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.

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.

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

"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

"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....

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