Description

Exterior Smooth Fiberglass double door.

The Advantages of Fiberglass Exterior Door

Fiberglass entry doors have a number of advantages, helping to make them into an excellent choice for your home or business. The technology is recent, and manufacturers are still experimenting with new techniques and styles, but the growing popularity should also see the price fall over the next few years.

• Durability: Fiberglass exterior door can handle the most extreme climates, from the cold and damp northern winter to the heat and humidity of the subtropics. Unlike wood, they will not warp, crack or rot, and they do not require yearly treatment with paint, stain or varnish. Fiberglass doors are also rust and corrosion proof, adding to their longevity.
• Insulation: Fiberglass exterior door is excellent insulators, especially if any inlaid glass panels are double or triple glazed. At a time when the price of heating homes or using the air-con is increasing, this will make a huge difference to the house hold bills over the lifetime of the door. These insulating qualities also apply to noise, and a good quality fiberglass door dampens even the loudest noises.
• Appearance: To all but the closest inspection, fiberglass entry doors look as elegant and beautiful as wooden doors, allowing you to create a great first impression and add value to your home. They do not need regular painting or staining, and they do not discolor as is too often the case with vinyl entry doors
• Versatility: Fiberglass doors can be bought factory finished and ready to fit, allowing you to incorporate the look and feel of any type of wood into your home. Alternatively, you can buy factory-primed doors, which you can stain or paint to match your overall exterior theme.
• Security: Fiberglass doors are very resilient and most are fitted with extremely secure locking mechanisms, ensuring that they can resist even the most determined of criminals.
• Warranty: Most manufacturers give a very long warranty against manufacturing defects, stretching into decades or even a lifetime guarantee.

The Disadvantages of Fiberglass Exterior Door

When it comes to exterior doors, there is no such thing as perfection and fiberglass exterior doors carry their own set of unique disadvantages. Some of these may be sufficient to prevent you from installing a fiberglass door; others are merely a slight inconvenience.

• Price: A good fiberglass door is certainly cheaper than a mahogany or oak door, but they are much more expensive than steel or standard wooden doors. Over the lifetime of the door, they are actually very cost-effective, but still require a large initial outlay.
• Unchanging: One of the main attractions of wooden doors is that age can actually improve the appearance, and the wonderful ‘distressed look’ is something that manufacturing can never quite replicate. A fiberglass door will remain unchanged for many years, which can be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on your point of view.