How to choose a metal front door: useful tips

How to choose a metal front door

How to choose a metal front door? The question is complex, but at the same time very interesting and requiring careful analysis, because first of all, your safety and your peace of mind depend on the correct choice of the front door. It would seem that you come to the store, inspect the presented assortment, choose the model you like, and pay for the deal. But not everything is as simple as you might think. A different approach is needed here, because you buy, first of all, your safety.

Content

• One, two, three, four, five, we begin to choose

• Which entrance doors are better – cheap or expensive

What metal doors are made of

Castle – choose wisely Rigel – are needed or not

Additional lotions

One, two, three, four, five, we begin to choose

First of all, the choice of a metal door should begin with answers to some questions:

1. Why do you need a door?
2. What functions do you assign to it?
3. How much are you willing to spend??
4. What hardware will you buy? (although you will find out already along the way).

So, you have figured out everything for yourself and purposefully go to the store to choose the best, highest quality and most reliable door. In any normal store, there is always an exhibition hall where you can get acquainted with the products, touch and touch them, evaluate the characteristics, as they say, live.

A smiling and helpful consultant will happily arrange a sightseeing tour for you and show you the best models from the most famous manufacturers. Already at this stage it is worth being on your guard, because sellers are just waiting for your arrival to impose on you what, in principle, nobody needs. Therefore, you need to know in advance about their tricks and tricks.

1. If a consultant enthusiastically tells you about a door whose interior is filled with lead shavings, coupled with buckwheat husks and swan fluff, then do not hesitate to clarify with him why all this is needed there. A modern reliable door should protect against street or drive-up cold, not be too heavy and it is desirable that it be made of high-quality metal. As an internal filler, Isover insulation is ideal, and everything else will already be redundant.
2. Door frame – another element of the front door. There are two types of door frames – closed and open. The closed design is bent profiles welded together. Such a box is very strong and reliable. The open design of the door frame consists of one bent profile, which significantly reduces the cost of the entire kit. Such a box does not have sufficient rigidity, so when installing it is filled with concrete mixture (for greater stability and strength). Some sellers, taking advantage of the fact that the buyer is not well informed on this issue, wishful thinking is given – they begin to convince you that this measure is the advantage of this door, forgetting to mention that without strengthening the box with concrete the door will not work at all.
3. Another favorite legend of most consultants – supposedly filling the door frame with concrete increases the thermal insulation characteristics of the door. Complete nonsense, concrete is not the best insulation, because even the foundation is “wrapped” with warm polystyrene foam.
   

   Metal door device diagram

Which entrance doors are better – cheap or expensive

To find out which entrance doors are better, you need to find out the maximum information about both.

1. Inexpensive doors for up to $ 150.

A relatively low price can be an ordinary publicity stunt, which you can fall for. For that kind of money, you will be offered the most primitive door, consisting of two aluminum, and maybe even steel, sheets fastened together by plates or so-called stiffeners. This set will be supplemented with two locks “made in Russia”, “graceful” keys of a gigantic size, an ordinary door handle and a peephole. Yes, and also, the weight of such a door is about 100 kg.

If you have a desire to strengthen or tighten the door, you will have to pay extra. Each additional element that is not included in the basic package will be installed on the door at your click – just have time to open the wallet.

For example, a layer of batting costs on average about $ 2-3, of mineral wool – $ 4-5, of foam rubber – of 6, and of macroflex – about $ 7-8. So count!

The next expensive part is the lock. If you are not satisfied with the standard version that comes with the kit (and it most likely will not suit you), then you can prepare the wallet again. A lock with a more complex configuration, with latches and pins will cost you a decent amount, but you still need to install it, which you will be notified immediately.

We go further. You decide to expand the doorway, then you have to pay again. This procedure will cost you about 30-40% of the initial cost of the door. Why expand the opening? Everything is simple and corny. Often the dimensions of furniture or appliances exceed doorway size and making such purchases in an apartment or house is extremely difficult. Much easier if a standard door with a width of 80 cm will have completely different parameters, for example, 90 or even 100 cm.

If we add up all the expenses, we get a completely different figure than was agreed at the beginning. Instead of $ 150, a metal door will cost you all 200, or even more.

2.  Golden middle – doors costing from 200 to 400 dollars

Such doors differ not only in their technical characteristics and equipment, but also have a more impressive and attractive appearance. They are made of stainless steel and already in the basic configuration have heat and sound insulation, anti-removable end pins, a door frame from a profile pipe, a peephole with a viewing angle of up to 200 degrees and the choice of upholstery, including laminate, wood, leather and other materials. Naturally, if you want to supplement such a door with any bells and whistles, then they are not included in the price, as well as work to expand or narrow the opening.

3. Door elite – doors costing from 450 to 2000 dollars

These doors are distinguished primarily by their price and high quality not only of the metal itself, but also of all the hardware included in the kit. They are made in the factory from high-quality alloy steel. The sheets are fastened together by stiffeners, and welding is carried out by the spot method. Mineral wool, polyurethane foam or polypropylene foam is used as a heater, and in order to protect you from noise to the maximum, a sealing gasket is laid along the edge of the door.

The basic package of the most sophisticated imported door includes:

• telescopic peephole
• high security lock
• special frame design, forming with the wall an equal-strength monolith
• internal filler providing protection against noise and cold penetration
• decorative coating to your taste
• end gate valve
• insert – a design that allows you to increase the height of the door by 10-12 cm.
• anti-detachable pins

The technology for installing an elite door is quite different from our methods. The door frame of the imported door covers the wall on both sides – both outside and inside, and a cavity forms, which is poured with cement mortar, forming a continuous monolith. It is impossible to knock out such a door block, unless someone has the idea of ​​breaking the entire wall. If the opening is slightly larger or smaller than the size of the door you have chosen, then the masters will either lay it with a brick, or expand it to the desired parameters. This service costs about $ 15-20.

The lock on imported doors is super reliable, because each key is produced in a single copy, and the lock itself has more than 3 million key combinations. It is impossible to make a duplicate without a special computer card, which is attached to the set. You can order a special set consisting of three keys, different from each other, but suitable for one lock. For example, you have lost one of the keys, and there is no time to order a new one. Then you just take the second key and open the door for them. Now the lost key does not open your door, even if it is found.

What metal doors are made of

To understand what the front door should be. you need to figure out what it is made of and how, because you are interested in what meat the sausage is made on, lying on a shelf in the store. Same thing with doors.

All doors, quietly and peacefully standing on the trading floor, can be divided into two categories: doors made in a small company, which occupies a basement in the next nine-story building, and doors manufactured by a large company, the “door business shark”.

A small company mainly works on individual orders, because it has no reason to produce dozens and hundreds of doors per month – where to get so many customers? And nobody is in a hurry to buy expensive equipment here – why? It is precisely because of the poor technical equipment that the doors produced by such an enterprise can hardly be called the height of perfection..

Welding is done here manually, therefore, the seams are not always smooth and ideal, and this can only mean one thing – after 3-4 years the door can be deformed, jammed locks, heat and sound insulation will be broken, and in general your apartment will become unsafe.

Large corporations clearly monitor not only their image and reputation, but also the quality of the products they produce, because it is this parameter that characterizes the seller’s reliability and honesty. The most important difference between a large company and a small manufacturer is the level of the technological process and equipment, because the reliability and strength of a metal door directly depends on the quality of steel, the accuracy of the dimensions of the steel sheets and the perfect assembly technology.

In large factories, they try to prevent the deformation of metal sheets, for this purpose they use special bending machines with which you can make almost any profile. Agree, a single piece of metal is much stronger than what was welded from pieces.

Finished sheets are reinforced with stiffening ribs by spot welding, which allows to achieve the ideal geometric shape of the box and door. Such a door will serve you for decades.

They do not save here on heaters – the inner space of the door is filled with different materials – mineral wool, polystyrene foam, foam rubber, etc. Manually inserted eyes, locks, latches, a decorative panel is installed. By the way, the latter is installed, but not glued, as is often done by artisans.

Such a door turns out to be reliable, strong, strong, just the one you need.

Castle – choose wisely

With how to choose the front door, we decided, but what about the lock, because this structural element is no less important than the thickness and quality of the metal from which the door leaf is made.

Typically, metal doors are equipped with two types of locks – cylinder and lever.

• Level locks

Level locks are very reliable and strong, they are quite massive and perform a power function. Thanks to these characteristics, the lock is difficult to knock out and difficult to open. The main element of a level lock is code plates or levers. The minimum number of plates inside the case must be at least 6. The more they are, the more reliable the lock.

Important: if you want to know the level of secrecy of a level lock, then count the number of steps of the key beard, because the number of levels corresponds to the number of steps.

• Cylinder locks

The cylinder lock is also called auxiliary, apparently because it is somewhat smaller in size. Most often, the second type of locks is used when you need to go out for a while (run away to a neighbor for salt or to a store for bread). It’s not difficult to break the cylinder lock, but it’s very difficult to find a suitable key for it or open it with a master key.

Cylinder locks have an internal mechanism, their appearance resembling a cylinder or a circle. The key for such a lock is flat, and along its edges and in the middle there are point recesses and cuts, the number of which is equal to the number of pins in the cylinder. Accordingly, the more cutouts on the key, the more reliable the lock. If there are more than five of them, then it’s almost impossible to open such a lock, and forging a key will also fail, because they are made using special technology based on the use of punch cards or a laser.

This technology will not allow thieves to make a duplicate at the very first corner, because in order to carry out their plans they will either need to go to the factory, where they will be immediately sent to hell, or to the representative office of the company. But even there, nothing shines for them, since they will need to present a special card on which the code is encrypted. If you bought a cylinder lock, but did not find this card in the kit, then it was made using laser technology. Having lost the key, you will have to completely change the cylinder, so be prepared for additional expenses.

In combination with each other, both locks are able to reliably protect your home from unwanted guests, so always leaving the house, close the front door with both locks.

Crossbar – are necessary or not

The question is, of course, almost rhetorical, because no one will refuse additional protection. The crossbar is such protection.

In general, a crossbar or, if it will be easier for you, a metal pin, provides reliable fixation of the door inside the box. There may be three, or maybe more, it all depends on the size of your wallet.

The bolt is located directly inside the door leaf, and if you open the door, they will not be visible. But, turning the key in the keyhole (or a special handle located next to the keyhole), the bolts come into action and leave their nests, reliably closing the door. Typically, these pins are located on the side of the lock, above and below the door leaf.

In addition to the crossbars, the metal door can have an anti-burglar system consisting of metal pins located at the end. At the moment of closing the doors, they enter the holes located in the box and reliably block the door. Now no one can take it off its hinges or open it for sure.

Additional lotions

To attract customer attention to their products and even, to some extent, surprise him, many manufacturers use a tricky move. They install various mechanisms on their doors that protect them from breaking.

Given the presence (or absence) of such degrees of protection, all metal doors can be divided into 4 classes:

Class 1. The door cannot be opened using simple tools and the use of physical force..

Class 2. The door cannot be opened using any tools other than electrical.

Class 3. The door cannot be opened with any tools, including electric power not exceeding 500 W.

Class 4. All of the above advantages, coupled with bulletproof.

But before assigning one or another class to its products, the manufacturer must pass the certification system in Gosstandart, where the doors will be checked for burglar resistance and bulletproof.

A door that has passed such certification will naturally cost more than a regular door, and the price difference can be quite noticeable..

So to summarize.

1. A high-quality metal door should have a perfectly flat door leaf, there should not be any distortions, deformations, dents or irregularities.
2. For greater security, the door should be equipped with two locks, an anchor system, crossbars, gate valves and other security systems against penetration.
3. There must be a heat and sound seal inside the door, and it is advisable to stretch a rubber seal around its perimeter.
4. Installation of a metal door should be carried out by a specialist, because the degree of protection of your apartment or house depends on the quality of this process.

Well now you know which front door is better to put. The choice is yours!