Wooden doors

Before you go to choose doors, formulate the following requirements:

• door opening options;
• design requirements (similarity to furniture doors, etc.);
• required dimensions;
• a price range that is acceptable to you (as a rule, it is this requirement that is decisive);
• door design (it affects the price in the most direct way).

Solid wood doors are the most expensive. Their durability, as we have already said, depends on the manufacturers’ compliance with the manufacturing technology from drying to assembly, as well as on the quality of the auxiliary materials used (adhesives, varnishes, etc.). But one must also take into account that solid wood doors can become a true decoration of the interior and will certainly bring the healthy energy of natural wood with them into the house. They will serve for many years, and in which case they can be repaired..

Modern doors made with materials such as chipboard and MDF are practically not inferior in beauty and durability to solid wood doors. But they are cheaper and less responsive to changes in climatic conditions, especially indoor humidity. The price of these doors directly depends on the type of veneer wood, and by choosing veneer wood, so to speak, “simpler” (for example, pine instead of mirbau), you can save a lot. This will absolutely not affect the quality of the doors themselves. And the required color (if, for example, you want the doors to match the color of the existing furniture) can be easily adjusted due to the stain and varnish. True, such a move cannot be carried out in every company..

The cheapest are doors with a molded outer panel and honeycomb filling. But on the other hand, during operation, they require a more careful attitude towards themselves and, therefore, are less durable..

The door frame does not have to be solid wood (although this option is more familiar to you and me). It may well be made of chipboard or MDF – such boxes, by the way, are less subject to the risk of changes in linear dimensions during operation. The outer finish of such a box, as a rule, is performed with a veneer of the same wood as the canvas..

Door warranties are a tricky issue. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase doors from reputable companies that guarantee the quality of their products. We must also be prepared for the fact that the overwhelming majority of firms selling doors give a guarantee for them only if they are installed by their own specialists. And such a solution, by the way, is not always the worst (though not the cheapest). Installation of modern doors requires some special skills and knowledge, and the durability of their service depends on the correctness of its implementation. That is why it is advisable to trust the installation to specialized teams. And if the company has such a team (and its presence speaks of the solidity of the company), then let them install the doors, and one company bears all warranty responsibility – for the quality of the door, and for proper transportation and installation. If (God forbid!) Something happens, then it will be easier for you to deal with them. Remember that the case when one produced doors, bought and transported another to Russia, sold you a third, and delivered to the object and installed a fourth – in the event of any “showdown” is almost hopeless.

Entrance doors

Entrance doors are doors that are installed when entering an apartment or building. Increased requirements are imposed on the entrance doors for sound and heat protection, safety (protection against unwanted intrusion), and if the door leads to the street (outside), it must withstand precipitation.

Entrance door designs can be different, which, first of all, depends on the materials of manufacture: wooden, profile (aluminum, PVC), steel, combined.

To ensure heat and sound insulation qualities, several technologies are used: additional door upholstery, making a door from a more massive material, placing special sound and heat insulating materials inside the canvas.

All wooden external doors, regardless of the internal structure, must have an external panel facing the street, made of specially treated wood and coated with protective varnishes or paints. The better the coating, the longer the door will last.

When choosing an entrance door and accessories for it, one should also take into account such aspect as the possibility of rescue in case of emergency, that is, the door should be multifunctional, which should be taken into account at the planning stage and determining the requirements for it..

Interior doors

These are doors that are installed in doorways inside the premises. Interior doors are installed after the walls and ceilings have been repaired; they should not only be of high quality and functional, but also be in harmony with the interior of the apartment.

Today the market offers a huge number of options for interior doors (not only standard swing doors). Some models of these doors can be purchased directly in the store, others can be selected and ordered from the catalog.

Solid wood doors are the most expensive, they are maintainable, durable. But the durability and flawless operation of solid wood doors depends on the manufacturers’ compliance with all technological process cycles during their manufacture, as well as on the quality of the adhesives and varnishes they use..

Many models of modern doors made of combined materials, using wood-like materials, are practically not inferior in beauty, durability and performance to solid wood doors. But they are cheaper and less prone to reacting to changes in indoor humidity. The price of such doors depends quite strongly on the type of veneer used for their decoration, and the type of veneer does not affect the quality of the door, but only gives the surface of the door leaf, one or another shade and texture.

Hollow (with honeycomb filling) doors with a molded outer panel, including Masonite ones, are inexpensive. These doors require a more careful attitude to themselves during operation and are less durable. Masonite doors can be painted in the most unusual way, which makes it possible to give the interior a new look.

What are they like? According to the method of opening, doors are distinguished by swing, sliding, rotating and folding doors. Depending on the number of canvases, the doors can be single-leaf, double-leaf and one-and-a-half (with two canvases of unequal width). Door leaves can be blind or glazed. The degree of glazing of the door changes like this:

Domestic manufacturers produce door blocks in accordance with GOST or TU (mainly for new models). For internal doors, heights of 2000 and 2300 mm are provided. Single-leaf doors are offered in widths of 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 mm; double-leafed – 1200, 1400 and 1800 mm.

Door frames and platbands

The door leaves are hung on the door frame, which is reinforced in the wall opening. Since the box in no case can fit tightly into the opening left for it, the gap remaining between it and the wall has to be masked. The easiest way to do this is with platbands. But the platbands not only mask the cracks – they also decorate the doorway. Platbands are joined, as a rule, at an angle of 45 °.

Door frames can be made of various materials and differ both in design and appearance. A traditional door frame is assembled from wooden blocks with a sample for hanging door leaves. The sampling depth is usually 15 mm, the width corresponds to the thickness of the door leaf itself. A significant difference between internal doors and entrance doors is the absence of a lower bar – a threshold – in the strapping. Internal doors just don’t need it.

Ideally, the thickness of the box should coincide with the thickness of the wall, otherwise during installation, before installing the platbands, you will have to somehow adjust it. If the thickness of the wall is much greater than the thickness of the box, the most optimal and simple solution is to build the box with an additional board. If the box is thicker than the wall, then the additional board will have to be fixed either to the wall or to the platband. In general, this problem can be solved, but not so simple.

Compensation boxes that have recently appeared on our market have made significant progress in solving this problem. (You can also find such names as widening, telescopic or Euro boxes, but the essence, as you know, does not change from the name change). They represent a transforming box, which can be given the desired thickness. The platband in such a system is fixed in the grooves of the box and practically makes one whole with it. On the market, such boxes are mainly represented by foreign manufacturers, but the first such boxes of domestic production have already appeared. In addition to wood, boxes can be made of solid wood, chipboard, MDF and even steel.

The box can be sold either complete with the door or separately. The domestic manufacturer usually does not hang the doors supplied with the boxes on the hinges (choose any hinges and fix everything yourself). But a foreign one may well sell a door complete with a box, hanging it on the hinges. For the consumer, this option is even more convenient – the door is completely ready for installation and it only remains to fix it in the opening.

The finish of the frame and platbands is usually identical to the finish of the door leaf, but this is not at all necessary. In some cases, the manufacturer offers a small, but well-thought-out, design move – the box and finishing glazing beads are made of the same material as the main canvas, but in a different color, for example, darker. The opposite effect is also possible – when the box and finishing elements are lighter than the main canvas (although this option is less common).

Door leaves

Door leaves, based on the type of material, are made of wood, plastic, plywood (fiberboard, chipboard), glass, metal, and can also be combined.

The most traditional material used to make doors is wood. The warmth and comfort of living wood, combined with parquet and furniture, make wooden doors the most beloved and often used, especially in residential interiors. Wood, however, like almost any material (natural or artificial), has both advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into account in the production and operation of doors (we will discuss this issue in more detail a little later). It is used both for the manufacture of structural elements of doors (including entirely massive ones) and for exterior door decoration (veneering).

According to the constructive solution, door leafs are: paneled; panel (solid and hollow) and massive (made of wood for the entire thickness of the canvas). It should be noted that paneled doors are all doors (regardless of their designs) that have panels on the outer panel. Paneled door leaves consist of a strapping located along the perimeter of the leaf, and one or more intermediate elements, the space between which is also filled with a panel (or its imitation).

Solid wood doors

Massive is currently called such elements of the door leaf, which are made with a continuous filling of natural wood. Most often, massive door elements are made from glued solid wood – this technology is the most modern and, moreover, cheaper than the classical one, in which each element is made from a single piece of wood. Schemes for connecting bars in a glued array can be very different – each manufacturer here is looking for its own optimal option, which would be technologically advanced and, at the same time, would give the entire structure the necessary rigidity. The use of massive wooden parts in the construction brings its own nuances to the operational properties – such doors are very sensitive to changes in humidity in the room. Therefore, the manufacturer is forced to leave special grooves to compensate for thermal and humidity expansion or contraction when installing panels, i.e. they are never rigidly fixed, leaving room for play. Such a forced assembly scheme cannot but bring its own characteristics to the appearance of the doors..

Firstly, different parts of the door surface may differ slightly from each other in color, which is associated both with the angle of reflection of light and with the impossibility of accurately matching door details by color at the manufacturing stage. The wood acquires its final color only after varnishing. But on the other hand, it is this unevenness of the surface color that gives the doors made of natural wood its “zest” and at the same time emphasizes that in front of you is a door made of solid natural wood, and not its imitation.

Secondly, with significant shrinkage, the panels can change their size (“dry out”) so much that unpainted stripes become visible along the edges (the door gets the color already assembled). The appearance of such “stripes” is determined, by no means, by the low quality of the doors, but simply by the discrepancy between the microclimate of the living quarters and the “climatic” operating parameters that the door was designed for when it was created. It should be noted that large firms selling doors keep specialists on their staff for such cases, who carry out the necessary work directly at the client’s home. Small firms, not having such specialists, can “offer” the client to solve this problem, as they say, “on their own”.

The quality of solid wood doors is determined, first of all, by the preparation of raw materials – the time and technology of drying, as well as the technology of gluing the solid wood (glue quality, temperature, pressure). Secondly, a topcoat (varnish quality, number of layers). As a rule, doors made of solid natural wood are varnished. Such a coating, in addition to the decorative function, has a great practical meaning – it prevents both the penetration of atmospheric moisture into the wood of the door leaf and the reverse process that causes the wood to dry out above. A high-quality lacquer coating must be elastic.

For the manufacture of massive doors, the following tree species are used: oak, various types of mahogany, pine, beech, walnut, cherry and some others. Perhaps the most common doors are solid pine (which is quite understandable by the relative cheapness of the material). They have various shapes and designs and are presented in our market mainly by domestic manufacturers. Doors from an array of noble species (mainly mahogany) are becoming an indispensable element of the interior of an elite house today. These doors are usually presented in a style that combines classic design with the natural beauty of natural wood. There are also original (one might even say exclusive) handmade doors. Sometimes the design of such doors is successfully complemented by stained glass. Such doors can be both domestic and imported..

Panel doors

The door leaf of the panel structure is solid or hollow panels with a thickness of 30-40 mm, lined on both sides. Shields can be solid and hollow. Solid panels are glued from wooden slats or made from chipboards. Hollow panels have a frame-sheathing structure. The filling between the frame slats is most often made of corrugated cardboard resembling a honeycomb, but a sparse rack frame, a frame made of fiberboard strips or a lattice frame made of fiberboard can also be used. The cladding can be made either with plastic or with hard fibreboards with a special wear-resistant coating that imitates natural wood species (laminate), or veneer (thin layers of valuable wood species – oak, mahogany, ebony, beech, hornbeam, pear, walnut, Karelian birch, etc.). When glued with veneer, panel doors are especially beautiful and in appearance are not much inferior to doors made of solid wood. In addition, they are hygienic, relatively inexpensive and, therefore, are widely used in mass housing construction..

A variety of technologies for the assembly of panels allows you to create the most unusual combined doors – structures in which both natural wood and laminated fiberboard are used at the same time or wood, chipboard and plastic are combined.

In any of the listed types of doors, partial glass filling is possible. Glass canvases are made either entirely of tempered glass (stalinite), or have a metal (steel, aluminum) strapping. A special place is occupied by the glazing of door panels in interiors in the form of decorative glass panels, mosaic stained-glass windows, as well as double-glazed windows.

Perhaps the most common are hollow doors with honeycomb fillers. Due to their simplicity, ease of assembly, variety of colors, designs, and, of course, the price, these doors have found immense popularity.