nydio, what are your priorities for the door? That will really dictate wood vs vinyl. I install both Marvin products, as well as Okna and some other vinyl lines, and the right answer really lies in what you want out of the door. If the rich feel of real wood is at the top of that list, it is hard to beat a wood door. If you want something very airtight and efficient, the high end vinyl lines are hard to beat. I will say that while I generally like the Integrity line as a reasonably priced wood interior option, I installed a sliding door recently that has a bit more air leakage than my client liked. Upon replacing a few parts, it improved a little bit, but ultimately it was determined that the performance was as expected. Conversely, some of the tighter sealing vinyl doors take a little more effort to operate due to all of the weatherstripping and tight tolerances. I'd recommend checking out some displays to really get a good idea of the look and feel... If by chance your primary reason for wanting a wood interior is the ability to match a stain color, Okna does have a stainable interior laminate as well. The Sunrise is another good vinyl door.

Fiberglass doesn't really bring anything to the table that cannot be had with the "Big 2", vinyl and wood. There are some excellent performing fiberglass products coming out of Canada, but most of the stuff state-side doesn't present anything compelling, again, unless it fits a narrow set of circumstances. The long and short of it is this: Wood is better at being pretty, and vinyl is better at being energy efficient, cost effective, and low maintenance.... These comments refer primarily to a full fiberglass product. If you are looking at fiberglass construction with a wood interior, something like a wood/ultrex Integrity, wood/fg Pella Impervia, and the like, I'd lump them in with wood clad products personally. Still have interior maintenance (primary risk is condensation), and you are choosing form over function. A full fiberglass unit is kind of the worst of both worlds (not as pretty as wood or as efficient as vinyl but still has the high price and generally lesser warranty), but let's say you want a painted interior other than white. If I was shopping for a window or sliding door that could be painted gray, I'd definitely lean toward fiberglass over wood. You lose the beauty of wood when its painted, and fiberglass won't ever rot.

Dealing with a similar sutuation. New build with same windows. I was a little surprised when i noticed the exterior mitre joints, as mine are identical. One thing i know for sure is that “damage” you think is from the factory is 100% from the installer. Mine were installed with way more damage. Aside from the major damage, I did have those scuff/scratch type marks all over several of mine as well, the good news is - they literally wipe off with a decent amount of elbow grease. I was happy when I realized it wasnt permanent.

You cannot convert an exterior inswing to an outswing later; different threshold, jambs/stops, hinges. I guess you could if you want to tear all of that out and start over. For an open patio, it will have to remain closed, unless you like bugs or those curtain screens and want it flailing in the wind. When opening, you have to hold on to the door handle so it doesn't fly open or the wind catch it. We were warned about the wind thing with our new swing-out doors. Hopefully the wind will not be too bad since the doors open out unto a screened porch, but I plan to have some sort of soft pouf like thing for a door stop in case the doors do get away from us. They will be placed against the brick walls where the doors will open out to. Now to find something! Or I could use these $$$ or make something like THIS without the rope. Should be easy to sew up triangles and stuff with sand. Certainly not $70 worth! They can also be used to keep the door open without worrying that they will slam shut.