Doors of Opportunity

by Dena Kouremetis

Never underestimate the power of a door. In addition to being the first item potential homebuyers notice when seeing a house for the first time, the door handle is usually the first thing they touch. Therma-Tru® and NFO Worldwide conducted research that found that an enhanced entryway can add as much as $24,000 to a home's perceived value, which is approximately five times the cost of the entry system itself. But American homebuyers have clamored to customize other exterior as well as interior doors within their homes as well, making them a design statement and a reflection of their individual tastes.

Andersen® Windows and Doors’ brand public relations manager, Cameron Snyder describes how consumers recognize how one small change can make a huge difference to an existing home. “Many industries like ours pay attention to remodeling trends first, since it’s a great demographic sampling of what people are looking to change out in their current residences. What is exciting is that people have the power to make dramatic changes to their existing homes with the wealth of options that the door industry provides.” A single front door change-out or the replacement of a small sliding door with a larger, more stylish one that lets more of the outdoor light into their living space can make a huge difference and add value to any home. Cut glass, carved oak, arched thresholds and gleaming metal accents add to artistic doors presentations, lending impressions of both quality and elegance.

Snyder says doors in general have become taller and wider and transom and sidelight window styles have become extremely popular. With many builders designing 9-foot plate ceilings into their floor plan designs, eight foot doors have definitely become de rigueur in many production as well as custom homes.

The elegance and tradition of wood is still the gold standard in entry doors, especially gracing the custom home market. Wood doors offer a natural legacy of beauty and are preferred by many, even though they remain susceptible to the elements in ways their look-alikes have overcome. According to online door broker Marty Scheafer (www.e-doors.com), in the western U.S. Craftsman and bungalow style doors lead the way in wood door popularity. JELD-WEN® and Pella® and Andersen® offer these elegant Mission, Shake, Prairie or Craftsman designs in addition to others.

Fiberglass door manufacturers have taken the industry by storm with their wood look-alikes, elegantly blending believable, stainable wood-grains with surrounding stain and paint-grade or vinyl door jambs.

High-end production Sacramento homebuilder JTS Communities sees the trend away from wood to fiberglass even in their $800K-plus homes. “This is not only because of our homebuyers’ concern for maintenance and energy efficiency, but as a builder we tend to find fewer warranty issues with fiberglass than with wood,” says managing partner Jeff Sweigart, who adds that more and more glass panels have been appearing in front door presentations, again, for more indoor light and the elegance that glass can impart. JELD-WEN®, Therma-tru®, Pella®, and Andersen® offer a huge array of fiberglass door options and price points.

Steel doors have experienced a coming of age. Touting their superb fire-resistance, strength and durability, Steelcraft® reports that improved finishes are creating a broader acceptance of steel doors and frames that include glass insets.

Patio doors have undergone a transformation with homebuilders choosing from a variety of fancy sliders, hinged French doors and single atrium styles with or without transoms and sidelight glass panel accents. Weather Shield® Windows and Doors introduced its multi-paneled telescoping sliding glass door, capable of doubling or tripling a room’s entertainment capacity at a moment’s notice or creating an open-wall effect to patio or pool areas.

Interior doors of hollow core wood, wood veneered and molded fiberglass offer paneled styling, eliminating the uninteresting flat doors of the post-war production homebuilding boom. Once hung, they can be stained or painted to match a home’s décor. JELD-WEN offers solid core molded door options with fire ratings, their ProCore Quiet Door® for significant sound reduction as well as a notable 5-year warranty.

Door hardware has undergone a metamorphosis from merely function to functional aesthetics, offering such a variety of finishes that browsing through them can be likened to choosing flatware for a bridal registry. Kwikset® ’s marketing and communications’ manager Ken Brock says, “What people want is not only security but style as well. They are concerned with the look of their doorknobs, levers, and hinges in relation to how they will complement other furnishings in the home. They now have the opportunity to browse through the “big box” stores and take stock of the many finishes available to them for door hardware, enabling them to have a voice in their preferences once their house is built.”

According to Brock, the trend out West is towards a particular style that blends well with the casual but eclectic design trends. Consumers here are more likely to make statements with door hardware that elsewhere in the U.S. may seem out of character. In contrast, the Midwestern and eastern seaboard markets lean more towards formal, Old World varieties. Kwikset recently introduced their collection of Venetian Bronze ™ door hardware. Finishes like this have migrated from the custom and luxury home market into the homes of middle America, where polished brass is being replaced with softer tones that add a touch of design flair.

The new alternative finishes, such as satin nickel, oil-rubbed bronze and brushed chrome make it easy for builders and consumers to coordinate colors between hardware fixtures and home furnishings such as mirrors, faucets and lighting fixtures. Stanley®, Kwikset®, Baldwin® and Schlage®, among others, provide a cornucopia of choices for this coordination of finishes for any décor.

As with door manufacturers, the door hardware industry enables even entry-level homeowners and homebuilders a dizzying array of choices. As for the extreme high-end home, niche door hardware makers such as Von Morris® can demand as much as $2900 for door lock fixtures and hinges for a single door. The company’s founder, Eric D. Morris, says consumers who opt for their specialty door hardware say that the solid feel these finely crafted, highly adjustable mechanisms impart can be likened to the difference one would feel in closing the door of a compact economy car as opposed to a Rolls Royce. Using lost/wax casting and authentic ribbon and reed technology, the low volume manufacturer offers 30 unique finishes. Its latest innovation is a locking Cremone bolt that can be used on French doors, accessible and lockable from the outside and keyed to the rest of the house.