July 8th, 2010
External oak veneer doors, they are great as long as you follow the instructions and conditions. Yes, external oak veneer doors are lovely to look at and lovely doors to compliment your home.
Most of the manufacturers insist you must have a porch for your oak veneer door or at the very least a canopy, and if you dont, then be advised “Get a hardwood front door”. These hardwood doors are tried and tested decade after decade and weather the storms well (and also the sun when we get it !!). You see its all about moisture content, too much and any oak or hardwood door will swell, not enough and it will dry out with shrinkage. Its not that difficult to understand, you MUST treat your doors with the correct proceedures, for example, if you only coat the door with protection on one side then the door will pull, you must coat both sides of any wood door, oak or hardwood and of course the most important of all are the edges, tops and bottoms of any external door. Most companies are happy to exchange a problem door if you the customer has followed all the correct proceedures.
Please remember you the customer are the end user and of course the end finisher, therefore it is most important to seal or stain or paint you door correctly. If you do so you will get a great return from your front door, glazed or solid, but be warned, with oak doors, no canopy or porch, no guarantee. Any company that tells you different, well I leave you to your own thoughts on that one. We at the Front Door Shop want your business but not at any cost!!!
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March 19th, 2010
SO YOU HAVE BOUGHT REAL WOODEN FRONT DOORS FOR YOUR HOME
I think you and your house will be very happy with your wooden front doors, and why not. However you do need to put a little bit of effort into maintaining your new exterior wooden front door, and i would advise that the best thing you can do is to give your wooden front doors some love and protection.
Consider your new wooden front doors with the respect that they deserve. First you want your wooden front doors to be eye catching and to assist in giving your home that bit more impact and on kerb appeal. Second your front doors will protect your home and you, as your exterior front door is your frontline for security. Good locks, chains and bolts are to be recommended. I will not bad mouth any GRP (Glass-reinforced plastic) composites, or any UPVC, each to their own, but no matter how good they tell you they are they will never have the formality, beauty or security of a natural grain wooden front door.
My recommendation for treating you wooden front door is to seal all front doors with a professional wooden door sealer prior to staining or painting. I would recommend either Sadolin or Sikens, with three coats of sealer and two to three day intervals allowing the wooden door to dry properly as there is no sense in laying the sealer wet on wet as there is not enough absorption. When you coat your wooden front doors my recommendation is to turn the front door upside down, therefore allowing more sealant to be absorbed in the open grain [styles].
Sometimes I have the unfortunate job of inspecting a wooden front doors with problems. I can guarantee that most times the customer is at fault as there has been no sealer, stain or polish applied.
For a moment think of an unsealed wooden front door being similar to a sponge. Put a sponge outside in the rain and it absorbs moisture. Now put the sponge in a plastic bag, it will not absorb water and therefore no problems. In effect sealing your wooden front door places it in a plastic bag and greatly improves the wooden doors lifespan.
Once the front door is sealed you are now ready to coat your wooden front door with a preferred stain. When applying the stain, please make sure all the edges are coated, particulary the bottom. If your carpenter fits your front door and has to plane the bottom of the front door then you will have to go through the same procedure, failure to do will result in later problems with your wooden door.
If you treat your wooden front door with a little TLC it will provide you with years of protection and service. I would also recommend that if you have extreme weather beating on your front door either rain or shine, please give your front door another coat of stain (not water based!) the following year, it is so easy to do and you will not regret spending that little bit of extra time on looking after your brand new wooden front door.
Tags: Caring for Doors, Caring for Wood, DIY, Front Doors
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