The doors to your home are not just blocks of wood, metal, or fiberglass. They’re the entrance to your castle. They’re the spot where you greet your visitors or bring your baby home for the first time. That’s why it’s so important to find the right exterior doors for your home. If you’re in the market for new exterior doors, we hope this blog post will help make your search easier.
The Importance of Finding the Best Exterior Doors
A good exterior door does so much. It needs to be welcoming but also secure, aesthetically pleasing but also functional. To begin your search, you first need to decide what kind of door you need.
Exterior Door Locations to Consider
We tend to think of doors in our home as being either front doors or back doors. But, of course, that barely scratches the surface these days. There are also side-entry doors, patio doors, French doors, and more. Let’s define what we mean when we say the word “door.”
Front Doors
As noted above, the front door is a very important element of your house. In most cases, a front door is a solid swinging door. A good front door should have some panache, some kind of aesthetic value that sets it apart – to some extent – from the rest of the home and, ideally, from other front doors in your neighborhood.
Back and Side Doors
When it comes to back doors and side doors, you typically have a little more room to think outside the box. With a back door, you could, of course, have a regular swinging door. But many people opt for patio doors or French doors in this space. With a side door, much like a back door, you can incorporate a swinging door, patio door, or French door.
Entry Doors
These are typically used to connect the main part of the house with an adjacent space, like a garage or carport. Your standard swinging door is most often used as an entry door.
Types of Exterior Doors
Now that we’ve established where these exterior doors will go, let’s talk about the types of exterior doors that most manufacturers offer.
Sliding Doors
Most often used in spaces overlooking decks, balconies, patios, or backyards, sliding glass doors merge your interior and exterior spaces and bring lots of sunlight into your home. The door sizes for sliding glass doors are varied, as two-panel, three-panel, and even four-panel configurations are common on today’s market.
Stacking Doors
Usually implemented as patio doors, stacking doors are another type of sliding glass door. Like a sliding door, the panels in a stacking door stack overtop of each other when the door is open. They have a modern look and space-saving design that makes them one of the best sliding glass doors when you have limited space.
Bi-fold Doors
Here we have one final variation of the sliding glass door. A bi-fold door is similar to a stacking door. However, whereas the latter slides on an aluminum track, the panels on a bi-fold door are connected by hinges. Bi-fold doors are popular for entertaining because they open completely and can easily be left open to connect the indoors and outdoors.
Swinging Doors
A swinging door is a standard exterior door that moves on hinges. Although they’re usually made of wood or metal, some variations are French doors, which have a large glass insert inside the frame. In many instances, two French doors are paired together. Although French doors often have clear glass in the insert, the best exterior French doors have decorative designs inside the glass that really enhance the doors’ aesthetic appeal.
Pocket Doors
Increasingly popular in recent years, pocket doors on a home’s exterior are a type of sliding glass door. What makes pocket doors unique is that, when they’re open, the panels disappear into a pocket inside the wall. Pocket doors are another popular space-saving design.
If you’re considering one of these types of exterior doors, be aware of the standard door sizes in your home. If you do want to replace your existing doors with ones of a different size, talk to your contractor or installer about custom door sizes.
Deciding on the Best Exterior Door for Your Home
After you find the right exterior door (or doors) for your home, then it’s time to find the right manufacturer. Be sure to buy from a reputable company that doesn’t sell cheap exterior doors. Once you find the right manufacturer and contractor, it won’t be long before you’ll be enjoying the look and make of your home’s new exterior doors.
At Milgard, we make high-quality doors backed by a best-in-class warranty, so you can have confidence in your purchase. Browse our selection of doors in every style to find the one that fits your home and your personal needs.
