Mae, I can't help with this one but I'm all ears: I'm looking at replacing front & side doors this summer. All I can say is get your door factory finished if you choose metal...the paint just doesn't stand up if you or the store applysthe finish, I think it has to be baked on or something.

Alot depends on the style of your home and if it gets direct exposure to sun and weather. I've had beautiful wood doors that need to be refinished often because of sun/weather. I've also had metal doors, but these are my least favorite. And as for fiberglass, I've had some that were finished well, and I loved them. Currently we have an 8' fiberglass Therma Tru that was finished by our builder's painter. What a mistake!! He totally ruined the door, in my opinion. I'm sure he didn't use gel stain, and it is a mess. If you choose fiberglass, be sure to get it factory finished. Makes all the difference.

Both my front and back doors are metal, installed in 1984. I painted (no primer) the doors in oil paint. The back door gets the sun and all elements and still looks fine. The front door, under porch roof, I've changed color many times with a light sanding and latex.

We have the fiber glass door with a decorative window in it. Its about five years old and we've have been really pleased with it. I wanted wood as well but between the sun and weather variations it just wasn't practical for us.

Hi there! Thank you folks for responding to my questions. Now it seems I have more questions.Joyce and Gracie you both seem to have had different experiences with the metal doors.Gracie has the actual door stood up as well as the paint or does it have dings in it. Our door guy said the metal doors are good but can be easily dented?Joyce aside from the bad paint job on the current fiberglass doors can you tell me why you liked them?Were there options to have them painted by the factory. From what i have seen in the pamphlets our guy gave us it seems like the door is either finished in a woodgrain factory finish or finished in a white primer that you then paint yourself? Are these the only options that you found? I guess my other question would be is how bad or good does the wood grain look In other words does it just look bad up close?Who would have guessed choosing a door would be so difficult and then all the style options too. I think Ford was on to something when the said you can have it in any colour as long as its black. Just one more question about the wood doors did anyone find them to warp and do they cost a lot more than metal or fiberglass?

First, I should confess that I am pretty persnickety about things attempting to be something they are not, and I apologize in advance to those of you who don't agree.

Simulated wood grain and texture, in my view, never looks wonderful, at best looks rather ho-hum, and at worst looks pretty awful.

You never see any sign of grain in a properly painted wood door, so why would you want to use the texture on another material? And fine stained wooden doors are usually close-grained, chosen for the quiet beauty of their natural grain pattern, and stained so that the variation is subtle. This is difficult to replicate, and close up, nothing except wood really looks like wood.

I currently have a metal door (my house was built in the mid 90's) and it has small dents from my kids. I have recently begun the search for a new door and am switching to fiberglass,factory finished paint. The store rep told me to avoid a storm door in high sun areas -the paint can peel in this pressure cooker. The options in doors,transoms,leading etc are endless ands it is quite daunting, not to mention expensive.

I have a mahogany door that has held up well for 3 years. It faces north and is under a covered porch.

I have a fiberglass wood door that I was " forced" to buy to replace an 80 year old wood one. I so wanted wood again but it is a southern exposure in New England and the wood was in horrible repair. People always comment on my new door, Far more than they did the old one, which was refinished and for a few years looked good. When I point out that it was not my first choice for it is fiberglass, they actually always walk over to touch it and then still are amazed. My friends must not be as smart or as picky as Bronwynsmom :). The finish was factory done and has held up very well in its 4 years. I will say it cost a small fortune but I am happy with it. I also do not use a storm door.

This post was edited by roarah on Tue, Mar 12, 13 at 12:32

Thank you all so much for your input it has given me a lot to think about. Ratherbesewing yes this is daunting. Bronwynsmom I must admit that I usually feel the same as you about something made to look like wood when it is not wood.I think in this case I feel myself leaning to a non wood door because the thought of maintaining one does not appeal to me . Roarah I never would have guessed that door is not wood it is beautiful.Can you tell me what your dealer said about upkeep and will it fade?Would you please also tell me the company you purchased it from?

My dealer, Branford Building Supplies, gave no special instuctions and so far it has not faded, the inside is the same as the interior after 4 years. It is a Classic Craft therma tru in mahagony factory finish. I actually preferred Provia's signet collection wood grain more, but did not like their glass and door style options as much as the one I now have. and as it turns out my therma door was over 1000 less than all my provia choices. I attatched the link to Therma tru door options on the bottom of this post. You pick style, glass and finish to order. Also be sure to check out provia, they are really the nicest faux wood out there but you pay a hefty price for it:) http://www.proviaproducts.com/products/entry-doors/#/signet_fiberglass_entry_doors/options/Signet-With-Glass

Good luck on your search.

Here is a link that might be useful: therma tru link

I currently have mix of all the kinds of doors.

I have a 20 gauge steel door going into the garage. It's on the west with little overhang. It bakes. I purchased it primed and painted with regular exterior latex and looks fine (other than brushstrokes) and it's 4 years old. It has no dents but I think it the gauge of the steel has a lot to do with that. Our previous door was a lumber yard grade door that was 24 or 26 gauge and had dents like crazy.

I have a oak grain fiberglass entry door with 1/2 glass. Again I opted against factory finish and did it myself. I painted the outside black and stained the inside. This is on the north with a storm door and large porch overhang. Door is holding up great. Yes, the wood grain isn't as realistic as a real wood door but it still looks great and it's fooled a few people from a distance.

And for our patio door we have a real wood door with vinyl cladding on the exterior. This door the exterior was factory finished and the inside once again I stained. It replaced a solid wood patio door that was held together by paint and caulk. It faces the south and had deteriorated to the point we could see daylight.

I've been happy with all my doors. All from different manufactures but all from a reputable Door/Window company.

We had metal doors for about 10 years before they both started to rust. We have replaced them with Therma Tru fiberglass doors, and we have been very happy with them. They are both painted, not stained. The stained doors look great if you get a factory finish. They are very difficult to do on your own. I did one at my parents house, and swore I would never try it again. The results were okay, but you would never mistake them for real wood.

The fiberglass doors are much better for insulating than the metal, but also much more expensive.

You couldn't pay me to buy anything from Jeld Wen. We had some of their premium wood windows installed a few years ago, and they were a joke. The first ones were defective, and the second bunch was even worse. After three tries by Jeld Wen, we took them out and installed Pella. They were far superior to Jeld Wen and cheaper.

So far, the Therma Tru doors have been great

I have the original metal double entry doors (20 years). When we purchased the house the doors were turquoise--not on my house! So I took them to the auto body shop. They painted both sides (outside and inside) of the doors for $157. They added a deglosser so the paint wouldn't be shiny like a car. It has worn fantastically. Now that I repainted the exterior of the house, I need to repaint the doors and I will again take them to the auto body shop. I'm sure the cost will be high than the last time but they are still in good shape so I will save a considerable amount of money give the estimates I've gotten to replace them.

Good luck, it's a hard decision to make.

We've had Provia steel doors in a wood-grained factory finish. They are east facing, under an overhang and we do have all glass storm doors in front of them. The Provia doors were warranted against damage from heat build up with storm doors, as I recall.

Thy look beautiful but they did get 2 small dents on the interior side, when I had my hallway retiled. As I recall, the wood grain steel was a slightly thinner gauge than the non texture, so that may have contributed to the susceptibility to dents.

Helene

Roarah I checked out the Provia doors. Oh my they are lovely and the way you get to design your own on their web site is so much fun. I tried to find a dealer close by but no luck. I am thinking they are definitely out of our price range but thanks for the info. Mustangs getting an auto body shop to finish the door is a very good idea, I am going to run that by my husband.thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. I have been a lurker here for many years and am embarrassed to say I have been a consumer and not a contributor so I am going to try and change my ways. It really is a great site and I have gleaned a lot of great information over the years.thanks all.