Front Doors near you

The standard sorts products into two test categories, and an entry door can fall into either depending on how much glass is in one piece. Category I products, which the standard also calls Class B, are storm or combination doors and doors that contain no single piece of glazing material greater than 9 square feet in surface area on one side. Category II products, or Class A, include storm and combination doors and doors that contain any piece of glazing material greater than 9 square feet, along with sliding glass patio doors and bathtub and shower doors and enclosures. A single large lite can therefore move the door you are ordering into the more demanding category.

Glazing material is defined broadly: glass including annealed, organic-coated, tempered, laminated and wired glass, or combinations of them, used in openings through the listed products or as the products themselves. Under the general requirements, all glazing the standard applies to must meet the impact and environmental test requirements of the standard and must be labeled by manufacturers, and the test provisions are those of ANSI Z97.1-2015. A permanent label is defined as one that remains permanently legible and visible after installation and would be destroyed in attempts to remove it, which is why safety glazing is sandblasted, acid etched or hot stamped rather than stickered.

There are narrow exemptions worth knowing before you fall in love with a door. Openings in doors through which a 3 inch diameter sphere is unable to pass are exempt, as are the louvers of jalousie doors. So is decorative carved, dalle or leaded glass used in doors, but only where all four of the stated conditions hold: the coloring or texturing cannot be removed without destroying the material, the primary purpose of the glazing is decorative or artistic, it is conspicuously colored or textured so as to be plainly identifiable as decorative rather than functional, and it is divided into segments by conspicuous and plainly visible lines. One more detail catches installers: anyone who cuts certified and permanently labeled glazing material into smaller pieces is treated by the standard as a private labeler, with the obligations that follow.

The NFRC describes itself as the independent, nonprofit certification body for the energy performance of windows, doors and skylights, and it is the official certification body for ENERGY STAR windows, doors and skylights. That relationship is the reason a door label is worth more than a brochure: the numbers on it come from a third party rather than from the company quoting you.

A door label reads differently from a window label, and homeowners routinely misread it. The NFRC explains that the circled value shows the rating a specific door has received based on its glass configuration, and that each rating is split into two values, solar heat gain and U-factor. On a door label the U-factor range runs from 0.00 to 2.00, and the lower the number, the better the product keeps heat from escaping. Solar heat gain coefficient measures how well the product resists unwanted direct or indirect solar radiation: a low number helps keep a house cool in summer, while a higher one can help keep it warm in winter.

There is no national license for door work in the United States, and the state-by-state differences are not cosmetic. California names two classifications that can both touch an entry door: a glazing contractor under the C-17 classification selects, cuts, assembles and installs all makes and kinds of glass, glass work, mirrored glass and glass substitute materials for glazing, executes the fabrication and glazing of frames, panels, sashes and doors, and installs these items in any structure, while the C-6 cabinet, millwork and finish carpentry classification covers a contractor who makes cabinets, cases, sashes, doors, trims and other items of finish carpentry and places, erects and finishes such millwork in structures.

Other states regulate the activity instead of the trade. Oregon states the rule broadly: Oregon law generally requires anyone who works for compensation in any construction activity involving improvements to real property to be licensed, with carpentry and general repair services listed among the examples, and the state notes that even an exempt category does not eliminate the need for a lead-based paint renovator certification. Washington requires construction contractors to register with Labor and Industries, requires them to be bonded and insured to protect the public, and publishes a tool to verify a contractor, tradesperson or business, warning that working without registering carries substantial penalties and fines. Texas is the useful counter-example: the list of industries the Department of Licensing and Regulation regulates runs from air conditioning and refrigeration contractors to electricians and industrialized housing, and contains no window, glazing, door or general residential contractor program at all.

Permits are a separate question and are enforced locally under a code your state adopts. Florida shows the structure clearly: its statute directs the Florida Building Commission to adopt by rule the Florida Building Code, which contains or incorporates by reference the laws and rules governing the design, construction, erection, alteration, modification, repair and demolition of public and private buildings. What that means for you is simple. Swapping a door into an existing opening and enlarging an opening or cutting a new one are different projects, the second almost always involves a structural header, and only your city or county building department can tell you which permits and inspections apply at your address.

Taking out an old entry door disturbs paint on the casing, the stops and usually the jamb, and that is the trigger. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule establishes requirements for firms and individuals performing renovations and applies to work in houses, apartments and child-occupied facilities built before 1978. In general, anyone who is paid to perform work that disturbs paint in that housing must be certified, including sole proprietorships, and firms cannot advertise or perform renovation activities covered by the rule without firm certification. Carpentry and remodeling are both named among the covered activities.

The exemption homeowners hear about is narrower than it sounds. Minor repair and maintenance activities that disturb six square feet or less of paint per room inside, or twenty square feet or less on the exterior, fall outside the rule, but the EPA adds that window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are always covered regardless of square footage, and that activities designated as prohibited stay prohibited regardless of area. Paint testing is not required by the rule, but unless there is documentation that the paint is not lead-based, the rule's requirements apply, which puts the burden on whoever wants to skip it.

Checking a firm takes one search. EPA firm certifications are good for five years, and a number of states are authorized to administer their own RRP programs in lieu of the federal one, so in those states the certification you are verifying is the state's. If the company proposes to sand or burn old paint off a jamb without containment, you have learned something more useful than any review could tell you.

If the home was built to HUD's Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, its doors are specified federally at 24 CFR part 3280 rather than by the building code your neighbors are under, and the dimensions are not negotiable. The same distinction runs through the glazing standard from the other direction: the CPSC states that architectural glazing materials used in the listed products and used in mobile homes are not subject to part 1201. Tell any supplier which kind of home you have before anything is ordered.

Entry door quotes diverge for physical reasons rather than sales reasons. A slab into a sound frame and a full entry system with sidelites are different amounts of work at the opening. Rot found at the sill or the bottom of a jamb once the old unit is out is real carpentry that nobody could see from the driveway. Glazing level changes the product and the category it is tested to. A pre-1978 house adds containment and cleanup to the day. Made-to-order sizes and decorative glass are manufactured after the order is placed, so the installation date belongs to a factory rather than to the crew's calendar.

Get the comparison onto paper rather than into a conversation: the exact model and glass configuration with its certified ratings, whether the frame and sill stay or go, who disposes of the old unit, whether lead-safe certification applies and is held, who applies for any permit, and the product warranty and the labor warranty as separate terms.

LokalMatch handles only the introduction. You describe the entry door job once, including whether the opening is changing size, what you know about water at the sill and roughly when the house was built, and door installers working in your area get in touch with you directly. The pros who respond pay LokalMatch for each request they take. LokalMatch does not install doors, does not set prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so verifying the state license where your state issues one, the insurance and the certified ratings stays with you.