulation properties and other performance characteristics of the door depends on its design features, and they should be considered when choosing.

 

Thickness of steel

 

The door leaf is made of steel sheets of different thicknesses. On the one hand, the use of thin sheet metal makes the construction cheaper, on the other hand, it reduces its reliability. A door made of steel with thickness less than 1.2 mm will not protect against intruders: it can be broken in without using sophisticated tools. To fully protect the house from uninvited guests, choose a sheet metal canvas no thinner than 1.5 mm.

 

The same applies to the door frame: the thicker the metal, the more reliable it is. In the best models, it is made of steel profile with a thickness of at least 3-5 mm.

 

Thermal insulation material

 

It is its properties that provide the effect of thermal break. Therefore, it depends on the material how well the door will retain heat. The more thermally insulating layers the cake contains, the better it will smooth out the temperature difference. High-quality doors with thermal break have 4-6 inserts (for example, twice alternating foil-coated resin and polystyrene foam). The total thickness of insulation cake - not less than 4 cm.

 

Ribs of rigidity

 

The stiffening ribs increase the door leaf resistance to different types of loads. They can be horizontal and vertical. The former provide resistance to pressure, the latter do not allow to bend the upper or lower edge of the leaf. The most reliable doors are equipped with a combined vertical-horizontal system of ribs.

 

Reinforced hinges

 

To hold a heavy metal door, reinforced hinges are required. They also provide additional burglary protection. The best properties are the hidden cylinder hinges. They can withstand the heavy weight of the door, preventing its sagging. Concealed hinges are almost impossible to knock out or cut. Their disadvantage is that they do not allow to open the door more than 90 °.

 

Lock

 

The resistance of the door to burglary depends in half on the properties of the locking mechanism. Mate Locksmith Inc. claims that there should be at least two locks and preferably of the souvald type (cylindrical mechanism is not so reliable, its elements are prone to freezing). It is worth paying attention to the burglar resistance class: for a metal entrance door to the house choose III or IV.

 

Presence of anti-removable pins

 

To increase reliability, iron entrance doors for private homes are equipped with anti-removal pins. They are fixed at the end of the leaf and in the closed position enter into the box openings. Thanks to the anti-removable pins, an intruder will not be able to remove the door, even if he manages to pick the lock or cut the hinges.

 

Exterior Finish

 

Outdoor decoration should not only give the door an aesthetic appearance, but also protect the metal from corrosion, to withstand rainfall, sunlight, heat and cold. Optimally, these properties are combined with hammer color - the most common type of coating.

 

Doors with a natural wood finish are very beautiful, but not every owner can afford the price. Materials imitating solid wood (chipboard and similar) are not able to withstand external influences and quickly become unusable.