To equip their homes with the maximum level of comfort and safety, people most often prefer to install metal doors in their home, rather than wooden. 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 differs in its characteristics, advantages. You can learn a lot of new and useful information by reading this article to the end.
You need to choose slowly
How to choose a metal door? If you asked this question, but do not know what to start with, then first you need to decide on the material from which the door will be created. According to their characteristics, metal doors significantly surpass many other similar structures made of other materials. They are resistant to damage and deformation, and also have reliable locks and high-quality fittings, which is an additional level of protection at home.
Fire safety indicators for entrance metal doors are also significantly higher than for wooden counterparts. Nevertheless, before deciding on a choice, it is necessary to go through in more detail all the door construction options, their advantages and differences.
Door Materials
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. The core for the door is always metal. Depending on different circumstances, these may be such resources:
- Aluminum. This is a very simple and affordable metal for processing. Thanks to this, the speed of production of goods is significantly increased, as well as a variety of decorative solutions for construction.
- Steel. The characteristics of noise and sound insulation, as well as durability 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 sheet, the greater the likelihood that attackers, when they try to enter the house, will only break their hopes about it.
What to look for when choosing metal doors? Exterior finish, of course, is an important indicator that every buyer pays attention to.
Most often, materials for high-quality door decoration are selected:
- 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. Moreover, such a panel provides an increased level of sound insulation, which is a very important aspect for many office buildings.
- Powder coating. This is a relatively cheap type of decoration for doors. She has excellent protective qualities, as well as anti-vandal characteristics.
- Panels made of wood. Such panels are considered the most expensive options for finishing structures. Moreover, they are distinguished by their environmental safety, attractiveness and style.
Burglar Resistance
If you need tips on how to choose a metal door to the apartment, then an important point will be to pay attention to the indicator of the stability of the structure against breaking. This criterion is important for both residential and non-residential buildings. Depending on the stability class, you can determine the level of security of the door. 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 can not withstand.
- An attacker can infiltrate the premises using a standard set of tools that are available in ordinary life. It can be a screwdriver, knife, etc.
- To get inside the premises, it is necessary to use a more complex or heavy tool, like scrap and stuff.
- The structure may be damaged after using an ax, hammer or drill.
- For opening it is necessary to 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?", Then it is very important to pay attention to this indicator.
What are stiffeners?
When reading a review of metal doors, you can certainly come across this term. To significantly improve the mechanical quality of doors, it is best to use stiffeners inside your structure. In turn, such components make it possible to reduce the likelihood of damage to doors, increase its resistance to mechanical damage and reliably protect your home.
What to choose an entrance metal door? The one that in its design contains a larger number of stiffeners. Most often they are made in the form of a pipe with a rectangular cross section, and are made of sheet steel, bending several times before installation. Thus, a fin is relatively light in weight 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, such a design 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 entire structure, which in turn accelerates the wear of door hinges, which must withstand such a heavy load.
If you do not know how to choose a metal door, then you need to decide: what will it have a purpose, how will it be used in the future, and what are the requirements for protecting the room to it?
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 sheet. The best indicator is 2-3 millimeters. This size is more than enough for the doors to fully function, but so that burglary-proof qualities do not deteriorate from this. If the dimensions of the metal doors are less than 2 millimeters in width, this will significantly reduce the stiffness of the blade, which will result in a resistance class against burglary of 1 or 2.
If this indicator is more than 3 millimeters, then the stiffness will be slightly improved, however, the size and severity of the doors will be critical. This can very negatively tell on the use of doors and the life of the unit.
Door filling
Entrance doors are not just a fringing and visiting card of your house. First of all, they are a key component of the security of the entire room. In this regard, it is extremely important that each element of this design was of the highest possible level of quality. To equip such a design, you must definitely use the necessary details.
- Ball hinge - copes with various door weights.
- Antislice. Their installation is carried out from the hinge side, helps protect the house from illegal entry.
- Double-circuit seal. Helps to save heat indoors so that the doors fit tightly to the room.
- The optimal box size is 120 millimeters.
- External platbands. At the same time carry out decorative and protective functions.
- The design of the doors, both inside and outside.
- A reliable castle system that will be the key to the security and integrity 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 ensure the most comfortable living conditions in the house, it is necessary that the door structure meets the existing requirements and standards. Sound and heat insulation are key indicators when it comes to choosing doors.
It should be noted that the following factors influence the presented indicators:
- The door leaf can be filled inside with high-quality heat-insulating material, which will help to cope perfectly with your tasks. Moreover, they will not particularly burden the entire structure. One of the most optimal options for filling the cavity is considered basalt or mineral wool. The main advantages of such raw materials are resistance to fire, environmental safety, as well as the fact that it retains heat indoors without passing cold drafts.
- An alternative to sound insulation is processing the door structure with decorative panels. You can use wood, MDF for these purposes, because such materials perfectly help to damp out sound.
- High-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 sealant, which is located on both sides of the circuit, will be the best option for its location. This allows you to get excellent insulation indicators.
- All voids between the opening and the door frame should be filled in order to significantly reduce heat loss in the cold season.
We pass to the choice of the castle
Like doors, locks are divided into several classes according to the level of resistance against breaking. The most important characteristic of any castle is the time it takes to open it. This performance 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 get around him.
Also, another serious indicator when choosing this mechanism is the material from which it was made. The highest quality, stability and strength is steel.
How to choose a door lock for a metal door? You need to understand what locks are in the door:
- The pin. Increased secrecy is a key advantage of this type of locks, but relatively little time is required to open them. Additionally, it is worth equipping such a castle with an armor plate.
- Suvaldny. Its design incorporates plates that, during the opening, line up in a given order. The reliability level of this 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 lock presented, you only need to select the correct master key.
- Combined. This type of castle is the most popular and sought after. For the manufacture of such a mechanism, two systems are used simultaneously - a two-cylinder, cylinder-level or two-level system.
Correct installation
Before finally deciding on a suitable door model, it is important to understand exactly what professionals should do the installation best. If you independently engage in this process, without having the necessary experience or skills, you can damage the integrity of the door and its basic qualities - heat and sound insulation. Because of this, you will have to make additional financial expenses.
Most often, the installed door may not correspond to the declared characteristics precisely for the reason that mistakes were made during its installation. Thus, the insulation may be damaged due to the loose fit of all substrates, such as panel and box. Protective qualities may be affected by improperly selected tools or work parts.
If you accidentally made a mistake during installation, you have several solutions: buy a new door or provide all the work to experienced professionals. If you choose the last option, then you are guaranteed to get a reliable result in a short time.
Big choice
Nowadays, there are a large number of different models of doors and solutions for them. You can go to any construction hypermarket or go to the website of online stores where you will see this variety. Moreover, you can even get custom metal entrance doors to order, which will be of high quality, durable and made according to your design.
Such doors will not only perfectly pour into your interior, but also over the years will reliably protect you from unauthorized intrusion.
Should I take Chinese metal doors?
Every year, relatively cheap products from China are increasingly filling the domestic market. Cheapness has never been a sign of quality, so if you see an inexpensive version of a Chinese metal door, you should be careful with this option. Of course, each of us wants to save on construction, but this can have fraught consequences.
Metal for high-quality steel doors should differ not only in its thickness, but also in the level of quality. Chinese products are made from local steel or purchased in 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, are made with minimal welding, which significantly affects the burglary resistance.
It is also necessary to add that any door structure made of such a thin metal is not very safe. Everything else that you can hear is just tenacious advertising tricks. This product segment is vulnerable even to 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 devices.
Door closers
The main function of such an element is the ability to automatically close the door. Before such solutions appeared, homeowners had to put hard metal springs. They could not be adjusted, so the doors were constantly closing with a crash. The closer does the work smoothly and without excess noise. They are most often placed in porches or in places where people are constantly passing through.
Thanks to closers, the doors will not stand wide open in cold weather. They will close them tightly, without passing an unpleasant draft and extraneous noise from the street.
What are closers?
How to choose a door closer on a metal door? First you need to understand their varieties:
- Lower.
- Upper.
- Hidden.
The most popular is the upper closer, because it differs in universality and elementary installation. Such an element can be seen on almost every door, which is located at the entrance to the building. The case is mounted on the top of the door leaf, and the lever is placed on the horizontal element of the box.
Variety of manufacturers
There are many companies that manufacture doors. Not surprisingly, it is not always possible to understand which metal door company to choose?
- Doors "Tycoon".
- Torex.
- Kazan plant of steel doors.
- Lankord.