Your front entry door does more than welcome guests. It helps protect your home, improve energy efficiency and create lasting curb appeal.
At American Vision Windows, we install custom replacement front entry doors designed to match your style and enhance the look of your home. Whether you want a bold statement piece or a clean, timeless design, our team helps you find the right fit for your space, budget and goals.
Every home has a different style. That’s why we offer a wide selection of replacement entry door options, including:
Choose from glass styles like rain, satin, reed or bamboo to create the right balance of light, privacy and design.
A new replacement front door should look beautiful and perform well every day. At American Vision Windows, our trained installation team helps ensure your new entry door fits properly, operates smoothly and delivers long-term value. We partner with trusted manufacturers to provide quality materials backed by expert workmanship and customer care.
From improved curb appeal to added comfort and security, the right entry door can completely transform the look and feel of your home. Schedule your free estimate today.
Learn more about the benefits of new entry doors or schedule a FREE no obligation estimate. Make sure to ask about our impressive financing options!
Any door that you can use to enter or exit your home is an entry door. These doors can be located in a variety of areas in your home, and they can be made from many different materials. Despite the various important differences between entry door models, however, these doors all share similar features such as knobs and locks. In addition, most types of entry doors also feature some amount of glass in their designs. The terms front door and entry door are often used interchangeably even though entry doors can be in areas other than the front of your home.
Your entry door is the threshold to your home, and the way this feature looks can make or break a first impression. However, there are many different types of entry doors to choose from, and depending on the type of home you have, you might need to have multiple exterior doors with glass. In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of entry doors and help you decide between the different types of glass front doors that you might want in your home.
Many entry doors are made with solid wood. Consumers tend to prefer solid wood doors due to their durability and appearance. Oak, cedar, and mahogany are commonly used to make wood entry doors. Wood entry doors come in either slab or pre-hung form.
Fiberglass is commonly used as an alternative to wood in entry doors. This material is lightweight and inexpensive, but it isn’t as aesthetically appealing as wood. In addition, fiberglass doors don’t have the comfortable heft of wood doors.
In commercial environments, entry doors are often made from steel. This material is perhaps the most durable option for entry doors, but it is even less aesthetically appealing than fiberglass. In addition, entry doors made with stainless steel may rust as they get older.
Many entry doors have windows. These windows can be stationed in various areas of a door, and the term “lite” is used to describe the percentage of a door that is taken up with glass window panes.
Full lite doors are made entirely from glass except for their frames. While these types of doors let a considerable amount of light in, they are the least durable, and they are easy for home invaders to penetrate.
These types of entry doors are made almost entirely from glass, but the bottom quarters of these types of doors are made from solid materials. If you want to let plenty of light in without risking the possibility of breaking your door on accident, a 3/4 lite door might be right for you.
Half lite doors are the most common types of exterior doors with glass. These glass front doors feature solid bottom sections, but they have glass panels on their top sections.
Not all exterior doors with glass follow the “lite” rubric. In some cases, exterior doors may have smaller glass panels in various areas that allow light in without compromising on structural integrity or privacy.
It’s often possible to equip an entry door with glass that can’t be seen through. This type of privacy glass is commonly known as “obscure glass,” and it makes objects inside your home look fuzzy from outside your door without stopping light from entering your home.
French doors are like entry doors, but they consist of two parallel doors instead of a single door. These types of doors can be made in any of the styles that we’ve covered above, and they often feature intricate decorations and adornments.
There are a few different places in your home where entry door installation might be necessary:
Every home has a front door. These doors may be flanked by small windows, and may feature glass panels. Almost all front entrance entry doors open inwards.
Many homes are equipped with entry doors on their back sides. In many cases, these doors are connected to kitchens and laundry rooms, where traffic between the inside and outside of the home is common.
Some homes have entry doors attached to their garages. These are less common but can be useful for bringing items in and out of a garage without having to open the main garage door.
Patio doors, also known as sliding glass doors, are treated as a category separate from entry doors. These doors are generally made from large glass panels.
Installing entry doors is a complex process that is best left to professional installation experts. There are a couple of different ways to install entry doors that you should be aware of as you pick the new door that’s right for you.
Replacing a door on its own is the easiest type of entry door installation. Most entry doors are only connected to a home with a few hinges that are installed on the inside of the house. If these hinges are removed, the existing door can be lifted out of the home. It will be necessary to remove the doorknob before the hinges are disconnected, and it may be necessary to remove any deadbolts or chains from the door before proceeding. Once the old door is removed, it’s possible to simply slide a new door into place and connect the hinges with screws. Then, the old (or new) doorknob is installed into the new door. However, finding a door that’s a perfect fit for your existing opening can be hard, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s easy to damage a new door as you move it into place and install it.
Replacing a door and its accompanying frame is much more difficult than simply replacing a door. Unlike entry doors, door frames are connected to your home quite solidly, and removing an old door frame and replacing it with a new one can be a multi-day endeavor if you try to take on this task on your own. In the process of installing a new entry door with a new frame, it’s necessary to take accurate measurements and only use frame materials that match the paint job of the rest of your home. It will be necessary to cut precise holes for deadbolts and other pieces of hardware, and it’s easy to damage your home during the process of removing your old door frame if you’re not careful. Of course, it’s also possible to damage your new door or door frame in the installation process.
Do you feel like you don’t have enough ways to get in and out of your house? Then you might want to consider installing an entry door in a new location in your home. While installing a new entry door is intensive, it’s certainly possible. However, creating a new entryway into your home from scratch is one task that you certainly won’t want to take on without help.
To get started, you’ll need to select where you’d like to install a new exterior door in your home. Maybe you’ve been sold on the benefits of having an entry door on the side of your garage, or perhaps you’d like to be able to get into your kitchen from the backyard more easily.
Next, you’ll need to have professionals cut a hole in your home. To do so, it will be necessary to have a contractor carefully consult your blueprints to make sure that they won’t cut through any pipes or electrical wiring in the process of installing a new door. It’s also possible to reroute wiring if necessary.
Once a hole has been cut through your siding, insulation, and interior drywall, it will be time to install a door frame. Then, once the frame is in place, it will be possible to install a new door. However, you’ll still need to decide on which type of door you’d like and the security measures that you’d like to use.
When you’re embarking on a complicated task like installing a new exterior door in your home, it’s always best to rely on professional assistance. Even if you’re just removing an old door from a frame and installing a new door that you already know will fit, having professionals will save you time and guarantees that your new door will be installed without any scratches or dings. If you also need to replace your door’s frame, and if you want to install a door in a brand-new location of your home, tackling this task on your own could expose your home to leaks and reduce its resale value.
When you work with professionals, you can rest assured that the project will be taken care of from start to finish with minimal effort on your end. Professional door installers can come to your home, evaluate the situation, and provide an accurate estimate.
They have the know-how necessary to get the job done quickly, painlessly, and they bring all of the materials needed. In addition, they clean up their own messes.
Working with a professional door installation company can also often be easier than picking out a door by yourself at a hardware store or online. With one look at your front door, a qualified door installer can provide recommendations regarding the size of door you need and which types of doors would look best in your space.
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