Vendors
Great doors & millwork equates to great curb appeal, which leads to higher paybacks and better home valuations. An entryway that makes a statement is well worth the investment. This is especially true when you consider real estate markets. When it comes to home appreciation rates, Cody has one of Wyoming’s best.
That’s a lot of great doors and curb appeal, but most realtors advise that if you’re going to invest, do it where everyone will see it. The importance of doors & millwork, however, goes well beyond the first impression. These portals to the outdoors also play a huge role in indoor comfort, safety, and energy efficiency. It’s why reputable manufacturers such as Simpson, Therma-Tru, and Masonite are constantly working to develop new and more innovative technologies to make entryways more secure, durable, and stylish.
Each home comes with a unique set of style requirements. Underneath appearances, however, ultimately it will be the functionality—how well and reliably a door serves over time—that will determine whether it remains our ideal. When looking for your ideal door, be sure to keep some objective criteria in mind.
- Know your door parts. If you want to be able to understand how one door differs from others, you need to understand the language—the names of the parts. Doors are basically a leaf—the moving part that opens and closes—that sits in a frame, but a number of other terms are useful to understand:
- Stiles and Rails. Doors are similar to windows in that they have horizontal rails and vertical stiles. Most will have a top rail, bottom rail and a lock rail halfway to two-thirds of the way down. The vertical stile on the hinged side is called the hanging stile. The side that holds the lock and knob is the shutting stile. Stiles running through the middle of the door supporting panels are called muntins.
- Panels and Panes. Much of what makes one door more aesthetically pleasing often relies on the number and arrangement of raised panels and panes of glass.
- Weatherboard. A beveled strip at the bottom directs rain and other moisture away from the door’s underside, preventing leakage and rot, and helping to protect the frame, sill, and threshold beneath.
- Frame. The frame is simply that—the pieces that surround and hold the door leaf.
- Millwork. It’s often the decorative millwork that really makes an entryway shine. Areas such as the header above a door, the jambs to the sides, and the threshold directly underneath often become backdrops for choice mouldings, trims, millwork, and other distinctive accents that give an entryway a finished look.
- Consider security and privacy. New privacy options and ratings let you select the level of transparency, opacity, and texture you prefer in glass lites, sidelites, or overhead transoms. Many doors also offer child- and pet-friendly internal blinds.
- Plan for weather. In Wyoming, we may have snow from October to April—or even May—but that doesn’t mean you have to give up style or beauty in an entryway. Weather stripping, thermal cores, impact-rated glasses, extra reinforcements, and even fire ratings can help ensure your door will protect your home when you need it to.
At Builders FirstSource, we have all the latest styles, from durable, low-maintenance fiberglass to insulated steel to luxurious yet sustainable wood. Our Builders FirstSource experts are waiting to help you design the entryway that’s perfect for your home and lifestyle.