After the construction of the box of a long-awaited private house and the beginning of the rough interior finishing, what does the zealous owner immediately begin to do? That's right, he installs windows and an entrance door leading from the street into the house, which is the central element of the facade and an indicator of the status of the owner of the house.
The front door is the main decoration of a private house
And in order to avoid mistakes and wasted funds, special attention should be paid to choosing a street door to your house. The functionality, features and quality of the entrance group material will be discussed in this article.
Which entrance door is best for a home?
When choosing, consider primarily four criteria: material, thermal insulation, safety and size.
- External doors are made of wood, metal or metal-plastic. If you do not have a traditional Russian estate, most likely, the second or third option will suit you better. Metal is the strongest and most reliable of all, but it does not retain heat well on its own - you need to think through auxiliary systems. Metal-plastic is a little less reliable, but has the best thermal insulation of all.
- To keep the heat inside, you can organize a small vestibule at the entrance, which will act as a buffer between the cold outside environment and the heat inside the house. Alternatives to this solution are a box with a thermal break or electrical heating. The latter will increase energy costs and depend on its availability.
- Safety is ensured by the protection class of the canvas (II or III is sufficient for a residential building), the quality of the locks and additional elements - for example, anti-removal pins.
- The standard dimensions of the canvas are height 2 m and width from 0.8. Anything above or below is made to order. The width of the door can be single, double or triple. The decorative stakes at the top look beautiful.
Thus, when deciding which entrance doors to a private home are best, consider each of these parameters taking into account your lifestyle, the climate in the latitude where the house will be built, and special needs.
Door locks
About 60% of heat loss through a doorway occurs through locking mechanisms. When choosing a door, you should pay attention to what kind of locks are installed. The best option is two different types of mortise locks. The most reliable are lever and cylinder types. Both of them have a fairly high degree of protection against hacking. It is physically impossible to break a lever lock, and it is very difficult to find a master key for a cylinder lock. Disc and cross-shaped opening mechanisms are also quite common.
Locking mechanisms are divided into classes according to the degree of resistance to burglary. For entrance doors it is recommended to use 2-4 groups. The lock class is indicated in the product passport.
A more detailed article about choosing a lock for the front door.
Insulation and sound insulation
Without insulation in the interior of the door leaf in a house or apartment it will be cold and noisy. After all, steel conducts heat well and does not retain sound well. Any suitable material is used as insulation: mineral wool, polystyrene foam, expanded polystyrene. The question is which is better to use. It is better to base it on the characteristics of the insulation:
- Mineral wool. It can be basalt or fiberglass, it can be of different densities. Basalt mineral wool is good for everyone, but it is afraid of getting wet (condensation due to the temperature difference between inside and outside). When frozen in a wet state, it turns into dust after freezing. If you want to choose a metal entrance door to your house, it is better to install it with a different insulation. The insulation is placed not only in the door leaf, but also in the door frame
- Fiberglass mineral wool is not afraid of getting wet, but it is inconvenient to work with - it pricks.
The following conclusions can be drawn from all of the above: the choice of insulation for a door depends on the intended location of its installation. If you are going to choose a metal door for your apartment, you can use mineral wool. It’s still relatively warm in the entrance and the basalt wool shouldn’t freeze. One more point: it is better if they use not porous wool, but hard wool, which is usually sold in mats. It has better thermal insulation characteristics and, due to its elasticity, fills cavities better.
When choosing a steel door for a house or cottage, it is better to refrain from using basalt mineral wool. She will not complete her tasks. In this case, the best option is extruded polystyrene foam. It is also desirable to have two independent insulation contours: one at the outer part of the door, the second at the inner part, and an air gap between them. This design increases the thickness of the door leaf, but the protection from cold and sounds is much better.
Seals for heat preservation in the house and apartment
To preserve heat, it is also important to have seals on the door. They are usually made of rubber in the shape of the letter D
They are attached around the perimeter of the door frame and leaf. This is quite enough for a metal door to an apartment. For a door to a house, it is desirable to have two circuits - protection against the penetration of cold will be more reliable.
Negative consequences
Freezing can have negative consequences. The following are worth noting:
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- Energy loss. A freezing structure poorly insulates the room from the outside world, which is cold in winter. In this case, the heating runs idle - the generated heat evaporates outside. As a result, the door freezes even more - a vicious circle that should be resolved as soon as possible.
- Reduced service life. Prolonged exposure to temperature contrast negatively affects the performance characteristics of the door and worsens its properties.
- Damage to fittings and cladding. During freezing, handles, locks and facing materials are subject to destructive effects - they quickly deform and subsequently become partially or completely unusable.
The appearance of fungus and mold growths around the perimeter of the frame is a predictable effect when the front door freezes. The above problems are good reasons why it is necessary to begin eliminating freezing in a short time, especially if plastic entrance doors freeze - they are more susceptible to deformation due to ice freezing than metal ones and fail, requiring replacement.
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Security classes of door structures
Large manufacturers, as well as well-known brands, certify their products according to the burglary safety class. As a rule, the higher the burglary protection, the more expensive the design will be. Resistance to such interference is determined by practical experiments.
Advice. Find out the manufacturer of the door and its level of protection against burglary.
Burglar resistance classes:
- I class. Easy accessibility with simple hand tools.
- II class. The design is resistant to hand-held power tools (the most common class among residential outdoor doors).
- III class. Steel cladding on the outside and reinforcing elements in the structure. Tool with power up to 500 W. and it will take some time to open the door.
Not only burglary resistance has its own classification. According to aesthetic parameters, entrance doors can be divided into the following classes:
- Economy class (low quality materials and low degree of burglary protection. Savings on interior and exterior finishes. Possible good sealing and sound insulation).
- Premium class (interesting design, fairly good quality materials, high cost of the entire unit. Safe, easy to use).
- Elite (expensive materials, high-quality locking mechanisms and fittings).
Cheap products are of high quality only at first glance. Chinese manufacturers are especially guilty of this. With prolonged use of these products, the edge of the canvas will definitely delaminate. Do not hesitate to save money to the detriment of your property and health. Read additional material on choosing a metal entrance door.
How to choose a metal entrance door
How to solve this problem?
There are several proven ways to combat door freezing, let’s take a look at them.
Step 1. Check the insulation
The fight against this problem should always begin with checking the insulation material. After all, the door, as a rule, freezes either due to low-quality insulation, or due to its complete absence. These could be, for example, cheap Chinese-made doors, which are often sold without insulation, which leads to a problem.
Step 2. Checking the interior finish
After insulation, the interior finish of the metal door is checked. As a rule, MDF with a thickness of 6 mm to 10 mm is used for finishing. But experts assure that the optimal thickness of MDF is 16-22 mm (more is possible), only in this case can one count on good results.
Step 3. Lutka
Also, attention should be paid to the loot - it should be protected by slopes from the interior. With all these tips, you can deal with a frozen front door!
Step 4. Another door - is it worth it?
Installing a second additional door is another way to solve the problem. What is typical is that this additional door can be made of different materials. This method, by the way, is considered one of the most effective. It has successfully passed the test of time, and the apartment will be much warmer.
As for residents of private houses, they can opt for the construction of a small heated dressing room, which will also help to forget about freezing of the front door forever.
