The question often arises of how to choose an entrance door to an apartment: to purchase it with a canvas made of wood or metal. In modern conditions, it becomes clear that indifferent neighbors often live in a house with a large number of floors, which can be used by thieves who do not take long to get into the house. In particular, a wooden door will help them, since it is possible to break it down without noise and in the shortest time. In this regard, the door must be made of steel, regardless of the circumstances, it will make the attacker spend at least 30 minutes to open it, which means that it is highly likely to simply exclude such an undertaking.
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Door insulation
The question often arises of how to choose the right front door. Properly made insulation will protect your home from extraneous noise, odors and heat leakage. In addition, a comprehensive installation of insulation will improve the appearance of the product, since it involves finishing the outer canvas and high-quality slope execution.
The initial stage of isolation is filling the technical voids in the door between the stiffeners. Often for these purposes, mineral wool is used, which has a complex effect - it functions as a sound and heat insulator, will not burn and is environmentally friendly. A number of developers use polyurethane foam or expanded polystyrene as a filler.
The advantages of this material include the fact that it does not accumulate moisture. But when the door to the dwelling is chosen, then for the user it is not very relevant. The downside of such heaters will be their fire hazard. The advantage of using such a material to fill door voids is that it is a fairly dense material (the product in which they are installed does not have a drum effect when knocking on it).
In addition, it is imperative that a high quality seal is installed around the door. Seals made of rubber or silicone increase sound insulation, and also prevent odors from entering the room from the corridor, which is extremely important if there are smoking neighbors. When choosing doors, it is possible to come across offers with 1, 2 or even 3 gasket contours.
The three-circuit, according to the sellers' belief, will definitely provide adequate protection. However, if we take into account the opinion of practitioners, then they unanimously claim that 1 circuit effectively copes with the tasks set, when it is made of high-quality materials, and the door leaf is fitted. Even 2 is recommended to be installed directly as insurance, rather than on serious need.
It is extremely important to properly finish the slope. Whatever the quality of the door, however, when after its installation there are backlashes in the wall, the aromas and noise freely penetrate into the room.
A well-made door and insulation neutralize a lot of sounds. However, when installing it in a dwelling, one cannot count on complete sound isolation, since there are structural sounds that are transmitted in solid matter. Therefore, you should not expect the product to completely drown out external noise. But when earlier the user had a door made of wood, then by installing a high-quality metal product, the person will immediately feel the comfort of being isolated from the outside world.
Door locks
It is impossible to fully discern all the details of the installation of locks because of their many types. Each product has its own individual characteristics, which may affect installation and subsequent use, however, there are key recommendations that must be followed:
- The lock must match the door. An unreliable canvas or a door lock (even if it is 2), which are made of an incomprehensible material, will equally be a weak link in the protection of the structure.
- The type of lock and the need for a latch. For apartment doors, a mortise lock is required, its mechanism is placed in the door leaf. Mounted or overhead are considered unreliable, their use must be excluded immediately. The latch will greatly simplify the use of modern doors and their locking. When there is no latch, then to turn the lock, the door leaf must be pulled or pushed.
- Number of locks. There are 2 issues to consider here - safety and foresight. In the first situation, one should take into account the circumstances that 2 locks will be a double work for the attacker - 2 sets of different tools will double the time it takes to open the dwelling. Another reason will be the usual reinsurance - when one of the locks breaks, then it can be repaired without haste or changed using another.
- A kind of castle. When 2 locking mechanisms are installed, then there is no need to buy the same types of them - when an attacker knows how to open locks of a specific design, then the waste of time will be insignificant. Because of this, it is recommended to install mechanisms of different designs. The cylinder is more difficult for intelligent opening - its secret part includes a large number of pins. To turn the lock, they must be placed in a specific sequence. The disadvantage of the cylinder type will be sufficient fragility and position. Suvaldny includes thick plates called suvalds, which gave the name to the design itself. Opening such a lock is easier, but it is much more difficult to pick it, since its mechanism is fully hidden in the door.
Naturally, everything is more complicated than it might initially seem. Lock designers are constantly improving their own products, making them more reliable. When deciding which front door to choose for an apartment, it is recommended to select models with 2 locks of different designs. This will help to significantly improve the safety of the home.
What should be the design of a high-quality entrance metal door
The question often arises of how to choose a metal front door to a home. Regarding the strength of a metal door, it requires you to select products based on the following criteria: the thickness of the metal profile (base), the outer sheet of steel and stiffeners. The higher such indicators are, the higher the strength indicators of this door will be. However, one should also take into account the fact that because of this there may be an unjustified increase in the mass of the structure, which may result in significant inertia during its opening and rapid wear of the hinges.
Metal entrance door device
Before choosing an entrance door to an apartment, you need to find out what elements a high-quality product includes. It is possible to assemble a closed door frame from a U-shaped profile, on which a sheet of steel is fixed by means of spot welding.Inside, high-quality doors have stiffening ribs - at least 2 vertical and 3 horizontal. Taking into account the position of the lock, the central stiffener can be solid or divided in the area of the lock.
Taking into account the model of the castle, crossbars and rods, the armor plate of the castle will be placed. Insulation will be inserted between the stiffeners. Inside the door can be closed with an MDF panel or other quality material. The door is hung on the box on hinges with bearings - the rest may simply not withstand the weight of the product in question. An additional protection against breaking the door out of the box will be an anti-removable pin that is pulled out of the door leaf during closing.
Door frame
There are a large number of different types of door frames. The most popular are boxes made of a corner, a shaped pipe and a bent sheet. The best solution for manufacturing would be a pipe with a metal section of 0.3-0.5 cm. The use of boxes that are made of a corner or a bent sheet is not recommended, since such structures are more subject to deformation during twisting and bending. The profile pipe, in addition to its high durability, is more comfortable to install and is more firmly attached to the wall.
Boxes made of bent sheets are characterized by high-quality heat and sound insulation, but they are inferior to similar products from a profile pipe in terms of reliability. Mounting plates will be welded on each frame of the door frame, whereby the frame is fixed in the niche. The number of mounting plates is usually 3-4 pcs. from all sides.
Each of the vertical racks of the box will be a carrier, the door hinges are welded to it and holes are made for anti-removable pins. Another post is considered to be a lock, holes are made in it for the crossbars.
The key part of the frame will be the doorway. It is the quarter that serves for the installation of the seal. There are boxes with 1, 2 and even 3 porches. In accordance with practice, if a good seal is present, 1 narthex will be enough, the rest will become unnecessary and may result in unnecessary waste of money.
Platbands will become another important component of the door frame. In addition to decorative, they will play the role of protection. Blocking the installation seams, they will prevent thieves from getting to the mounting components, and will not give the opportunity to pull the crowbar over the box posts.
Door leaf thickness
It is set by the width of the profile from which the door base is made. Typical dimensions for a room are approximately 5-7 cm, and when a street door is made, it can be increased in thickness to 10 cm. Regarding strength, safety and insulation, the thicker the door, the better. However, increased inertia can make it much more traumatic, therefore it is optimal to focus on a solution that is close to the usual one.
Outer and inner steel sheets
The resistance of the door to burglary and its weight will depend directly on such elements. On budget door leaves, sheets with a thickness of 0.5-1.5 mm will be welded, most of them can be opened without any difficulty with a can opener. It is also not advised to make the thickness too large, since from a specific period of time only the weight of the product will increase, without increasing the protective characteristics of the door. The optimal dimensions will be 0.3 cm, which will ensure the achievement of good lock protection and convenience when using the door.
Some of the developers, as a marketing ploy, offer seemingly reinforced doors, where there is an auxiliary steel sheet inside. Of course, this will slightly increase their reliability, however, in fact, it is impractical, since to get inside the dwelling, it will be sufficient for an attacker to deal with the outer sheet.Another drawback of such a design is revealed when it is necessary to repair the lock, access to something is blocked or permissible only through a specially cut hatch.
To increase the reliability of the door, it is optimal to use not 2 sheets of metal, but 1 outer sheet, 0.3 cm thick. This will make it possible to increase the overall reliability of the assembly and reduce its weight, and therefore the load on the door hinges.
Stiffening rib
The main purpose of the products under consideration will be to resist the torsional load, which is formed during a rough forceful burglary, when thieves take off the upper or lower part of the door leaf, or squeeze it out of the door frame. To date, there are 3 systems of stiffening ribs:
- longitudinal, if they are welded from top to bottom;
- transverse, located horizontally;
- combined, using the above two types.
To give the door leaf the greatest reliability, the stiffeners should be combined, that is, the location of the door leaf should be both longitudinal and transverse.
What are the sin of Chinese door manufacturers
Often, Chinese developers sacrifice the quality of their product. First of all, this will concern the thickness of the metal, which in a number of products, at best, will reach 0.1 cm.It is quite easy to check it - it will be enough to try to press on the sheet of metal of the door leaf, when it is even slightly deformed, then protection will be extremely weak. Of course, a product of low quality from China can be easily recognized by its weight - such a door will “tighten” no more than 45 kg.
An overly bright dye and a low position of the door peephole will be indirect signs of a poor-quality product. Another falsity of the products under consideration from a manufacturer from China will be the low strength of the locking system - locks of unknown developers often "play" during the release of the crossbars, and it is virtually impossible to pick up spare elements for them.
In some cases, cellular cardboard is used as filler in such doors. Of course, there is no need to talk about the significant rigidity of the door leaf in such a situation.
When the issue of cost is not paramount, then before choosing a metal door to an apartment, you should make sure that it is not a fake product from China from an unknown developer. Otherwise, criminals will be able to open the door extremely quickly.
External door trim
To know which front door to choose, it is imperative to decide on the exterior finish of the product. Its task will be to add a surface of the appropriate type - the external finish must be resistant to damage and withstand the influence of ultraviolet radiation and precipitation from the atmosphere. As a result, a wood covering is not used for a street door that can absorb moisture - chipboard, MDF and others.
Leatherette
At the time of the appearance of steel doors on the market, the use of such material as upholstery became difficult due to simple reasons - leatherette is nailed to wooden doors with the help of nails, and to iron doors it must be fixed by other methods. As a result, leatherette was not used for a certain period of time with steel structures. Today, for those who love leatherette on the market, you can purchase overlays that make the technology of attaching leatherette as light as possible:
- The steel sheet is cleaned and degreased.
- In the required place, the bases of the linings are glued to it.
- Foam rubber or a similar material is laid on the door, and leatherette directly on top.
- The outer side of the linings will press the leatherette against the door leaf. At the same time, the loose parts of the foam rubber will stretch the leatherette.
- It is possible to stretch a wire between the overlays - experts have come up with a large number of schemes for various patterns.
The main disadvantage of the material in question is the lack of resistance to mechanical damage, in particular from sharp objects.
Paneling
A relatively new type of finish, during the application of which panels of wood or plastic are used, up to 2 cm thick. Their main advantages will be ease of installation and a large range of colors, which leatherette materials do not have.
Initially, plastic panels appeared on the domestic market, with the help of which the decoration of Italian and Spanish doors was carried out, and with the expansion of the market, local developers also produce them. Wood panels are positioned as premium products that correspond to the price - outwardly similar doors are difficult to distinguish from those made of natural wood.
Outside, decorative panels are either flat or three-dimensional. In the first situation, thin plastic or MDF is used, covered with a film. For volumetric ones, plywood, high-quality MDF or natural solid wood is taken, where the necessary pattern will be cut with a milling cutter, and then the panel is covered with a film, varnished and tinted when it is an array.
The disadvantage of the panels under consideration is the same as that of leatherette products, insufficient vandal resistance. To increase the strength, an auxiliary layer of plastic is sprayed onto the surface, however, the problem cannot be fully solved in this way, and the price of such a manipulation is quite high.
Hammer paint
Painted surface dyes have a characteristic appearance - it will seem as if they were painted, the paint was smashed, and at the end covered with varnish, but the drawings will turn out to be rather discreet and beautiful. A similar effect occurs due to the presence of aluminum powder in the composition.
In addition to its appearance, such a dye is characterized by certain advantages that make it a leader in exterior decoration:
- Suitable for any surface.
- The structure of the dye will mask scratches and roughness, therefore no preliminary priming is required.
- The dye adheres perfectly to the surface and dries up in the shortest time.
- Wide color palette.
- Ease of Operation - Available for purchase off-the-shelf, ready to use.
There are such varieties of a similar color:
- Velvet.
- Shagreen.
- Moire.
- Crocodile.
- Antique.
The coating, which is painted with hammer dye, will become airtight, resistant to various climatic conditions, ultraviolet radiation, corrosive liquids, mechanical stress, vibration and temperature changes, which will give it vandal-resistant qualities.
Additional protection systems
Each auxiliary protective element contributes to the complication of the task of a potential attacker, therefore, when the issue of security will be in the first place, you should find out which of the above will be included in the door package, and what can be mounted separately.
Door hinges
The hinges that are supplied with the door can be hidden or external. The latter are welded directly to the door leaf and the frame rack. Since the door is quite heavy, the hinges are extremely powerful. In this regard, some users and experts believe that this will spoil the appearance of the product itself.
According to the manufacturers, the main disadvantage of external hinges will be that everyone will have access to them and can be cut off without effort, and hidden hinges do not have such a disadvantage.
In fact, this is just a marketing ploy from the developer and hidden loops have significant disadvantages:
- The products in question will greatly increase the cost of the structure.
- Since the hinges will be hidden in the special bosoms, the useful door opening becomes less.
- Structures that are equipped with such hinges have a smaller opening angle.
- There is a high probability that due to the strong opening of the door, at an angle greater than the expected one, in some situations the frame will be deformed.
- Landings for hidden hinges reduce frame rigidity to a certain extent.
Cutting open loops is not easy. In addition, any door with this type of hinge is equipped with anti-removable pins (they will not make it possible to remove the doors even with the hinges cut off). Therefore, the type of hinges will in no way affect the burglar resistance of the structure. It is much easier to open the lock than to cut the hinges with a certain noise.
Other ways to protect
In addition, there are other methods of protection:
- Anti-removable pins. Such products are mainly located in the door leaf and go into the middle of the box. They will be required in a situation of power burglary - when the criminal can even cut off the hinges, he will not be able to get the door leaf from the niche.
- Night valve. A simple mechanism that is installed inside the door leaf and is operated by hand. From the outside, there is no access to it, therefore no tool helps the attacker.
- Door peephole. There is only one requirement here - an extensive overview, which makes it possible to see everything that can happen from the outside.
- Outward or inward opening. Of course, the first solution will be better, since the inward-opening canvas can be squeezed out with a jack. When, due to some circumstances, the opening is still performed inward, it is optimal to put 2 additional doors.
How to order a door correctly
Even when in a specialized store the buyer has already looked closely at a certain outer door to the dwelling, which one will finally need to be decided with the manager in the department. This will become an inevitable evil, or, on the contrary, when the seller is a competent and competent professional, will give valuable recommendations regarding a specific design.
In any situation, it is possible and necessary for him to ask all kinds of questions, talk about the least doubts about the quality of the product in question as a whole and its components that appeared during the selection, ask him to calculate in advance the approximate installation price.
What the consultant will tell you about
By the way the seller answers the questions posed by the buyer, it is possible to form a general opinion about himself, as well as about the manufacturer as a whole. A person is not born technically savvy - when a manager actually has a broad outlook, he will properly answer questions and find answers to criticism, therefore, he has been working in this area for a long time and constantly undergoes trainings in order to improve his qualification level. This indicates a responsible approach of the developer to working with customers, and therefore, most likely, to the process of making his own products as a whole.
When everything happens exactly the opposite - the seller is in the market just for show, does not know the names of the door elements and will be lost with a simple question about the price and timing of installation, then at least the manufacturer's sales will be low.
Naturally, it happens that it will be necessary to communicate with a beginner, but serious salespeople first of all teach newcomers not to give false information about products, and when he does not have enough knowledge, then call a more experienced consultant for a conversation with the buyer.
Warranty service
The usual questions about the duration of the manufacturer's work on the market, where it came from and how its development took place, will make it possible to predict the actions of the company's employees in the presence of breakdowns or the detection of a defect in any element. In addition, you should not hesitate to directly ask about the warranty period - where and how it was produced, in what period, who will be responsible and what are the reasons for denying the warranty.The above points should be clarified in advance (before buying and installing, since then, when the order was made from one-day travelers, there will probably be no one to complain).
An extremely important point is that in addition to logical reasoning, you must trust your own intuition. When, during communication with sellers, a strong impression is created that something is going wrong, it is optimal to set aside the purchase and explore the catalogs in a calm home environment. When the manufacturer does not have catalogs that can be examined at home or on the website where they are posted, something is clearly wrong with her.
Often the question arises, which entrance doors are better to choose. To find out how to purchase a quality product, you should read these recommendations.
