The garage probably requires steel.

Not a huge fan of the Polaris fiberglass although it is a fine door. Just looks old school to me.

How did that Kolbe door look?

Indeed, I've been told the garage entry has to be fire-rated although there's some debate there as well (the code gives options, of which fire-rated is one). So I wasn't sure if Fibreglass could be fire-rated but I was going to shore up that point. In any case, no glass.

I haven't had a chance to actually look at any of these doors yet apart from the Integrity slider. Many of the dealers aren't close so I'm trying to pare it down a bit. In any case, we are really not picky about the looks. It'd be nice if either my wife or I had a flair for design but alas, we do not. So it's primarily about function/price for us.

Fire Rated would need to Steel Door (There are Fire Rated hardboard doors but...) with a steel frame and not all companies offer these. Is this door form the garage to the house or from the house to the exterior?

This is a door from the attached garage into the house.

The FG doors should have a 20min fire rating. Depends if that is good enough for your area or not.
The slabs that Polaris uses are solid, assembly has been okay in my experience. The downfall is the finish quality from what I have seen. That said, at the prices listed, those are obviously not coming with a factory finish or pretty much ANY options. I would take the Polaris over all of the other doors listed with the exception of the Provia, which is in another league along with Homeguard IMO.
On sliders, depends if you want vinyl or wood. Personally I would favor the Sunrise.

Correct HS, for the sake of comparison I had these quoted out without any non-standard options. I figure once I make a call on which brand I can look at the various options and see what is or isn't worth it.

For the slider, I'm not particular on material. Really evaluating based on performance, quality, and price.

For what it's worth, I just confirmed that both Polaris doors are fire-rated. 90-min on the slab and 20-min on the frame. Michigan building code (Section R309.1) calls for certain thickness of door based on construction or 20-min fire rated doors. So I'm not worried on that front.

Any other thoughts on the slider? I'm going to try and check out the Polaris and Sunrise if I can find demo units reasonably close by.

I will be following your decision just regarding your front entry door. I am replacing mine too. I have to stay with a steel front entry door as required by my HOA. I am between Provia and Home Guard. They both look good. Provia is more expensive than Home Guard but as a percentage of the total job (I am getting new sidelites to the door too) it's not too bad, and if Provia is that much better, it would be worth it to me.

I know this sounds naive, but in the end I may go with Home Guard, just cause both the dealer and the manufacturer have been nicer to talk to. The dealer for Provia (whose other door they carry is Albany) dissed Home Guard as "not being the caliber of something we offer". I dunno, that tone kinda turned me off, cause the Home Guard door is a very good door, certainly better than the Albany door this Provia dealer also sells. Also, I need custom paint on the entry door, and Provia does do custom paint but made such a big deal out of it. When I called the Home Guard customer service number, they were very accommodating and said "we can do any custom changes you'd want" and were mellow about it. Obviously for an upcharge, but the hassle factor was very low compared to Provia, so that might just make my decision for me. Things are stressful enough, and if a manufacturer and dealer can be easier to work with, that's important to me. Though that Provia door is really really nice.

Please keep us posted on your decision process, and what you ultimately decide on.

This post was edited by Sahmmy on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 8:35

Will do Sahmmy though I'll warn that I'll probably end up with a different final decision to make than you. I couldn't find anyone to quote out HomeGuard without installation though someone _is_ going to come tonight to give me a quote with installation. Though I can't imagine that they'd come in below just the Provia door itself or anywhere beneath twice what the Polaris doors (of equal guage at least) are.

I've read many many threads on this forum and the pros seems to repeatedly give the same advice in situations like yours: go with the vendor that you feel more comfortable with or confident in. Both are high quality doors so your real concern is finding someone who will install it properly and, if something should go awry, will be easy to work with.

As a quick sidebar, having looked at both doors and the finish and construction quality, the Provia door is no better than the Home Guard door.

Having unloaded them from the truck...my back dislikes the Home Guard door as it weight a metric ton.

@ Sahmmy: +1. Shame on that vendor. The Homeguard and Provia lines are very similar in terms of quality overall, in fact, their high-end fiberglass slab is the same. To take it a step farther, for a factory stained finish the Homeguard wins hands-down. This is going to sound silly, but they are actually hand stained by Amish women in their factory, and the results are beautiful. Provia is sprayed on like everyone elses... And don't take that as bashing Provia, again, its a great door. Both are far superior to Albany.

@bdam: regarding the fire ratings, should be 90 min on the steel, 20 min on FG, and 20 min on the standard jamb (a higher rated jamb can be ordered as an option)

Does anyone know who the Homeguard dealer is in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago? Their website says it's experiencing technical difficulties on the Find a Dealer portion of the site and I've never received a returned email from them. Thanks.

As expected, the installed price for Home Guard was out of my price range: over 8k for all three doors. I'm sure it's worth the money but not on this house ... that's over 7% the value.

janitor53, I had the same problem so I simply called them directly and they gave me the contact info for the area rep who gave me a local vendor.

Two Home Guard dealers of which I know in Chicago - Door Store Chicago and A Better Door and Window

Janitor53 - I agree with Bdam that you should phone Home Guard, not email them. I've called them and they were very helpful.

Windowsonwashington - which kind of door was so heavy? Since I am getting a steel entry door, and the Provia steel door is 20 gauge and the Home Guard steel door is 22 gauge, I wouldn't think the weight of the two doors would be that different.

Bdam - too bad about the Home Guard doors for you. Please post back when you decide which doors you are getting.

Sahmmy,

The Timberframe Signature series.

They should ship a weight belt with that thing.

So I think I've settled on the Sunrise for the slider. The quote said "frame comes knock down" which I think means the frame needs assembly. Should that be a concern?
Any opinions on the glass option? Are the Ultra-U+Plus or UltraPlus 12 worth it beyond the regular Low+E and Argon?

Not if done properly.

KD frames are not my favorite but there are some really good KD doors (Sunrise being one of them).

The glass question depends on climate, house insulation, weak points in the system, etc.

I try to get clients to get the most efficient window or door they can get regardless.

Energy isn't getting cheaper.

Price for 6' Simonton patio door (west coast) (.30) $798
And
PlyGem with HP max Triple glazed (.23) $778

Tax Included
This is prices in California

Here is a link that might be useful: simonton

I installed these last month and finally finished off the interior trim this weekend so some before and after pics. Here's the front entry door before.

Here's the entry door from the garage. Before (look at that gap in the top right):

After. This is a Polaris steel door. You can't see it well in the picture but they had a wood-grain option that I went with.

This post was edited by bdam on Sun, Nov 23, 14 at 17:07

Exterior of old patio door:

Interior:

New Sunrise door. I went with the top-level glass option, it was $175 or so.

And interior. In retrospect, I should have investigated what a wider door would have cost. The trim is so large because there was over 4" on each side.

Looks good, nice product choices.

No, I think the door and trim are well proportioned. Looks really good.

+1

Well done.