Reno Diary #9: I Buy an Entry Door: How to Choose the Right One
Updated: Aug 31
6 days to close.
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Your front entry door has a surprisingly difficult job.
It protects your home. It lowers your energy bills. It keeps you safe. And before anyone steps inside, it tells them something about the people who live there.
Until I replaced the rear door in my condo, I never gave exterior doors a thought. They just came with my other homes and I lived with them as is.
But, once the new rear entry door was installed in the condo, the kitchen, once a sad, dark, lonely place, was flooded with light. Plants grew in the kitchen rather than dying. Suddenly the kitchen became the room everyone gathered in.
It was the first time I'd realized that an exterior door could completely change how a room felt to live in. I wanted to apply that lesson in my house.
How to Choose an Entry Door
Style
The type of exterior door you choose depends in part on what side of your house the door is located. Front entry doors are usually more decorative because they're part of your home's curb appeal. Side and rear entry doors are often simpler—and usually less expensive.
There are exceptions to the placement rule. The most common is when your home is on a corner lot, where the front entry door faces one street and the side entry door faces the cross street. In this scenario, most homeowners will select two front entry doors.
Materials
The most common exterior door materials are wood, fiberglass, and steel.
Wood doors come in a wide variety of woods, add visual warmth to your home, and can be customized in an enormous variety of ways. Because they are a natural material, they require more upkeep than steel or fiberglass, and they can crack and/or warp over time.
Fiberglass doors have a painted finish, are less customizable than wood, and lack wood’s warm natural look, but they are stronger, more durable, and more weather-resistant than wood. They also provide the best insulation of all three door types. If properly maintained, fiberglass exterior doors can last up to 70 years.
Steel doors can last up to 100 years if properly maintained and are stronger than wood or fiberglass.
If cost is a consideration, you can find entry doors at many price points. In general, custom wood doors are the most expensive; fiberglass, the least expensive, and steel somewhere in between.
Door Swing
No matter what kind of entry door you buy, it’s essential to know that the door swing will work in your space. Exterior doors most often swing in (i.e., the door swings into your home’s interior), but depending on your entrance, your front entry door may swing to the right (right hand in swing) or to the left (left hand in swing). What most often determines a right or left hand swing is what the door will swing into
Hint: you don’t want your door to swing into a window.
Don’t ask.
Slab Versus Pre-Hung Doors
In addition to materials, your overall cost for your exterior door is influenced by what you get with that door. When you buy a slab door, what you get is a door. That’s it.
If a slab door is, well, just a door, why would you want one?
You’ve probably seen home reno shows where the decorator finds a fabulous wooden antique door and decides to restore it. Essentially, that is an example of a slab door. In this scenario, the home owner gets a one-of-a-kind door and a great story about where it came from. The drawbacks are that it will require more maintenance and not be as strong or well-insulated as a fiberglass or steel door.
Slab doors are also more difficult to install because the existing door frame must be adjusted to fit the door, requiring extra expertise and time.
Most homeowners are better off buying a pre-hung entry door, which includes the door, frame, and hinge hardware. These doors are much easier to install because you’re essentially attaching the door frame to the door opening, which is much less challenging than a slab door installation.
Whether you choose a slab or pre-hung entry door, installation usually requires that the interior and exterior trim around the door be removed first. You can ask the installer to try to salvage the old trim or buy new trim in advance and have the installer cut it to fit your new door. I’ve had mixed results when salvaging old trim—for my last two renos I opted for new trim because it makes installation easier, less costly, and more fool-proof.
Other Door Do’s and Don’ts
Most exterior pre-hung doors come with a sill (the bottom component of a door frame) and a threshold over the sill to close the gap between the door and the sill and seal the door opening when the door is closed. The threshold is what creates that satisfying “whoosh” you hear when your well-fitted entry door closes.
Pre-hung exterior doors usually come with a pre-drilled door knob hole but rarely come with door knobs, knob locks, deadbolts, etc. Many sellers will offer a selection of knobs and deadbolts as a convenience to customers. I bought mine (Schlage Bowery Knob and the matching Schlage Deadbolt) on Amazon.
If you want to simplify your entry door purchase, buy from a trusted source (one of the Big Box stores like Lowes or Home Depot, a specialty store like Marvin or Pella, etc.). They’ll ask you all the right questions to make sure they include everything in your order that’s necessary to install your door from start to finish.
Because once the old door is removed, the toothpaste is definitely out of the tube.
Door Horror Story (Actually, a Store Horror Story Involving a Door)
When I decided to swap out my condo’s solid back door for a windowed door, I went to the Biggest Big Box Hardware Store first because they have such an enormous selection of doors.
But, while they carry lots of doors, they do not employ lots of floor personnel to sell those doors. The exterior door department at my local store was empty of personnel. I hung out in the department for 30 minutes answering email from my phone hoping that a salesperson—any salesperson!—would walk by.
No one walked by. Which puzzled me. Exterior doors are pricey, and require expert installation (also pricey). Why don’t they staff a department where the average sale is going to be $1000 plus?
I like browsing as much as the next person. But, I was done browsing. AND I WANTED TO BUY A DOOR TODAY.
After finding a store manager, requesting assistance, and waiting another 30 minutes, I was finally informed that no one from the door department was available and I needed to come back on Saturday.
Have you ever been in any Big Box Hardware Store on a Saturday?
It’s the 9th Circle of Hell.
I got in my car and drove to The Other Big Box Hardware Store to buy my condo’s new back door.
It took seven minutes to buy the door.
Three months later (standard wait time for an exterior door) my new condo back entry door was installed. Light, joy, and rainbows followed.
So, when it came time to buy the front door for the ranch house, there really wasn't much of a decision to make about where to go.
I called to ask about installation wait times and was told that average had increased to four or five months. I wanted my new door before the weather turned blustery, so I decided to
place the order before closing rather than after.
I’d already narrowed my front door choice to a fiberglass pre-hung door with long horizontal windows to echo the long, low lines of the ranch. It fit the home’s architecture much better than the current colonial-style door, and it didn’t have ax marks in it, either.
After entering The Other Big Box Store, it took eight minutes for my purchase because I had to decide whether I wanted three or five windows in the door. As soon as I saw the five-light version, I knew it was perfect.
Six days before closing, I had already bought a kitchen and a front door for a house I didn't technically own yet.
It felt reckless.
It also felt exactly right.
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My closing date changes, forcing adjustments in my reno timeline.
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