Which entrance door to the apartment to choose - not only the safety of things that are in the dwelling, but also the safety of its inhabitants depends on this not idle question. Therefore, when buying a door, you should pay attention to many different characteristics and criteria, which vary greatly from product to product.
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Functions that any front door performs
To understand how to choose an entrance door to an apartment, you need to have an idea of the functions it performs. First, a high-quality door should create maximum difficulty for thieves trying to get through it into the room. Secondly, the guarantee of protection against penetration of noise, drafts, odors and cold must be lifelong. Thirdly, the door should simply be beautiful, in perfect harmony with the overall interior of the adjacent space. After all, you can weld a door from thick sheets of metal, fill it with insulation and insert it into the opening. However, this cannot guarantee its reliability, and the decorative component of such a door will leave much to be desired.
How to choose an entrance door to an apartment: technical and consumer requirements
To make the right choice of a door, you need to know not only its functional purpose, but also those requirements that are standard for doorsinstalled at the entrance of the house:
- increased tightness, which does not allow external factors such as smells, sounds or drafts to enter the room. For this, a reliable heat and soundproofing, insulating rubber bands are laid along the joints;
- the strength of reliable doors is ensured by using a hard-to-break material that is capable of providing the required safety
- the doors must be provided with a peephole with a panoramic view and the ability to install a video surveillance system or other equipment;
- The manufacturer's warranty must be very long and completely unconditional. Only this circumstance can testify to his confidence in the high quality of his product;
- photos of the entrance doors to the apartment indicate that they should look especially attractive, fit in their style and color to the general style, have a fairly respectable look, that is, be aesthetic;
- ease of use. Regardless of its weight and complexity of the structure, the door must open freely and move even without effort. Closers can often be used for convenience;
- a strong and reliable lock must undoubtedly provide good protection against the penetration of various kinds of ill-wishers. Jamming, breakage, turning the key - unacceptable;
- the hinges must necessarily withstand the weight of the door leaf and be so strong that they cannot be dismantled with the door closed;
- the door must be shockproof. She should not succumb to even very strong blows from the outside.
Helpful advice! If you require maximum burglary protection, then it can only be provided by installing an elite door with a 4 class burglary resistance at the entrance. Such a door is both bulletproof for small arms and fireproof.
Which entrance door to the apartment to choose
When choosing a product, you should always pay attention to what material it is made of, what it is filled with, what kind of lock, hinges and fittings it has. The design of the door is also important. After all, the general mood that the owner will create when looking at this interior object depends on him.
What materials are used to make entrance doors: wood
The first thing that catches your eye and comes to mind when buying apartment entrance doors is the material from which they are made. For city apartments, wood and metal are most often used. However, not all wood fully meets the requirements for high-quality doors. At the same time, those wooden doors that are really reliable and of high quality are very expensive. After all, it is the nobility of natural wood that creates the prestige and exclusivity that are inherent in wooden doors.
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If you don't know which front door to choose, then know that the strongest wood is oak, ash and beech. In addition, elite door samples are made from solid ebony and mahogany. Cheaper, but also beautiful wooden doors are made from alder, pine, walnut and cherry. Due to the fact that these are soft rocks, the service life of such doors is rather limited. Instead of buying such doors, it is better to prefer metal ones.
Metal doors
High quality wooden entrance doors are a luxury that not everyone can afford. For this reason, most people install metal entrance doors to the apartment. A photo of any entrance of an apartment building clearly speaks about this. Such products are made from a variety of alloys, but the most reliable of them are made from sheets of 2 or more millimeter steel. The steel sheets must be free of welds or any defects. The frame of such doors must be made of the strongest steel. It is good if armor plates are installed between the sheets.
Not you should follow the lead of marketers and take seriously what sellers say that there are several layers of metal in their doors, which are cheap. Yes, these doors are really made of multi-layer "tin".It is tin, if not foil, since the thickness of the sheets is less than 1 mm, which guarantees the appearance of dents even with slight pressure. Such a door is unlikely to be able to withstand a good blow, let alone the use of simple tools such as a crowbar or an ax. Thieves open such doors with an ordinary can opener, simply cutting out the lock, whatever it may be.
Photo of the entrance doors to the apartment: internal filling
When deciding which front door to choose, you need to pay close attention to its internal content. Any quality door leaf must have a sectional internal structure. Section boundaries are presented in the form of steel stiffeners. In cheap versions, their function is played by a cardboard accordion. Such a door is very light, and in the hole from under the lock you can see cardboard and emptiness.
Mineral wool, isolon, polystyrene or polyurethane foam are used as insulating materials and insulation. They keep heat well and prevent sounds from penetrating. The web perimeter is almost always rubber-padded.
Aesthetic component
Before you finally choose the front door to the apartment, you definitely need to pay special attention to its decorative qualities. An ordinary black canvas in the middle of an apartment decorated with delights will look very bad. Therefore, you need to choose the color and texture of the canvas taking into account the surrounding interior. The door itself can be covered with wood imitation veneer, laminate, MDF or foil. The most expensive models are trimmed with leather.
Security of the lock and hinges
Whichever entrance door to the apartment you would not have to choose, the locking mechanism is very important. Secure doors should have multiple locks. One of them is everyday, the rest are used in case of long departures. The combination of lever and cylinder models of locks will greatly add reliability. Entrance doors must be closed on all three free sides. This is provided in the design of a quality door.
Mainly two types of hinges are used on apartment entrance doors: open and hidden. Hidden ones are protected from simple cutting with a grinder. To protect the door from burglary, pins are installed on it, which do not allow dismantling the door when it is in the closed position. It is also possible to use products on hinges with ball bearings.
Helpful advice! High-quality hinges always support the weight of the web, they do not jam or deform during operation. To increase reliability, you should choose doors with 3-4 hinges. This helps to distribute the mass evenly.
Taking these characteristics into account, you can choose the front door to the apartment. Which one you prefer is up to you. The main thing is not to save money on safety with this choice. The design of the door should completely match the interior of your apartment.
How to choose front doors (video)