In order to equip their homes with the maximum level of comfort and security, people most often prefer to install metal doors in their homes rather than wooden ones. They are distinguished by a wide range of advantages, as well as very unpretentious in operation, but their service life lasts for several decades. The most important thing is to know how to choose a metal door.
Nowadays, there is a wide variety of such solutions, each of which has its own characteristics and advantages. You can learn a lot of new and useful things by reading this article to the end.
You need to choose slowly
How to choose a metal door? If you asked this question, but don’t know where to start, then first you need to decide on the material from which the door will be created. According to its characteristics, metal doors are significantly superior to many other similar ones.structures from other materials. They are resistant to damage and deformation, and also have reliable locks and high-quality fittings, which is an additional level of home protection.
Fire safety indicators for metal entrance doors are also significantly higher than for wooden counterparts. However, before making a choice, it is necessary to go through all the door design options, their advantages and differences in more detail.
Materials for the door
How to choose a good metal door? You need to understand what it consists of. The main difference of each metal door is its base material and decor. Metal is always used as the core for the door. Depending on different circumstances, these resources can be:
- Aluminum. This is a very simple and affordable metal for processing. Thanks to this, the speed of manufacturing goods is significantly increased, as well as the variety of decorative solutions for the design.
- Steel. The characteristics of noise and sound insulation, as well as strength are maintained at the highest level, which significantly distinguishes this material from other analogues.
Size and appearance
The thickness of such a frame is also important. The wider the leaf, the greater the likelihood that intruders, when trying to enter the house, will only break their hopes about it.
What to look for when choosing metal doors? Exterior finish is certainly an important indicator that every buyer pays attention to.
Most often the material for high-quality door decoration is chosen:
- Plastic panels. They are very easy to use and resistant to mechanical damage.
- MDF sheet. The main advantage of such raw materials is its environmental safety. What's more, this panel provides an increased level of sound insulation, which is a very important aspect for many office buildings.
- Powder coated. This is a relatively cheap kind of decoration for doors. It has excellent protective qualities, as well as anti-vandal characteristics.
- Wood panels. Such panels are considered the most expensive options for finishing structures. What's more, they stand out for their environmental friendliness, attractiveness and style.
Hackproof
If you need advice on how to choose a metal door to an apartment, then the important point will be to pay attention to the resistance of the structure against burglaries. This criterion is important for both residential and non-residential buildings. Depending on the resistance class, the security level of the door can be determined. Most often, manufacturers distinguish 6 different classifications:
- Penetration into the premises occurs without the use of special devices. This will require only physical strength, the resistance with which the door cannot withstand.
- An intruder can get inside the premises using a standard set of tools that are available in an ordinarylife. It can be a screwdriver, a knife, etc.
- To get inside the room, you need to use a more complex or heavy tool, like crowbar and so on.
- Structure can be damaged after using an axe, hammer or drill.
- To open, you must use powerful electrical appliances.
- Penetration into the premises is carried out only with the use of complex rare electrical devices and devices.
If you are interested in the question "How to choose a metal door?", It is very important to pay attention to this indicator.
What are stiffeners?
When reading the review of metal doors, you will certainly come across this term. To significantly improve the mechanical qualities of doors, it is best to use stiffeners inside your design. In turn, such components make it possible to reduce the likelihood of door damage, increase its resistance to mechanical damage and reliably protect your home.
Which metal front door to choose? The one that in its design contains a greater number of stiffeners. Most often they are made in the form of a pipe with a rectangular section, and are made of sheet steel, bending several times before installation. This results in a relatively light weight fin with excellent performance.
The optimal number of ribs in the entrance metal door is 3 pieces, two of which are installed vertically, and one horizontally. However, suchconstruction is not considered the most durable and high quality.
In this regard, many manufacturers significantly increase the number of ribs, using 6 or 8 elements. This affects the final weight of the whole structure, which, in turn, accelerates the wear of the door hinges, which must withstand such weight.
If you do not know how to choose a metal door, then you need to decide: what will it be intended for, how will it be used in the future and what are the requirements for protecting the premises?
Product thickness
The size of metal doors is also an important indicator, because the protective characteristics of the structure depend on the thickness of the outer leaf. The optimal indicator is 2-3 millimeters. This size is more than enough for the doors to fully function, but so that the burglary-resistant qualities do not deteriorate. If the dimensions of metal doors are less than 2 millimeters wide, then this will significantly reduce the rigidity of the leaf, due to which the class of resistance against burglaries will be at level 1 or 2.
If this indicator is more than 3 millimeters, then the rigidity will be slightly improved, but the size and weight of the doors will be critical. This can have a very negative effect on the use of doors and the service life.
Filling the door
Entrance doors are not just an edging and a visiting card of your home. First of all, they are a key component of the security of the entire premises. In this regard, it is extremely important that each element of this designwas of the highest quality. To equip such a design, you must definitely use the necessary details.
- Ball hinge - perfectly copes with different weights of doors.
- Anti-cuts. Their installation is carried out from the hinge side, helping to protect the house from illegal entry.
- Double-circuit seal. Helps to keep the heat inside the room so that the doors seal against the room.
- Optimal box size is 120 millimeters.
- External architraves. Simultaneously carry out decorative and protective functions.
- Decoration of doors, both inside and outside.
- Reliable locking system that will guarantee the safety and security of your home.
When choosing a suitable model of a metal door, be sure to pay the necessary attention to the indicators presented, which will help protect your home and significantly extend the life of the doors.
Heat and sound insulation
In order to provide the most comfortable living conditions in the house, it is necessary that the door structure meets existing requirements and standards. Sound and heat insulation are key considerations when it comes to choosing doors.
It is worth noting that the following factors influence the presented indicators:
- The door leaf can be filled inside with high-quality thermal insulation material, which will help to cope with its tasks perfectly. Moreover, they will notweight the entire structure. One of the best options for filling the cavity is bas alt or mineral wool. The main advantages of such raw materials are fire resistance, environmental safety, and the fact that it retains heat inside the room without letting in cold drafts.
- An alternative to sound insulation is the processing of a door structure using decorative panels. You can use wood, MDF for this purpose, because such materials perfectly help dampen the sound.
- Quality and proper creation of doors, where each element is tightly connected to each other, is the main condition for creating heat and sound insulation.
- Silicone seal, which is located on both sides of the circuit, will be the best option for its location. This allows you to get excellent insulation performance.
- All voids between the opening and the door frame should be filled to significantly reduce heat loss in the cold season.
Go to the choice of lock
Like doors, locks are divided into several classes according to the level of resistance against break-ins. The most important characteristic of any lock is the time it takes to open it. This indicator varies from 5 to 30 minutes. Thus, the fourth class is the most reliable, because it requires the maximum amount of time for an attacker to bypass it.
Also, another important indicator when choosing this mechanism is the material from which it was made. mostquality, stability and strength is steel.
How to choose a door lock for a metal door? You need to understand what kind of locks are in the door:
- Pin. Increased secrecy is a key advantage of this type of locks, but it takes relatively little time to open them. Additionally, it is worth equipping such a castle with the help of an armor plate.
- Suvaldny. Its design incorporates plates that line up in a given order during opening. The level of reliability of such a design is affected by the number of plates, as well as the material from which it was made. It is impossible to knock out the presented lock, you only need to select the correct master key.
- Combined. This type of castle is the most popular and in demand. For the manufacture of such a mechanism, 2 systems are used simultaneously - two-cylinder, cylinder-lever or two-lever.
Proper installation
Before finally deciding on a suitable door model, it is important to understand that installation is best done by professionals. If you do this process yourself, without having the proper experience or skills, you can damage the integrity of the door and its main qualities - heat and sound insulation. Because of this, you will have to incur additional financial expenses.
Most often, the installed door may not correspond to the declared characteristics precisely for the reason that during its installation it was allowederrors. Thus, the insulation can be damaged due to the loose fit of all the bases, like the panel and the box. Protective qualities may suffer due to incorrectly selected tools or parts for work.
If you inadvertently make a mistake during installation, you have several options: buy a new door or leave all the work to experienced professionals. If you choose the latter option, then you are guaranteed to get a reliable result in a short time.
Great selection
Nowadays, there are a large number of different models of doors and solutions for them. You can go to any building hypermarket or go to the site of online stores, where you will see this variety. What's more, you can even get custom custom metal entry doors that are high quality, durable and custom made to your design.
Such doors will not only fit perfectly into your interior, but will also reliably protect you from unauthorized intrusion for many years.
Should I take Chinese metal doors?
Every year, relatively cheap products from China fill the domestic market more and more. Cheapness has never been a sign of quality, so if you see an inexpensive version of a Chinese metal door, you need to be careful about this option. Of course, each of us wants to save money on construction, but this can have fraught consequences.
Metal for quality steel doors shoulddiffer not only in their thickness, but also in the level of quality. Chinese products are made from local steel or purchased from Korea. Such raw materials are not of high quality. Also, do not forget that during the manufacture of doors, all structural components are combined by welding. Chinese products are characterized by a small thickness of metal sheets, they are made with minimal welding, which significantly affects the performance of burglary.
It is also necessary to add that any door structure made of such thin metal is not very safe. Everything else you can hear is just tenacious advertising gimmicks. This product segment is vulnerable to even slight mechanical damage. Moreover, they can be dangerous in case of fire. Steel under the influence of fire begins to deform, the doors will jam, so it will be impossible to open them without the use of special tools.
Door closers
The main function of this element is the ability to automatically close the door. Before there were such solutions, homeowners needed to install rigid metal springs. They could not be adjusted, so that the doors constantly closed with a crash. The closer does its job smoothly and without unnecessary noise. They are most often placed in entrances or in places where there is constantly high traffic of people.
Thanks to closers, the doors will not stand open in cold weather. They will tightly close them, not letting in an unpleasant draft and extraneous noise from the street.
What are closers?
Howto choose a door closer for a metal door? First you need to understand their varieties:
- Lower.
- Top.
- Hidden.
The most popular is the top door closer, because it is versatile and easy to install. Such an element can be seen on almost every door that is located at the entrance to the inside of the building. The case is mounted on the top of the door leaf, and the lever is placed against the horizontal element of the frame.
Variety of producers
There are many companies that manufacture doors. Not surprisingly, it is not always possible to understand which metal door company to choose?
- Doors "Magnat".
- Torex.
- Kazan plant of steel doors.
- "Lancord".
