Fiberglass vs. steel entry doors?
 

I think you have it sized up accurately PM. A fiberglass door can be
very strong though not as strong as a good metal one. All doors need
to be maintained. The fiberglass takes a gel stain to work on it.

"Purple Moose" wrote in message

Conventional wisdom seems to be that steel is stronger (more secure) and
less likely to warp with weather but fiberglass looks better. I'm
wondering
which holds up against the beating sun better. My concern over fiberglass
is sort of the same as my experience with boats -- you have to keep em
waxed and covered or the fiberglass dies quickly.

You paint the fiberglass so it needs no special treatment that a painted
door would not have.

Steel doors cannot be painted dark colors if they face the sun. I don't
know about fiberglass. My son painted his metal door a dark green and
behind the storm door it would get hot enough to burn you. My white steel
door does not have that problem

Have you checked the Masonite web page? They have some nice doors.

"Al Bundy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think you have it sized up accurately PM. A fiberglass door can be
very strong though not as strong as a good metal one. All doors need
to be maintained. The fiberglass takes a gel stain to work on it.


Can be any oil stain
http://www.masonite.com/PRODUCT_GUID...s_Staining.pdf

Can be painted:
a.. All designs are offered with a paintable, incredibly smooth surface or
Masonite's new stainable wood-grain texture - providing an authentic
hardwood door appearance

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"Purple Moose" wrote in message


Conventional wisdom seems to be that steel is stronger (more secure) and
less likely to warp with weather but fiberglass looks better. I'm
wondering
which holds up against the beating sun better. My concern over fiberglass
is sort of the same as my experience with boats -- you have to keep em
waxed and covered or the fiberglass dies quickly.


You paint the fiberglass so it needs no special treatment that a painted
door would not have.

Steel doors cannot be painted dark colors if they face the sun. I don't
know about fiberglass. My son painted his metal door a dark green and
behind the storm door it would get hot enough to burn you. My white steel
door does not have that problem

Have you checked the Masonite web page? They have some nice doors.


most new steel doors recommend not to use a storm door. i have one that
faces north no sun. i also crack the glass open(storm door) a little at
the top.

"Purple Moose" wrote in message
.12...
I've googled all the info I can find but no one seems to have a definitive
answer for my specific question.

We have a south facing front entry that gets blasted by the SoCal sun in
the morning. Wood doors do not survive it. So we're looking at either
fiberglass or steel.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that steel is stronger (more secure) and
less likely to warp with weather but fiberglass looks better. I'm
wondering
which holds up against the beating sun better. My concern over fiberglass
is sort of the same as my experience with boats -- you have to keep em
waxed and covered or the fiberglass dies quickly.

IMHO, your best bet will be a prepainted (not-site painted) steel door. If
you can't get a factory finish in the color you want, call around to local
body shops and see if any will be willing to paint and bake a finish on a
new steel door for you. (ie, buy a prehung or a blank, machine as needed,
and then take in to have painted.) Local body shop I use did that to the
doors on their shop, and they look great. If door won't stand the heat of
baking oven, powder-coating also provides a good hard finish.

aem sends....

"Purple Moose" wrote in message

Well, one of our painted solid wood doors literally had the finish baked
right off it in little over a year. The heat also shrank some of the
crossmembers to the point where there were gaps you could see through. The
door we have now (solid oak) I refinished at the end of last summer using
a
a high quality UV resistant outdoor stain and a UV outdoor poly top coat.
It's already flaking off.

I do not want to be painting doors every year.

Take the new door to a body shop and get an automotive paint on it. Cars
sit in the sun and last a long time compared to house paint.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

"Purple Moose" wrote in message


Well, one of our painted solid wood doors literally had the finish baked
right off it in little over a year. The heat also shrank some of the
crossmembers to the point where there were gaps you could see through. The
door we have now (solid oak) I refinished at the end of last summer using
a high quality UV resistant outdoor stain and a UV outdoor poly top coat.
It's already flaking off.

I do not want to be painting doors every year.


Take the new door to a body shop and get an automotive paint on it. Cars
sit in the sun and last a long time compared to house paint.


I have the same problem as the OP with my wood entrance door, and have been
looking for a good replacement for a couple of years. Couldn't decide between
fiberglas or steel, because of the constant sun maintenance problems. It needs
painting every year too, but I ignore it more than I should.

This sounds like a great idea! Hope I can find someone to do it for me. Thanks!
bj

We had a wooden door which was painted black and it cooked
every summer since we leave our storm door installed year round.

Painting the door white has helped, but we still have a door which
gets very warm and will have problems eventually due to the "greenhouse"
effect. I'm planning on purchasing a storm door from Home Depot which
has a hidden screen which rolls down as you lower the top sash of the
storm window in the storm door. Several of our neighbors have had great
luck with this storm door design.

I intend to leave the top sash down about 2-4" in the summer. I'm hoping
that will vent the space between the doors reasonably well and prevent
the extreme temperatures. The 4" screened gap on the storm door
shouldn't be a great AC or heating loss when we leave the main wooden
door open on brief occasions.

Gideon

aluminum clad wood is a nice attractive solution used a lot here in NM
where we have some fierce S sun too. There are lots of doors with
colored anodized exteriors, and natural wood core/interiors. You may
want to also consider adding aprtico or awning to reduce the hours of
direct sun pounding.

d

I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that the auto paint will cook also.
I think that the temperatures on a dark door covered by a storm
door are much greater than those on an auto finish. Imagine the
difference for your auto finish if your car were wrapped in a non-
vented glass envelop a few inches from its surface every day while
baking in the sun. Combine that with the fact that there would be
a very big difference between the excellent factory finish on a car
and an aftermarket car paint finish applied to the house door.

Also, the incremental difference for the steel door manufacturer
to switch to auto grade paints would be very small compared to
the current problems that they have with customer complaints
about the "baked door" syndrome. If the auto paint provided much
relieve, then I'd assume that the steel door manufacturers would
spend the extra few dollars to use auto paint at the factory. I
would also guess that the door manufacturers are already investing
a lot of money in paint research.

Gideon

========

Edwin Pawlowski wrote in message ...

"Purple Moose" wrote in message

Well, one of our painted solid wood doors literally had the finish baked
right off it in little over a year. The heat also shrank some of the
crossmembers to the point where there were gaps you could see through. The
door we have now (solid oak) I refinished at the end of last summer using
a
a high quality UV resistant outdoor stain and a UV outdoor poly top coat.
It's already flaking off.

I do not want to be painting doors every year.

Take the new door to a body shop and get an automotive paint on it. Cars
sit in the sun and last a long time compared to house paint.

Oops - footnote to my original post.

I didn't consider 2 part epoxy auto finishes. This are probably
more durable, but they still could have problems. It is difficult
to obtain any finish which expands and contracts at the same
rate as the underlying steel. This creates shear forces which
will undermine the adhesion between the paint and the metal
surface.


Gideon wrote in message ...
I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that the auto paint will cook also.
I think that the temperatures on a dark door covered by a storm
door are much greater than those on an auto finish. Imagine the
difference for your auto finish if your car were wrapped in a non-
vented glass envelop a few inches from its surface every day while
baking in the sun. Combine that with the fact that there would be
a very big difference between the excellent factory finish on a car
and an aftermarket car paint finish applied to the house door.

Also, the incremental difference for the steel door manufacturer
to switch to auto grade paints would be very small compared to
the current problems that they have with customer complaints
about the "baked door" syndrome. If the auto paint provided much
relieve, then I'd assume that the steel door manufacturers would
spend the extra few dollars to use auto paint at the factory. I
would also guess that the door manufacturers are already investing
a lot of money in paint research.

Gideon

========

Edwin Pawlowski wrote in message ...

"Purple Moose" wrote in message

Well, one of our painted solid wood doors literally had the finish baked
right off it in little over a year. The heat also shrank some of the
crossmembers to the point where there were gaps you could see through. The
door we have now (solid oak) I refinished at the end of last summer using
a
a high quality UV resistant outdoor stain and a UV outdoor poly top coat.
It's already flaking off.

I do not want to be painting doors every year.

Take the new door to a body shop and get an automotive paint on it. Cars
sit in the sun and last a long time compared to house paint.

"Gideon" wrote in message

I didn't consider 2 part epoxy auto finishes. This are probably
more durable, but they still could have problems. It is difficult
to obtain any finish which expands and contracts at the same
rate as the underlying steel. This creates shear forces which
will undermine the adhesion between the paint and the metal
surface.

It seems to work on steel automobiles.




Gideon wrote in message ...
I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that the auto paint will cook also.
I think that the temperatures on a dark door covered by a storm
door are much greater than those on an auto finish. Imagine the
difference for your auto finish if your car were wrapped in a non-
vented glass envelop a few inches from its surface every day while
baking in the sun. Combine that with the fact that there would be
a very big difference between the excellent factory finish on a car
and an aftermarket car paint finish applied to the house door.

Your dashboard can easily hit 150+ and things inside are painted.


If the auto paint provided much
relieve, then I'd assume that the steel door manufacturers would
spend the extra few dollars to use auto paint at the factory. I
would also guess that the door manufacturers are already investing
a lot of money in paint research.

Perhaps, but what colors? Homeowners generally buy a door for style and if
steel it is primed from the factory. How many colors should they offer and
how many will your local distribution system stock? Opens a big world of
inventory and expenses. It would be nice if they at least offered white and
they you could trim in a different color if you'd like.

I do know of a couple of doors that have been painted by a body shop. They
are still in perfect condition after 15 years, but they do not get much
direct sun so it is not a fully fair comparison.

On Mon, 09 May 2005 20:15:51 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:


"Gideon" wrote in message

I didn't consider 2 part epoxy auto finishes. This are probably
more durable, but they still could have problems. It is difficult
to obtain any finish which expands and contracts at the same
rate as the underlying steel. This creates shear forces which
will undermine the adhesion between the paint and the metal
surface.

It seems to work on steel automobiles.




Gideon wrote in message ...
I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that the auto paint will cook also.
I think that the temperatures on a dark door covered by a storm
door are much greater than those on an auto finish. Imagine the
difference for your auto finish if your car were wrapped in a non-
vented glass envelop a few inches from its surface every day while
baking in the sun. Combine that with the fact that there would be
a very big difference between the excellent factory finish on a car
and an aftermarket car paint finish applied to the house door.

Your dashboard can easily hit 150+ and things inside are painted.


If the auto paint provided much
relieve, then I'd assume that the steel door manufacturers would
spend the extra few dollars to use auto paint at the factory. I
would also guess that the door manufacturers are already investing
a lot of money in paint research.

Perhaps, but what colors? Homeowners generally buy a door for style and if
steel it is primed from the factory. How many colors should they offer and
how many will your local distribution system stock? Opens a big world of
inventory and expenses. It would be nice if they at least offered white and
they you could trim in a different color if you'd like.

I do know of a couple of doors that have been painted by a body shop. They
are still in perfect condition after 15 years, but they do not get much
direct sun so it is not a fully fair comparison.



I would think that a bit of automotive engine paint would last like
forever on a door, especially if you prime it first.
..