Weather Resistant Windows

Which is Better: Steel or Wood Doors?

If you’re shopping for an entry door for your home, you might be overwhelmed by all the options available. While there are thousands of doors available when it comes to design, color, etc, there are really only a few choices when it comes to materials for residential entry doors. The main three options are steel, wood, and fiberglass. Once you’ve chosen the right type of door for your needs, it will be easier to narrow down your choice for the perfect door within that category.

Steel or Wood Doors

So, how do you know which type of door is the best for your home’s entryway?

In this article, we’ll review the pros and cons of two types of residential entry doors: steel and wood. For information on how fiberglass doors fit in the mix, be sure to check out our other article about fiberglass versus steel doors. Together, these two articles can help you choose the right door for your home.

combine modern and traditional architecture

What to Look For

So, what matters most when it comes to residential entry doors? Here are the points you should consider when shopping for a new door.

Steel Entry Doors

  • Home security: How secure is the door? Is it strong enough to keep your home safe?
  • Energy efficiency: Is the door rated highly for energy efficiency? Will it stop heat transfer and help keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer?
  • Size: Is the area for the door a standard size, or will it require a custom sized door to fit the space?
  • Personal style: Does the style and design of the door fit your personal taste?
  • Durability: Is this door made from quality materials and built to last? Will it stand up to whatever amount of wear and tear is normal for your house?
  • Architecture: How does the door fit in with the overall style and design of your home, both inside and out?
  • Design trends: Is the design something you’ll be happy with for many years? Or is it a current trend that you’ll want to replace in a short amount of time?

So, those are the main things to consider when choosing a new entry door. Now let’s look at the differences between wood and steel entry doors.

3D Printing in Architecture

Steel Entry Doors

Steel entry doors are one of the most common entry door choices in modern homes, because they offer a lot of benefits, with very few drawbacks. Steel has been used to make entry doors for more than 100 years, so they’ve stood the test of time, and continue to offer great options for residential entry doors.

Pros of Steel Entry Doors

Pros of Steel Entry Doors

  • Finding the time for proper home maintenance can be a challenge for any homeowner. Steel doors require very little maintenance over time, making them an attractive choice for busy people or anyone who doesn’t want to devote much time to maintenance.
  • Offering good protection against the elements is an important feature for homeowners in a variety of climates, and steel functions well in all types of climates, including rain and snow, which can be hard on doors made from other types of materials.
  • Steel doors are extremely durable. A steel door won’t warp, crack, or rot over time and it can stand up to a lot of abuse without showing damage.
  • Home security is an important feature to most homeowners, and the strength of steel doors make them one of the best choices when it comes to security.
  • Most steel doors are made with a focus on energy efficiency, and a good candidate for use in a lot of climates. Steel doors often have a foam core, which acts as a barrier to stop heat transfer.

Cons of Steel Entry Doors

Cons of Steel Entry Doors

  • Unless you purchase a custom door, steel doors can be limited in their design style options. They can be painted any number of colors, but otherwise, steel doors can’t be designed to mimic wood or other styles effectively.
  • Steel doors aren’t easy to damage, if they do get dented or gouged, they can be difficult to repair. However, Portella products do come with a paint touch-up kit that allows homeowners or contractors to make minor repairs and fixes easily.
  • Steel doors can develop rust over time, especially in climates that have a lot of salt and moisture in the air. Of course custom steel doors, like those from Portella, can come with a galvanized steel process and rust or element resistant paint options that can help negate this quite a bit.

classic wood entry door

Wood Entry Doors

Wood has historically been the material of choice for entry doors since the first wooden doors appeared in Europe around 3000 BC. Other materials like glass, fiberglass, metal and steel have been used over the years, but wooden doors still make up a large percentage of doors installed in homes today. While it’s hard to argue with that much history, can wooden doors still compete on their merits with doors made from other materials like steel and fiberglass that benefit from improved technology?

Wood Entry Doors

Pros of Wood Entry Doors

  • Wood doors have a warmth that can’t be achieved or replicated with doors made from other materials.
  • Wood doors can incorporate a wide variety of wood types to match with different architectural styles. Bamboo is a great choice for modern homes, for example, while oak works well for more traditional houses.
  • You can easily change the look of a wood door with a new coat of paint or a different colored stain.
  • Wood doors can be more easily repaired than other types of doors if they sustain certain kinds of damage.
  • Wood doors are the easiest and least expensive doors to use when a custom size is needed, because the wood can be trimmed down without damaging the overall structural integrity of the door itself.

Pros of Wood Entry Doors

Cons of Wood Entry Doors

  • Wood doors are very susceptible to being damaged by water, and water damage can cause a wooden door to warp over time. If the water damage is severe enough, the door might not be possible to repair.
  • Solid wood doors are often more expensive than their fiberglass or steel counterparts.
  • In order to protect wood doors from water damage, they require regular maintenance to keep them properly sealed against the elements.
  • Wood doors aren’t as energy efficient as steel or fiberglass doors.

exterior steel doors

The Winner: Steel Entry Doors

While wood entry doors win points for traditional appeal, they simply can’t overcome the myriad of benefits that come from choosing a steel entry door for your home. If you purchase a quality door from a reliable steel door manufacturer, you can be sure you’ve made a good investment in your home that you can enjoy for many years to come.

Portella’s custom steel doors are created with exceptional workmanship and attention-to-detail to create an unforgettable first impression for your home. With a variety of hardware options, configurations, colors, and sizes available, Portella can create the perfect door for your home.

At Portella, our goal is always to blend utility and beauty to create the best possible steel doors and windows for every design need. Whether you need custom windows throughout your home, or one custom steel door to fulfill an architectural vision for your home, we have the solutions you need. At Portella, we work with people to realize their visions of the perfect space, and we meticulously craft custom steel windows and doors to ensure the perfect aesthetic for every project.  

What are your thoughts on wood versus steel doors? Do you like the warmth and tradition of wooden doors, or do you prefer the enhanced benefits provided by steel entry doors?

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