exterior entry door types

Exterior doors should provide security, privacy, aesthetics, easy maintenance… and energy efficiency. To get it, the type of door - defined by the type of materials at their core - is very important. Solid wood doors aren't definitely the best option in what concerns energy efficiency (or maintenance, durability and price…).

Top manufacturers are offering three main types of entry doors: fiberglass, steel and wood.
Other types of exterior walls (garage doors, patio doors, storm doors…) use other types of materials (glass, vinyl, aluminum…). Doors that are mainly glass (patio doors) should be compared as windows, when assessing their energy efficiency.

The exterior wood door type

Exterior wood doors are available in a variety of colors and styles, with or without glass elements. They usually have to be finished and painted.

Some types of timber - softwoods, like the hemlock, or premium-grade hardwoods - and new methods involving laminated oak or heat-treated wood can provide greater stability to wood doors, but even the best of them, with the better woods, finishes and weatherstrips, aren't as durable, as free-maintenance or as energy-efficient as some other types of doors.

So, if replacing exterior doors, or building a new home, consider exterior non-wood doors, namely, well insulated metal (steel…) and fiberglass doors.

These doors are a better investment. They are more durable, require less maintenance and are more energy-efficiency. And they can be equally effective for privacy, aesthetics or security…

Exterior glass doors
Exterior glass doors – patio doors, garden doors, french-doors... - are excellent for views, for natural lighting or for fresh air and ventilation. But they can also collide with energy efficiency goals. See: Energy Efficient Patio and glass doors

The steel entry door type

The most common type of steel entry door has a steel skin and a polyurethane foam core. Like wood doors, they are available in many styles and sizes, and they may come with coatings that mimic the appearance of wood… They can be painted to match the home's exterior.

These doors do no warp, are fire- and crack-resistant, do not swell or shrink, and are extremely durable and almost without maintenance. Well installed and well weather-stripped, their insulation value can go up to R-5 or R-6, that is, five times or more the insulation value of an equivalent solid wood door.

Fiberglass door type

Fiberglass doors can match the insulation value of steel doors (many of them also come with foam insulation at their core, and top weatherstrips).

They share most of the advantages and characteristics of steel doors (dent-resistance, crack-resistance, rust-resistance, warp-resistance, easy maintenance…), but are less resistant to wear and less strong, which is a significant disadvantage in very large doors.

They are available in a huge variety of finishes, and can mimic almost perfectly the look of wood (they are better at mimicking the wood-grain effect than steel doors).

Other elements to take into account

Anyway, a door is much more than just the type of materials at their core. Elements like thermally broken frames (in the case of metal frames), weather-strips or the frame and glazing panels are also very important…

See: Advanced energy-efficient doors and National Fenestration Rating Council door ratings

Prices

The best solid wood doors are expensive - more expensive than energy efficient fiberglass and steel doors. You can find excellent fiberglass and steel doors in the range $200-$400, but prices vary significantly with details, finishes, their size and manufacturers (see: Exterior Door Manufacturers).