Welcome to our Wood Door Series, where we’ll cover a variety of topics, from choosing the right wood material to customizing the design, to help you decide what door is best for you and what to consider once you receive it. Whether it’s interior doors or customized front doors, there are a lot of factors to consider.
Throughout this series, we’re speaking with Brad Loveless, Marketing and Product Development Manager at Simpson Door Company. With 17 years of experience in marketing, operations, and sales at Simpson, he has a tremendous amount of knowledge about wood doors, trends that have come and gone, and how to navigate the many decisions involved to select the right door for your project.
Exposure to the elements can ruin doors over time, so it’s important to know which products to look for and how to protect them. In this episode, Brad explains how an overhang can protect exterior doors from the elements, what specific door products to use when you have limited to no overhang protection, and the special Nantucket Series door for severe weather.
Watch our discussion in the video above, or keep reading to get the highlights.
Exterior door protection
Pacific Northwest weather can damage exterior doors over time, so protection from roof overhangs can help keep your doors looking great for a long time. If you’d like to know if you have enough protection, a general rule of thumb is to make sure the overhang extends from the home at least half the distance of the height of that overhang from the porch or deck. (Take a look at the illustration in the video starting at 1:38.)
Houses in the Pacific Northwest are typically built with large, wide porches and overhangs, but it’s smart to double-check measurements. If the overhang sticks out from the home at least half the distance of the height of the overhang, you can select any Simpson product for the front of your house knowing that it has the protection required to be covered by the warranty.
There are doors specifically made for homes with limited overhang protection. Whether it’s a different material or design, you can still have a beautiful wood door that’s made to withstand the weather on the front of your home.
Simpson doors come with the option of UltraBlock® technology, which is a composite block finger-jointed into the bottom of the door’s stile component. UltraBlock® replaces wood end grain, keeping moisture out of the door, and secures a five-year warranty to protect your investment. Talk to your local Dunn Lumber specialist for help selecting a product that’s made for everyday weather exposure.
How to protect exterior doors with no overhang protection
If your door's overhang does not meet the requirements previously described, Simpson has specific products that are made for tough weather exposures. Simpson’s cladded doors with WaterBarrier® Technology are an option, where a resin-saturated overlay is installed on the outside of the wood door. Moisture- and water-resistant, WaterBarrier Technology protects the outside while the inside is the wood of your choice and can be stained or painted.
The exterior of a WaterBarrier®-coated door can’t be stained (because the coating covers the wood grain), but it can be painted, and comes with primer already applied. Since the WaterBarrier® coating is only on the exterior of the door, you have the option to stain the interior side of the door (be sure to prime, sand, and remove dust, as discussed in episode two).
Exterior wood doors for severe weather
The challenge with any exterior wood product is that it can expand, contract, and warp when exposed to the elements. Simpson’s solid-wood Nantucket Series doors are engineered to withstand severe elements.
These doors consist of two pieces of wood laminated together—for all door components—leaving no opportunity for veneers to delaminate like other doors. For additional strength against severe conditions, the structure uses a modified mortise and tenon joint to hold stile and rail components together.
Built to last and carrying a 10-year warranty, the Nantucket Series is a worthwhile option for those who want a wood exterior door that can still withstand the elements.
Weather can heavily impact exterior doors, so it’s important to know what to look for and how to choose the right product for your home. For more information and to explore the best exterior doors for the Pacific Northwest, our Dunn Lumber door specialists are always here to help.
If you missed the other episodes in this series, you can find them here: Wood Door Series: Introduction and Wood Door Series: Considerations When Painting or Staining a Wood Door.
