One of the elements of each house or building, for example, for public purposes, are doors, both external, entrance, and internal, for example, doors for baths and toilets separating individual rooms from each other. It is undeniable that their purchase can be difficult, given the number of models available, and more often than not, when buying, we focus only on the low price of the selected door leaf. Unfortunately, this usually does not reflect the quality, especially of the front door, which should protect the interior of the house well from both the weather and burglary attempts. We do the same in the case of interior doors, sometimes forgetting how many years and how intensively they will be used.
Entrance doors. What material should they be made from?
There is an old saying that the front door directly testifies
about the owners of this house or apartment, and there is a lot of truth in these words. Exterior doors are the first thing that catches your eye, so we need to make sure they are of the highest quality. However, they carry not only a purely representative and aesthetic function, but also constitute the first and most important barrier from noise, moisture, cold and all uninvited guests. Therefore, their choice should always be carefully considered and when buying, you should pay special attention to their parameters:
• burglary resistance to effectively deter any thief, and statistics that only 15 percent of burglaries occur through doors are irrelevant. We may simply be unlucky and fall into this number, so it is necessary to equip the door leaf with appropriate reinforcements that protect against burglary and strong, certified locks;
• the type of material used in the production of this door leaf, and most often plastics such as PVC are used for this purpose, by far the cheapest, but at the same time the least durable and susceptible to damage. Therefore, the best choice would be doors made of various types of wood, especially suitable for buildings in a classic style. With proper insulation, they protect well from weather conditions, and when reinforced, they guarantee a satisfactory level of security, but not as high as metal doors. They are made of steel or lighter aluminum angles covered on both sides with a thick sheet. To improve the aesthetics, powder painting is carried out in any color or wood veneer at the request of the customer, strong locks and other locking elements are installed;
• the heat transfer coefficient, which should be as low as possible, not exceeding 2.6 W per square meter of the door surface, so the leaf must be properly insulated with high-quality thermal insulation material, most often mineral wool or polyurethane foam, placed inside its structure. This has a positive effect on lowering home heating bills.
• The aforementioned purely aesthetic qualities, elegant and stylish appearance are always suitable for the type of decoration of the building in which they will be installed. The model we have chosen will last for many years, so it should ideally match in color not only with the facade or roof, but also with the interior of the house, with a touch of walls and floors;
• ease of installation, which is greatly facilitated by the manufacturers themselves, offering almost all models of doors in the form of kits consisting of the leaf itself, the frame on which it is attached, the threshold and all other elements, pins, screws, handles and locks. You can deal with standard sizes on your own, but it is always better to use the services of specialists who give a guarantee on all installation work they have performed.
Interior doors - matched to the style of the interior
Slightly different rules apply to the installation of interior doors, where we no longer need to pay attention to burglary or insulation. At the same time, the most important selection criterion will be their appearance, attractive design, which makes them a real decoration of our home. This feature can be considered in two ways, on the one hand, they can harmonize with the entire interior design, even being its invisible part, and on the other hand, they can be used to make the most important and noticeable element of the entire decor, corresponding to the style of decoration.
It is worth planning their purchase in advance, thanks to which we will avoid situations when we cannot find a model that meets all our requirements.They are made from the same materials as the entrance doors, although most often we choose models made of plastic painted in any color. However, despite such a wide range of shades, our homes are still dominated by white door panels, solid, used in the bathroom and kitchen, or glazed, allowing a lot of light into the interior. This is because it is the most versatile color, matching perfectly with other paints we paint walls with, or with the type and color of material on the floor. Of course, doors are also available in various types of veneer, including wood effect, and even natural or brushed aluminum models.
Due to the fact that we do not always have the pleasure of living in spacious houses, being content with a small apartment in an apartment building, we should also pay attention to the way the door panels installed in it are opened. Sometimes it is useful to abandon side-opening in favor of folding or sliding. The second option is especially recommended, since the door moves along special guides fixed on the wall surface, and in more expensive models it is hidden inside it, in a pre-prepared niche. Such a door saves a lot of space, which we always lack, and brings a little modernity to the interior.
