Our house was built in 2001. We have a double front door and garage entry door, both fiberglass by Thermatru. The front door with full lite glass has had serious warping. The top and bottom both twist in. This is in a covered area facing East. The garage entry is fine, but the seal went out in the 1/2 glass. I sent claim to thermatru direct. Via email I was able to get replacement. But not what I wanted. They were willing to send me one new door slab and 3 new pieces of glass since our style was discontinued. That would have been a nightmare trying to get the new one to match both inside and outside with paint and stain. We compromised with 2 new front slabs and 1 new glass. They sent it immediately. We are just getting around to replacing with spring weather. I’m exasperated and haven’t even started. Seeing what they sent, it is going to be a huge hassle to change out the glass AND strip and repaint the surrounds, etc that didn’t get replaced. Now looking at steel doors from Menards, Mastercraft. I see the good and bad reviews, but honestly I’d be happy if that lasted 2/3 the time these did as these fiberglass doors are crap. I want durable fade free doors. I did buy a Home Depot door for garage to house, with glass, not fire rated, my concern in that. Our installer said it was the easiest door he’s ever put in and to this day it opens and closes perfectly. On at least its 5th year. Didn’t spend more than $500 for it.

Does the Chambers have a backguard? Could you do a bit of a bump out if not? Or, what about a patinated or a bit swirled copper piece behind the range top, color matched to the Chambers? That would be a similar material instead of another surface. If you are going to do stainless counters, they also needn’t be the smooth shiny. They can be machine marked with subtle swirls or brushes to not show the water spots or steam condensation. Honestly, if you are the type to wipe off the faucet every time, you are the type to wipe off the backsplash too. No matter what material it might be. Another spritz of Windex and 70 seconds of wiping on a brushed copper or stainless surface is not going to be a major addition to your workload when you are already wiping down everything. And the brushing will hide any streaks so that it doesn’t take you 10 minutes of wiping just right.

Thanks for all of these thoughts. Truly. After trying to look at his "completion" list and having knots in my stomach all night thinking about talking to him the next day, we had a very brief and tense discussion this morning. He said he would entertain the cost of doing the Johnson door kit, but his labor to install would be at my cost. I would also have to buy the kit and figure out how it would work in our situation, space wise. And I would still have to pay him for the framing he did. I told him I would think about it, and then called Johnson to see which kit would work. Jeffrey R. Grenz is right, there is a 6 week lead time now. But that's not the worst part. The guy on the phone recommended using the 2000 series, and said for a 9' ceiling, the door can't be 104". The tallest it can be is 101.25". Their header and track combined is 6.75" tall. He said we'd have to cut 2.75" off the door, and the door company had originally said they don't recommend cutting more than 1.5" off the bottom of the door. I don't know if we can also cut 1.25" off the top to make up the difference. AND our crown is only 3.75". We would have needed 6.75" crown to make this work. I guess the cabinet guy could add trim below the crown at the door opening. Hopefully that won't look weird. In any case, I had a call for work so couldn't ask questions about the taller 1500 series and if that header is also huge. I'll have to call back later to find out. Maybe we can just use their track system, attach it to the ceiling joist (which is what I think he has done) and put up the steel studs for rigidity, but it seems from what Bruce says, the structure is really in the header. I don't know what to do. All of this could have been avoided if our contractor had given this any real thought before all of this started. And he had almost 2 months! He gave us a bunch of wrong information (how wide the wall would be, how tall the door should be). In fact, he had told me to order the door taller to be on the safe side, because he could always shave it down but not make it taller. Ugh. It's so overwhelming when you're trying to figure out things in an area in which you have no knowledge, and your "expert" (ie. our contractor) is basically useless or absolves himself of any responsibility. Which is why we are so grateful for this tremendous community, or else we would be truly lost.

Don't bother with FG. They are much longer on the lead times. Provia makes a good door and anything there should last.