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Building a Home Design Dilemma entry

ProVia 42" x 96" entry door

29 days ago

Does anyone have a Fiberglass ProVia 42" x 96" door? Is it a heavy door? My space is 72" wide x 96" high. I would love to see photos. I wanted sidelights but they don't have what I need. The dealer said that over time the weight of the door will pull on the hinges. He suggested that I go with a shorter door and put a transom above. That is not what I want. My ceilings inside the house are 10' high and all of my doors are going to be 8' high. The covered porch is 11' high or maybe 12' high. In the beginning, I was going to do double entry doors but because of where we are located, I have been told that is not a good idea because of the wind, red dirt, and winter and not a good enough seal. I thought about doing a 42" door and window on the side just so I could see who is at the door. .

Thanks, Sue

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Comments (6)

millworkman
29 days ago
last modified: 29 days ago
Make sure they use at least 4 ball bearing hinges and a solid 5/4" frame (preferable to finger joint in my opinion) and you should have no issues.
wyosue58
Original Author
29 days ago
@millworkman thanks
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I ended up with a fiberglass Therma Tru door. They sold it at either Home Depot or Lowes (I cant remember which) but I ended up getting it at my local lumber supplier. I used them for all of my lumber so they gave me a good discount and free shipping. If there were problems they were great about picking things up for free and returning so it was worth the bit more money then the Lowes/Home Depot price. I went with an unfinished fiberglass and painted it myself. When it showed up unfinished I couldnt imagine how the end product could look like real wood. I painted it with a gel stain and I was really happy at how it did look so close to real wood to me. I chose fiberglass over wood because of the lower maintenance costs. I chose unfinished because I wanted a dark wood but in some of the pictures the mahogany looked a bit too dark and I was worried when it showed up it would be too dark. I also wanted three panels in the bottem section to match the 3 windows above and the other brand I almost got had 2 panels below. This brand also only had the door finsihed. I think this was a Masonite door. If it werent for the style differenes and capability of getting it unfinished with Therma Tru I might have chosen Masonite. Hope this helps. Im going to try to attach a picture as it probably would look nice on a craftsman style house.
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Provia, HMI and or Homeguard all should without much issue (and a quality door besides).
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Ksc36 - I disagree with you about the composite door jambs. Do you actually have a door with them? I drank the marketing Kool-aid when I ordered my new door, and chose the composite door jambs that replaced the 25-year-old wood door jambs. I am wondering if you did same. The wood jambs are heavier, feel solid. The composite door jambs feel light, and not solid. I should have realized that the composite door thing is a way for door companies to charge more for something that is much cheaper for them to manufacture, and so they made up a bunch of hooey to make people buy them. Sounds great in the brochures though. The owner of the door contracting company told me he has begun steering his customers away from the composite jambs now that he's had some experience with them.
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42” wide 8 ft tall. Mahogany Wood. I don’t think we paid much more for this door than a fiberglass door with sidelights. I wanted a door that visitors couldn’t see through. I had my builder put in a peephole. So far so good. https://residential.masonite.com/product-overview/exterior-doors/wood-door-collections/torrefied-wood-doors/
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chispa
29 days ago
last modified: 29 days ago
My previous house had a 42" x 96" wood door and it was about 18 years old when we sold the house. 4 high quality hinges. No issues with pulling, sagging or anything else.

From my experience, door weight when operating a door is a function of the quality of the hinges and not so much of the actual weight of the door.

Get a better door dealer! I would try to find a model with sidelites ... don't settle ... you'll regret it for years to come.

In the house we just built I have 12 foot ceilings and we designed a 42" x 120" custom wood door with 24" x 120" sidelites with impact rated glass. This door has 5 heavy duty hinges and a 5-point locking system. Designed to local hurricane codes.
wyosue58
Original Author
29 days ago
@chispa

Thanks, the dealers I have talked to are ProVia, Waudena, and ThermaTru. None of them have what I want and my search is not gaining results. I live in a semi-remote area and right now I can't travel to even go look at doors. I thought my house would be move-in ready by the end of the summer but the way things are going--it might be next spring or summer.
JP Haus
29 days ago
@wyosue58, we do not although I searched for quite a while to find a 42" wide fiberglass door and in particular one that's impact/storm rated. If wind is an issue in your location you may be out of luck.

I'm very impressed by the doors @chispa described and wish there was someone in our area who could do such custom work. We've compromised on a lot just to get the house built. It will be a comfortable house but its best feature is being less than three miles from our grandchild.

We went with ProVia, but our front door is only 36" X 80". We were not able to get a transom, so ended up with a door featuring (slightly obscuring) impact glass. While it's nice to have the light, I regret that we're losing privacy at night. We hope to address that problem soon after we move in.

We also were not able to see the door, or much of anything else, before ordering. Our timing on building was lousy, but it was important to us to be near our grandchild sooner rather than later.

Permits were pulled in December 2020, foundation work began the following March, and we're still not done. Our latest completion estimate is in about two weeks. We hope that enough will be finished to get our Certificate of Occupancy, especially since our pool builder recently informed us they won't complete and fill our pool until the house is occupied.
wyosue58
Original Author
28 days ago
@JP Haus

Thanks, I too wish I had someone that could build the door system but where I live that is not an option. Hopefully, my builder and my designer can meet with me soon. Like @chispa said--don't settle for something that I don't want. If I could find a sidelight that is operational for a wider opening--I would do that. That would be my first choice but I would want the sidelight to have glass that is up maybe 5 feet. I just want to be able to see if anyone is at the door.

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