Exterior Door Styles

By AJ Fanter HIPhome Columnist December 31, 1969

Is your weathered and dated front door decreasing your home's value? Are your energy bills unnecessarily high because your ill-fitting front door has passed its prime?

By investing in a new front door you'll not only improve your home's energy efficiency, you can also add value to your property. If you're in the market for a new door, here's a closer look at three traditional types of exterior doors to help you decide which one is right for you.

Wood Exterior Doors

Want a warm and welcoming exterior that performs well year-round? Wood exterior doors offer a very traditional look and a warm, familiar feel. What's more, because they are manufactured using frame and panel construction, they expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. While wood doors send a welcoming message to visitors, the substantial weight of a sturdy wood exterior door provides an added sense of security.

Steel Doors

Looking for a durable, long-lasting door that requires limited maintenance and offers good energy-efficiency? Steel doors not only resist shrinking, swelling and warping, they can easily withstand years of extreme weather with little additional work. Featuring weather stripping and energy-efficient foam core insulation, steel doors are an outstanding choice if you need an exterior door that will stand-up to anything that Mother Nature might throw your way.

Fiberglass Front Doors

Does your front door get a lot of traffic? Want the energy-efficiency of steel, but the appearance of wood? Installing a new fiberglass exterior could be the right choice for you. Weather, scratch, and dent resistant fiberglass exterior doors not only give you the kind of energy-savings you'd expect from steel, they are manufactured in such a way that when painted or stained they look like real wood.

As you can seen, when it comes to front doors, whether you prefer the strength of steel, the energy-efficiency of fiberglass, or the traditional beauty of wood, you have lots of choices.

About the Author
AJ Fanter is a freelance writer based in Reno, NV.


*Before you apply any of the advice described on the Hip-home.com website, you should consider if the advice is safe and suitable for your individual home situation and consult experts as necessary to evaluate the suitability for your circumstances.