As the main gate between your home and the outside world, your front door acts as a spokesman that tells a story about the inhabitants of the home. When trying to beautify a home or give its look some new life, don’t forget the front door during the restoration process. After all, it plays a key role in tying your home’s whole look together.
Before you go on and get a contractor to take care of your door matters, it’s important to know anything and everything that you can do with your front door to ensure that you’re getting a more-than-satisfactory result as soon as you make the necessary payment. In order to get the perfect finish for your front door, you’ll have to make the following choices:
- A smooth finish or a wood-grained finish?
- Steel components or fibreglass?
- Stained wood finish or fully-painted finish?
- Neutral colours or bold selections?
When deciding what you want to do with your door, you’ll have to take note of how some elements don’t exactly mix with others. For example, smooth doors can be painted in almost any colour that you want while grained doors can be painted OR stained. Steel can be used for versatility in your door’s functions and fibreglass can accentuate the wood finish on your door and make it even more durable. Choose what suits your needs the most.
Tips to follow when choosing the finish of your front door
Aside from certain choices, you’ll have to make with your front door, there are also a few particular steps you’ll have to take when coming up with the final output of your home’s main entrance. Here’s what you’ll have to consider when deciding on your door’s final finish:
The coating that goes on matters
One of the most common mistakes that homeowners make is that they get all the right additions and finish, but they forget to put a protective coat on. It should go without saying that a beautifully finished front door won’t be worth anything a few years down the road in the housing market if there’s no protective coating to ensure its finish for endurance throughout decades. Typically, the best option for a protective coating on your front door isn’t actually the dried lacquer that’s placed on it, especially because it isn’t intended for outdoor use and cannot withstand the sun’s ultraviolet rays. If you can’t do without the lacquer finish in your door, it can be repaired (in case of any damage) or enhanced to withstand all types of weather conditions.
Front doors are different compared to other types of wood fixtures
Chances are that your home’s front door is manufactured offshore. Typically, front doors that are made offshore are finished with a coloured dye-lacquer mixture that’s sprayed on the wood itself to give the final product a more “natural” and aged look. While the finish looks amazing, it’s important to remember that these dyes can’t withstand UV rays and often deteriorate along with the lacquer over time when exposed to sunlight. Whether your front door faces the north, south, east, or west, it will be subject to a certain degree of UV ray-enforced deterioration that no other door experiences.
Maintain your front door properly and do it often
Protecting and maintaining your front door involves taking it off the hinges, sanding it down, and refinishing it with a UV-resistant dye pigment and three coats of marine-grade polyurethane every 5 years will help it withstand the harsh sunlight it is exposed to every day. It’s a bit of effort, but nothing you can’t accomplish to keep it in perfect condition!
Custom Contracting is a family-owned company that provides best custom door installation services in and around Burlington and Hamilton Ontario – get in touch today to see how we can help!
