Your home’s front door provides security and adds to its beauty. Here’s how to buy a new front door that suits your home and living needs.
Want to improve the curb appeal of your home? There are dozens of different ways that you can do it.
One of the most effective ways to give your home’s curb appeal a boost is by installing a new front door. You’ll be amazed by how much better your home looks once you have a new front door in place.
Before you decide to take this approach, though, you should take the time to learn how to buy a new front door. You want to make sure that you select a front door that will work well with the rest of your home and keep your home secure.
Check out some tips for finding a new front door that suits your home below.
Learn the Lingo Associated With Front Doors
Before you start shopping around for front doors, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re familiar with a lot of the lingo associated with them.
You’re going to have a hard time tracking down the right front door if you don’t understand half of what you’re reading about different doors.
Here is some of the lingo you might come across while you’re looking at front doors for your home:
- Inswing: A front door that opens up into a home
- Outswing: A front door that opens up outside of a home
- Lite: A window located inside of a front door
- Grille: The plastic, metal, or wooden pieces used to divide up a front door’s lite
- Brickmould: The molding located around the outside of a front door that’s used to fill in gaps between the door and your house
- Door Handing: How the door will be installed depending on which method of handle operation is preferred
You shouldn’t start to replace exterior door frames prior to learning these words and others like them. You’ll have an easier time locating the perfect front door for your home when you understand everything you read about front doors.
Look at Front Doors Made of Different Materials
One of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make when shopping for a new front door is deciding what materials you want your door to be made out of. There are several different options that you’ll be able to choose from.
You can buy a:
- Steel front door
- Wooden front door
- Fiberglass front door
Each of these options comes with its own benefits. You should find out what these benefits are before committing to one material over all the rest.
Steel front doors, for example, are known for being very durable and tough. They’re also energy-efficient and have excellent insulating properties.
Wooden front doors, meanwhile, are on the heavier side and can provide your home with the security it needs. They’ll also add a warmth to your home that you won’t get with other front doors.
And fiberglass front doors have earned a reputation for being weather-, scratch-, and dent-resistant. They’re also very easy to install and often come with the best warranties of all the front doors that are available to you.
Which one of these materials will work best for you? Only you can decide.
Decide Whether or Not You Want a Front Door With Windows
In addition to deciding which front door material will be your best option, you’re also going to need to decide whether or not you want your new front door to have windows. When you’re learning how to buy a new front door, windows will play a very important role in your decision.
There are some front doors that don’t have any windows at all. There are others that are almost like one gigantic window in place of a traditional front door.
If you like to be able to see who is at your front door or if you enjoy standing at your front door and looking out at your front yard, you’ll want a front door with lots of windows. If you would prefer to make your home more private and secure, you’ll want a front door with no windows or just one or two small windows.
Check Out Some of the Different Front Door Features
These days, the companies that manufacture front doors for homes are jampacking them with all kinds of features to make them stand out. You’ll have the option of purchasing a front door with almost any features you want.
Some examples of the front door features that will be available to you are:
- Deadbolts
- Door knockers
- Doorbells
- Sidelites
- In-glass blinds
- Kickplates
- Transoms
You can, of course, find front doors without any of these features if you want something that’s on the basic side. But you can also outfit your front door with almost all of these features when you go to buy one.
Consider the Cost of Some of Your Favorite Front Doors
There are some lower-end front doors that are available for somewhere between $200 and $700. There are also some higher-end front doors that are available for somewhere between $3,000 and $12,000 (or more!).
With this in mind, it’s a good idea to come up with a budget for your front door prior to starting your search for one. This will help you avoid overspending on your front door and busting your budget.
You should be able to get a good, reliable front door for less than $1,000. But if you want one with all the bells and whistles, you may need to pay a little extra.
Know How to Buy a New Front Door Before Shopping for One
As you can see, there are so many factors to consider when shopping for a front door. It makes it essential for homeowners to learn how to buy a new front door before they start looking for one.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might end up with a front door that doesn’t work well for your home. You might also end up spending way more than you anticipated to install a new front door.
Putting a new front door into place is just one way to improve your home’s curb appeal. Browse through the articles on your blog to find more tips on giving your home’s curb appeal a big boost.
