How to choose a door: entrance and interior, materials, nuances, important criteria

Thinking about which door to choose, any person first of all answers to himself - a good one. But this is too vague a response. What material should it be made of? What should be its design features? Does it matter what color it will be? And what else to look for? To understand all this and figure out how to choose the door, you need to consistently.

Main criteria

A good door can serve faithfully for several decades, but only if it is suitable for a certain apartment, fit in its place and meet all the requirements. To make this possible, you need to consider:

1. The location of the door. Entrance and interior doors should have different characteristics and look different. There are several options:
   • the front door requires greater reliability, sound insulation and heat insulation - if it is not thick enough, it will be constantly cold in the hallway and noisy in the house itself (while the door to a private house needs to be insulated more than the door to the apartment);
   • the interior door can be thin and practically do not affect the noise level, but it should take up little space and fit well into the interior - ideal if it is also quite resistant to mechanical damage;
   • the balcony door should shield the cold and the draft well, and also have a special glass insert to let in more light - and choosing a balcony door is no easier than the front door;
   • the door to the bathroom is slightly different from the interior, but should be made of material resistant to permanent exposure to high humidity.
2. Material. Depending on what material the door is made of, its main characteristics differ. Moreover, in the case of the front door, it is important to take into account the material of the insulation - it may not exist at all, but the noise and thermal insulation characteristics depend on it.
3. Weight. An entrance door that is too light is not reliable - an interior door that is too heavy can damage the door frame and become a problem for children and pets.
4. Design. The door should fit into the overall environment and harmoniously complement it.
5. Design features. Especially relevant in the case of interior doors - it depends on their device how convenient it will be to use them in everyday life.

In addition, when choosing the front door, you must additionally pay attention to:

• level of protection, which includes the thickness of the door, the design of the frame, the design of the lock and the presence of the eye;
• fire-fighting characteristics, on which it depends on whether the door will catch fire;
• protection against vandals, which is especially relevant if the entrance is deprived of a concierge or intercom.

Choosing a quality door is a non-trivial task. You need to approach it with accuracy.

Material

When wondering what material it is better to choose a door from, it should be understood that for different types of doors the answer will be different. Entrance doors can be made of:

• Tree. The most unreliable and lightweight material, from which only the cheapest options are made. Combustible, it does not insulate heat too well, can be sawn with the appropriate tool.
• Metal. The most common option - a metal door to the apartment is put most often.Heavy material, well isolates noise, with the correct design retains heat. Damaging it is difficult enough, with the proper thickness, you get a safe door that cannot be cracked.
• Combined materials. Most often there are metal doors sheathed in wood. This gives them a noble, aesthetic appearance, makes them look great, but makes them noticeably more expensive.

Interior doors can be made of:

• Tree. Wooden doors are considered the most noble and aesthetic - they are suitable for any interior, they isolate noise well, are environmentally friendly, but at the same time they are sensitive to high humidity, prone to drying out, do not have immunity to biological threats - mold, fungi, parasites. Improperly processed wood will not last very long, therefore you need to choose them carefully and purchase them only from trusted manufacturers.
• Cellular cardboard. The cheapest, but at the same time light and short-lived material. Vulnerable to moisture, mechanical damage, insects and mold, quickly crashes.
• MDF and particleboard. Lightweight, cheap and reasonably good materials. They serve less than wood, but are more resistant to moisture and drying out, and can look no less good.

In addition to the material of the main door, wondering how to choose the interior doors, you should consider the material of its coating. It is he who provides design refinements and provides a considerable part of damage resistance. It could be:

• Laminate. The cheapest option. Usually simply glued to the base, patterned imitates wood species. Over time, it tends to exfoliate, but if it is well taken care of, it retains a representative appearance for a long time.
• PVC coating. More expensive and high-quality option. Resistant to mechanical damage, offers a huge number of color options - up to printing to the taste of the client. Able to maintain a color background for a very long time.
• Veneer. Veneer coating is a thin section of wood, which is glued to the base. It accurately conveys the texture, holds well, looks beautiful and tolerates mechanical influences well, but has all the drawbacks of natural wood - it does not tolerate humidity and direct ultraviolet light. It is possible to choose veneered doors to any taste - veneers are made from all available types of wood and by their appearance they often cannot be distinguished from solid wood.
• Ecointerline interval. Cheaper material than veneer is not a cut of wood, but wood fibers bonded with artificial glue and attached to a door. The eco-veneer is more resistant to thermal effects and humidity, but at elevated temperatures it begins to secrete fumes that can adversely affect human health. Therefore, when answering the question “which interior doors are better to choose for an apartment?” They never answer “covered with an ecointerline interval”. Most often it is used in rooms where people do not live permanently.
• Glass. It is usually used not as a main coating, but as a decorative element. However, in rare cases, if this is implied by the designer's intention, it can completely cover the door. Completely environmentally friendly, resistant to mechanical damage (if you do not take cheap glass), to mold and parasites, to humidity and temperature extremes. You can tint it, choose any color, but it costs a lot.

In addition to the material, other nuances are also important, the main tips about which you need to remember.

Design Features

When wondering how to choose interior doors for quality, you need to pay special attention to how they are made. There are several types of designs:

• Swing doors. The most common option - most people, putting a new door, will choose it.The door is hinged and opens in one direction - most often in the apartment it is single-wing, unless in large houses double-wing doors can be installed. The disadvantage is that in order to open such a door, you need an unoccupied place, which may not be in a small room.
• Sliding doors (they are also sliding doors). Their design is simple - the sliding door does not open inward or outward, but moves along two vertical guides. The ideal solution for the interior in the Japanese style - the sliding door fits perfectly into it. It can also be a solution for a small apartment, where any place is valuable and it simply does not exist on swing doors.
• Folding doors. More complicated than sliding doors due to the large number of hinges. They look like an “accordion” that folds into one or the other side of a doorway. Their main advantage is decorativeness. They look much more original than even the coupe and fit perfectly into the interior design. The disadvantage is that over time the hinges become unusable. With active use, this can happen quite quickly.
• Swinging doors. The original solution - the door resembles a “turntable” installed in the opening. Does not open, but turns. Unfortunately, it easily fails - thinking about which is better to choose, it is worthwhile to pay attention to other designs. "Turntables" are relevant, as a rule, in public places where many people pass every hour.

In the case of entrance doors, everything is different, choosing a steel door, it is worth looking at:

• Canvas. The door itself is called a cloth - and it should be good. It should not have welds, it should be fixed evenly and should be thick enough so that it could not be drilled. In this case, the safe door in most apartments will be inappropriate and will only attract extra attention.
• Hinges. They should be enough to support the weight of the door, and at the same time they should be as internal as possible - this will not leave them unable to be cut by removing the door and setting it aside.
• Insulation. It should be dense enough to provide both thermal insulation and sound insulation. In addition, the door should fit snugly against the frame so that drafts do not form.
• Castle. Best of all, if there will be more than one of them and if they will not be too simple and at the same time not too complex - it can jam at the most inopportune moment. The best, albeit expensive, option is to make a custom lock. It is also good to put a deadbolt or chain - even on a heavy safe door.
• Knowing how to choose a metal door, based on its design features, you can go to the store, but before that you should also consider general tips.

Nuances and little things

When choosing a door, you should also take into account some nuances that will allow you to enjoy the chosen thing, and not reproach yourself for the wrong choice.

Design

The door should fit the rest of the interior. The noble tree looks good in the classical style, Japanese-style sliding doors, huge high-tech-style entrance doors and safes - and so on.

Using the mirror on the door, you can expand the room, with the help of proper coloring turn it into a kind of picture. The main thing - before going to the store to figure out which door will look best in the room.

The size

When ordering a door, you need to measure the main indicators of the doorway (in apartment buildings they are standard, but it is always better to play it safe) and go to the master already with them. It is important that the door is not larger or smaller, not warped, or stuck.

Manufacturer

It is not so important which company will have the door - it is important that it has a passport and a warranty card. If the basic technological provisions were violated during the manufacture and transportation, you must have documents with which you can complain about the marriage. There are many companies producing doors.Before buying, it will also be useful to read reviews about them on the Internet.

Choose the door patiently, so that it fits the concrete house. A safe door will be useless in a small Khrushchev, a swing door in a tiny room will only interfere. Decorative elements, material, construction, design - all this is important in order to create the perfect interior, which will be comfortable enough to live in.