Doors: How picking the right one can save on home insurance

We don’t often take the time to consider the doors in our homes.  Sure, they can have beautiful aesthetic qualities: a charming French door can create an open, welcoming feel. In contrast, a secure steel door does wonders against intruders.

But let’s not romanticize them too much.

Doors are primarily the way we enter and exit buildings and rooms.  But what kind of safety features do they offer? Why do doors open in the direction that they do? And how can the type of door we have affect our home insurance? If renovations are in your future and you’re replacing some doors, knowing what to look for and how to ask for it, will pay dividends.

Types of doors: Entry or front doors

Exterior

Exterior doors come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours. Whether it’s a front or rear door, Exterior doors, provide the entryway into your home. You can customize any of the doors with your favourite hardware from a pull to a lock, and dress them up with decorative glass inserts. They also keep unwanted weather out, protect our homes from possible intruders, and act as an insulator to regulate the temperature in our homes.

Exterior doors can be made from a variety of materials, each of which has particular attributes:

Wood door

A beautiful wood door can give your home excellent curb appeal, and rightly so, being generally the most expensive entry door. The costs don’t stop at the initial purchase, either. A wood door requires regular and ongoing maintenance. Yes, new paint or stain every few years will help. Ultimately a wood door, however, heavy as it may be, can still warp, rot, and expand with fluctuating temperatures.

Fibreglass door

Fibreglass doors are incredibly durable and will stand the test of harsh weather conditions since, unlike wood doors, they won’t warp. They’re also energy efficient with their interior made of foam core insulation. In fact, they are a smart alternative to a wood door because you can also get them in a wood finish. You can, however, customize the look to suit your needs – whether you want a black, red, or yellow door – the point choice is yours. One last bonus, they don’t dent or scratch as easily as a steel door.

A fibreglass door with wood grain

Steel door

Steel doors are secure, durable, have incredible insulating properties, and do an excellent job of keeping unwanted guests out. They are the most secure front door material, especially if you use thick gauge steel.  They come in any colour you want, even wood grain. An added benefit of a steel door is that they require little maintenance, but are prone to dents and scratches.

Other types of exterior doors

Sliding patio doors

A standard rear door, a sliding patio door allows for easy access to your backyard patio. It’s usually two 30″ wide doors, one sliding, the other fixed, but both are full glass to allow all that glorious light to shine in. Typically, there’s also a screen that you can slide closed, leaving the window open to allow for a cool breeze to enter the home and chat with your BBQ guests.

They are made of either vinyl, aluminum, or wood, but the most common, longest-lasting, and durable is vinyl. For security reasons, make sure to have the ability to lock them and opt for the reinforced glass.

French patio doors

The french door is so named because its origins trace back to France where you could open large windows with metal mullions inside them and walk through them like you would a door. You can order them to open in or out, have one side fixed or have them both open. You can order them in steel, wood, or fibreglass and then order your hardware and glass insert options to match your style.

Storm doors

A storm door is often overlooked but can add a layer of safety and insulation to your existing front door. They come in steel, composite, or aluminum. Aluminum doors handle a range of temperature fluctuations well but can twist and bend easier than a steel door. A steel storm door, however, is the most expensive and heaviest option.

During a storm, you can listen and watch from the comfort of your home with your front door open. Often, they can be a nuisance to open two doors to get into your house, so they could act as a deterrent to thieves.