On 5/29/2010 7:40 AM, Sasha wrote:
I want to make myself custom wood entry door. What wood to use? The
house entrance is covered by the porch overhang 5' deep roof.

My house is very energy efficient, I put a lot of effort into E4
windows and multilayer insulation. So I want to make sure the door
will be well insulated too. What's the best way to insulate it? Make a
door core from closed cell foam insulation? If I put 1" foam between
two 3/4" of wood this would make door 2.5" thick.
Also how to make frame water and draft proof? Any references
preferable with pictures and drawings would be greatly appreciated.

I made an insulated door for my old house over 20 years ago. As best
as I can recall it was 3/4 inch cabinet plywood on the outside, 2"
Styrofoam in the middle and 1/4 " cabinet plywood on the inside, about
3" thick in total. The frame was made of 2" fir with a 3/4 or 1" angle
iron routed into it all the way around. It's a solid door. I doubt a
man could kick it in. It's still there (ex wife) and working fine.

In cold weather it warps inward at the top and bottom a bit, maybe 1/4
of an inch. About the same amount as the metal clad doors do on my new
house.

I ended up putting storm doors on all my outside doors in the new
house. It was the only way I could stop rain from leaking in. There
wasn't much leakage and I would never had noticed it had the house
been built and finished as most are. I was able to slow the leakage
down with caulking but I could not stop it completely. If there was a
good wind when it rained some water always found a way in somewhere.

I built the house myself and moved in before the interior was
finished. Had the floor been finished I probably would never had
noticed the small wet spots at the corners of the door frames. My
neighbors have the same type of doors and all have some leakage. One
has a sliding door in his bedroom that is really bad. I suspect it's
a common problem and may lead to some rather expensive repairs in
years to come when the floors begin rotting out under those leaky frames.

I bought good quality storm doors. They seal well and add enough to
the R value to stop the full height glass in the existing doors from
icing up in winter.

I just built a new shed and did everything I could think of to keep
water from coming in under the door frame but sure enough if there's a
strong north wind when it's raining there's a little wet spot on the
floor at both corners of the door frame.

By the way my new house is about 1900 sq' with at least three times
the amount of windows as my old 1950's 900 sq' bungalow. The new place
is well insulated and costs at least 30% less in heating than does the
old place. My son bought my old house so I still hear about the bills
in that one and the ex wife's place.

LdB