Wood means periodic maintenance, over and above cleaning. The main knock against metal/fiberglas doors is how heat causes problems. With a north facing door in Vancouver, mildew would be a bigger concern. Washing a fiberglass door is much easier and less damaging.

The problem then becomes how the door is painted/stained/finished. As long as you can get the look(faux finish) you want, the fiberglas door should be the better choice.

We are also in Vancouver, well North Vancouver, and are doing a wood front door and fiberglas for all others.

In my old house I had a metal door ... it was perfect. No maintenance, no problems.

In my current house I have a lovely wooden door with leaded glass on the top half. Not so perfect in terms of function: With the heat /cold, it swells, so sometimes I have to "give it a hip" to open it. It could also use a bit of sanding /restaining.

I will not go with wood again.

Our new home is getting a fibreglass door identical to this...

We have our choice of high quality wood or top of the line Therma-Tru fiberglass and were surprised to learn that wood is cheaper than fiberglass. No doubt wood is gorgeous. But our builder said that real wood requires maintenance (light sanding, applying a coating) every year or two if you want it to stay beautiful. And he noted that with changes in the climate over a year (southeastern US), sometimes wood doors have to be adjusted to stay properly aligned.

Well, I've had the same painted wood front door on this house since it was built in 1948 - I moved in in 1984, but know the two previous owners and they vouch it's the same door. And I'm sure mine is pine. I have had no problems - just a coat of oil-based paint every 4-5 years. I do use acrylic on my shutters - less fading from sunlight, but my front door is under cover facing East, and I didn't like the color in acrylic. I don't like metal or fiberglass doors. Could care less what they cost - they just look fake and cheap to me.

We had a mahogany wood door in our old house in NC. The door faced east and was under a porch. It was beautiful but a maintenance nightmare. The sun really did a number on it. Light sanding and coating every year and even then there were some brutal summers that took it's toll and we had to have someone sand the entire door down to bare wood and re-stain before we sold our house. We went with fiberglass for our new house.

we did fiberglass doors, stained to look like wood. We LOVE them.

We did NOT love reading the thermatru maintenance book and learning we would still have to recoat the top layer every few years. :P
But, we didnt want a steel door, so we'll live with it. All of our doors except one are under a covered entry, so they don't get that much sun.

I just installed a fiberglass door that is stained to look like mahogany. If you look at the door closely, you can definitely tell it's not wood. It's on a south facing porch so I hope it holds up.

suru11 - pic please!

I replaced the original wood slab front door on my home 30 some years ago. Being in a cookie-cutter subdivision, all the homes had the same door type, although with different 50's style windows in them (I had a diamond shaped window). The door was behind a storm door and had been re-varnished by the original owner. Even still, it had warped slightly and the edge leaked like a sieve. The original copper weather strip wasn't very useful. The entrance faces east.

At the time when I replaced it (30 years ago), I used a steel door, painted white on the outside and stained on the inside. The fake grain pattern in the steel doesn't fool anyone. At the time, the contractor suggested I try fiberglass because it was the new thing. I don't know if it really was new at that time but I couldn't afford it and stayed with steel.

The steel door has held up very well and was way better than the wood door it replaced as far as sealing and remaining weather tight over the years. I still have a storm door. While it hasn't happened to me, I have seen steel doors rust if they get scratched and are exposed to the weather. They also dent.

IMO, I'd go with fiberglass which is what I'm using in my new build. The high end ProVia Embarq and Signet fiberglass doors are amazing.

ProVia

The high end ProVia Embarq and Signet fiberglass doors are amazing.

Provia, is definitely one of the best FG Doors out there. HMI, Homeguard and Albany are very good as well.

I'll be honest and state that while I've received tons of compliments on my Thermatru stained doors (even from the home appraiser who HATED the rest of my home!) , that they look best viewed from about 4-5ft away. While they are impressed with a quite realistic grain, my 'woodworking eyes' feel that the grain is reversed from what it should be, so up close, it feels 'off' to the observer. From 4-ft away, it's like tromp l'oiel - distance makes the perspective work, and they look magnificent. I do love them.

Note: Thermatru Doors ship unstained, and staining is a PITA. They don't recommend gel stain, but instead using a oil based stain. Thermatru sells their own stain kits for $100 each, but they only do 1 door and sidelites, or 2 doors. But the first coat is VERY light. So if you want a dark color, be prepared to spend some $$$. I don't have my sample stain-square with me, but I'll state that 1 coat looked AWFUL - the peach priming coat of paint was VERY visible to me.

We phoned customer service and they stated that you can use ANY oil based stain, and water-based poly to topcoat them. So that's what we did, as I did 4 doors in just over 1 gallon of stain. We found using a chamois-sponge really put the layers on thinly, which made for a nice finish. Overall you aren't staining in the traditional sense, but laying thin coats over each other.

This means you need non-humid weather to stain them, and HOURS of drying time in between. If you have someone doing this offsite its OK, but if you are like me and doing them yourself, budget 2 days per door minimum, and likely a week at least between staining and topcoat to ensure the oilstain layer is dry.

For the dark color I wanted, it took 3-4 coats.

Exterior:

Interior of same door (showing effect of lighting, it looks darker)

Lookintomyeyes - Your doors turned out beautifully!

Thanks Suru11! They were a hell of a lot of work, but I do love them!

All the doors look pretty good! Thanks for the pics!

I have hit an interesting snag. Our plan was to do an 8ft door with one sidelight and a 1 ft transom above. Well it turns out that that is not a standard set-up for fiberglass doors! So I have to do something custom or switch my plan. Who knew?

I am also trying to measure up Pella, Thermatrue and Trimlite doors as these seem to be the local options. pricing is highest with Pella and trimlite is the cheapest. I want to feel like I am getting the best value.

I have wood front doors. and still do if building again.

It sounds great, and the mahogany door really looks great. I also chose the door for a long time, because my wife was not satisfied with many options, and we could not agree on one. She was not satisfied with fiberglass, and we both did not understand how to choose and focused only on the appearance. In the end, we were able to solve it by contacting a good Composite Door Manufacturer. They advised us a lot of options, and we still chose a comfortable and quite beautiful wooden door with their help. In General, we now like it very much, we have been happy with this door for six months. (A door like this one)