How to choose a steel door

First, the steel door must provide some protective function. There are several of these functions: resistance to brute physical force (determined by the strength and reliability of the structure); counteraction to “intellectual hacking” (determined by the complexity and “cunning” of the locks); resistance to all kinds of non-standard influences (there are fire doors, bulletproof doors, doors equipped with access control devices – from simple glass to audio and video systems, etc.).

Secondly, the door must provide initial functionality, protection from the external environment: it must have certain heat and sound insulation properties. Thirdly, the door should not be disgusting in appearance, hearing and smell – that is, it should be decorated in some way, should not creak and knock, should be made without the use of toxic materials. Finally, the fourth group of characteristics relates rather to sellers than directly to the product: the door and its parts must be reliable, the seller must give and fulfill guarantees for his products..

Obviously, it is impossible to define the “ideal door”. You must first find out what exactly it is intended for, and then choose a model in accordance with the needs and financial capabilities. Thus, we have formulated the first (and, perhaps, the main) principle of the “reasonable approach” to the choice of the door: first of all, you need to understand what requirements you will impose on the products, and, accordingly, which group of characteristics given above will have the main and which is of secondary importance in further selection.

1. Protective properties of the door

Resistance to brute force is not the most important, in our opinion. Indeed, the door for an ordinary apartment in a multi-apartment city building can be rather weak: if they begin to break it open with the help of a sledgehammer, then it is unlikely that the attackers will be able not to attract attention. A completely different approach to the choice of a door for a country cottage or an unguarded warehouse should be approached: in this case, the probability of a “rough burglary” is high, and the door design should provide high mechanical strength of the product.

Unlike brute force, “smart hacking” requires some skill of the cracker and can be performed almost silently. Accordingly, a burglar has an almost unlimited supply of time at his disposal (practically no lock is able to withstand a qualified burglar for more than 15 minutes). This is how most apartment doors in large cities are opened. As a rule, the object of “smart burglary” is a lock, and, in our opinion, it is the lock that determines (we repeat, in standard urban conditions) the burglary resistance of the door as a whole. Therefore:

and) you should not save on locks, if you want to get a door resistant to unauthorized entry;

b) it is better to put two locks, moreover, different systems (cylinder and lever) – opening different types of locks requires a specialist of higher qualifications;

in) if you are seriously concerned about hacking – then it makes sense to install special additional protections on the locks, if they are not included in the supply of the lock (as, for example, on MUL-T-LOCK locks);

d) remember: any lock can be opened, therefore, if you think that your apartment can attract the attention of high-class specialists, install an alarm.

We have reviewed the characteristics that are relevant to conventional apartment doors. If for some reason you need a door with some special properties, then, unfortunately, you will have to sacrifice some indicators: for example, fire doors should be equipped with special locks that can withstand thermal loads, but, as a rule, are less resistant to burglary ; bulletproof doors are heavier than standard doors, which increases wear on locks and moving parts.

2. Heat and sound insulation

In principle, a metal door has worse heat and sound insulation properties than a wooden one. This is due both to the fact that metal generally conducts heat better and transmits sound than wood, and the fact that wood is a softer and more ductile material, lends itself to a good fit at the installation site (accordingly, in a well-made wooden door there are fewer gaps and the door leaf fits snugly to the frame; it is possible to achieve similar indicators for a metal door, but the cost of this will greatly increase the cost of the door). There are several ways to increase the heat and sound insulation characteristics of doors: you can fill the door leaf with various kinds of insulating materials (foam, mineral wool, etc.); you can “plug the gaps” between the canvas and the box with various seals; thick decorative panels can be installed on the door (experience shows that they effectively dampen sound). Nevertheless, our many years of experience show that the best option is to install two doors: an external steel door, which has a protective function, and an internal wooden one, which takes on heat and sound insulation (as well as part of the decorative functions). Unfortunately, wooden doors, especially high-quality ones from solid wood, are now quite expensive, so it makes sense to try to keep the old door: even if it is a standard cardboard-plywood door of a modern new building, it can additionally protect the apartment from noise and cold.

3. Exterior decoration

A long time ago, there were only two options for finishing entrance doors: painting and covering with various kinds of artificial leather. For reasons of either economy or personal gain, the builders left the front doors bare and painted them with the first paint they came across, and after settling in, the tenants tried to somehow improve the heat and sound insulation and hide the defects in the canvas. “Elite” doors were made with a panel of solid wood and varnished (such doors are, for example, in old houses belonging to GlavUPDK). When the first steel doors appeared, their finish did not differ much from the standard one: the metal was painted, covered with artificial leather or upholstered with clapboard. The first two options still exist; the lining in Moscow practically died out, but remained in St. Petersburg and provincial cities. However, in the mid-90s, imported doors appeared on the Russian market, which were finished in a completely different way: Israeli doors (SuperLock, Magen and Mul-t-Lock) were covered with PVC film, and decorative panels were installed on Italian and Spanish doors. Gradually, domestic manufacturers have learned to use foreign experience.

Judging by our experience, more and more people prefer to install all kinds of panels instead of artificial leather upholstery even on inexpensive domestic doors. Usually, thin (up to four millimeters) flat and thick (from eight to twenty millimeters) volumetric panels are used. Thin panels can be plastic, hardboard or made from MDF. The outer surface of such panels can be covered with plastic foil or natural veneer. “Volumetric” panels are made of thick plywood or MDF, or solid wood. In the first case, a milled pattern is applied to a sheet of MDF or plywood, after which the surface is covered with a film or veneer. Solid wood panels are tinted and varnished. The advantages of paneling are obvious: as a rule, there are many more color and pattern options for panels than colors and embossing of artificial leather; you can choose the color and pattern for the overall design of the apartment; finally, paneled doors just became “trendy”. Prices for panels depend on the material of the panel itself and the finish. Thin laminated panels cost from 500 rubles; solid wood panels cost at least $ 250.

Both panels and artificial leathers have a common disadvantage: they are easy to ruin. Therefore, quite often the outside of the door is painted or covered with a special plastic dusting. Unfortunately, both of them require serious financial investments from the manufacturer in equipment, so quite often the quality of painting leaves much to be desired..

4. Warranties

Obviously, any thing breaks sooner or later; the more complex the device, the more often it requires highly qualified service. Therefore, when choosing a door, you should pay attention not only to the product itself, but also to the manufacturer or seller. It is important for the buyer to be sure that the company will last the entire warranty period. In principle, it is better that the company has a special warranty department – then warranty work is performed faster and more conscientiously.

So, in order to choose the right steel door, you should, first, formulate your needs for the door and determine which qualities will be the main and which will be secondary. Next, you should choose a company that offers a sufficient range of products and reasonable prices. Particular attention should be paid to the after-sales service: the duration of the warranty, the presence of special units that carry out warranty work.