How to choose a metal door: to an apartment, house

To ensure the safety of housing, doors must be reliable, resistant to breaking. But they should also be comfortable and beautiful. Metal doors meet all these requirements. But choosing a metal door is not so easy – there are many nuances and features that you need to know. 

Burglary resistance and reliability

The main function that the front door should perform is protection against entry into a house or apartment. When choosing doors, it is this factor that you should pay attention to in the first place. The most important thing is reliability, everything else is secondary. And it consists of the reliability of all elements of the door structure. Exactly. After all, what’s the use of thick metal if the locks can be opened in a couple of seconds, or removed from the hinges or squeezed out of the frame. In general, in order to choose the right metal door, pay attention to:

• Door leaf.
• The thickness of the metal in the frame.
• Number, reliability and type of locks.
• Hinge reliability.
  

But that’s not all. The method of installing a metal door must be correctly chosen – pins are usually driven into the frame, connecting it to the wall. The diameter of these pins, their length and number – and there is a choice of installation method. What’s the use of a super good door if it can be kicked out. In general, only an integrated approach will give you confidence in the safety of your home. So in order to choose a metal door correctly, you will have to understand the intricacies.

Door leaf of iron door

The door leaf of a metal door is not just a sheet of metal. This is a three-dimensional structure, which consists of a steel sheet and stiffeners, as well as reinforcements and linings in the most loaded (door hinges) or problem areas (locations of locks). Anti-removable pins or labyrinths may also be present.

All this ensures the safety of the room, but not comfort. Everyone knows that metal is an excellent conductor of heat, and besides, it dampens sounds poorly. These shortcomings are compensated by the installation of insulation, as well as rubber seals. They are also different and give a different effect. Before choosing a metal door, we understand the nuances.

Metal thickness

Most often, they begin with the choice of the thickness of the metal of the door seal. On sale there are “steel” doors that can be opened almost with a can opener. They use metal with a thickness of 0,3-0,6 mm. This is clearly not enough.

To ensure a sufficient level of reliability, the thickness of the steel must be at least 1 mm. Such a sheet is not easy to damage. But more often they tend to think that the optimal choice is 1,5 – 2 mm, those who like to play it safe choose 3 mm. Such metal doors will not be too heavy, but will become an obstacle for burglars.

There are, of course, with sheets of 4-6 mm or even more, but they are very heavy and expensive. Perhaps, as external doors in cottages and private houses, they are justified, but in high-rise buildings they are hardly appropriate. What is very important – the sheet of metal must be solid, without welds. Welding significantly reduces the reliability of the door.

There are doors with two steel sheets – the outer one is thicker, the inner one is a little thinner. The need for a second metal sheet is constantly being debated. Need it or not, everyone decides for himself. The second sheet, on the one hand, increases its reliability. On the other hand, it makes the structure heavier, making it more expensive. The point is not only in the additional sheet of metal, but also in the hinges and in the frame. They must withstand quite a lot of weight, be more massive and, therefore, more expensive. Whether to choose a metal door with one or two sheets of metal is up to you.

Technological nuances: manufacturing method, stiffeners, steel grade

The door leaf and frame of the steel door can be welded or solid-bent. To bend steel with a thickness of 2 mm or more, special expensive equipment is required. Therefore, solid-bent metal doors are produced by serious enterprises. Welding is a simpler and more accessible process. This method is used by both small workshops and single masters. With a good quality weld, the reliability of the structure will be no worse than a bent one, but how to check? So they prefer to buy bent structures. So at this point it is difficult to say which is better to choose a metal door – with welding or bent.

Stiffeners are welded to the steel plate of the door leaf. They are needed to strengthen the structure, there are vertical and horizontal. The total number is from 2 to 10. They are made from a profile pipe or special one-piece U-shaped profiles. Vertical stiffeners must be solid and go from the very top to the bottom of the web.

Not only the thickness of steel is important, but also its brand, additives that give it increased strength. Manganese steel is durable, but it is expensive. In relatively inexpensive models, it is used only for overlays in the castle area. The presence of such overlays is a sign that the doors have good resistance to breaking.

Anti-removable labyrinths and pins

In order to prevent the door leaf from being removed in the event of sawing off the door hinges, anti-removable elements are added to the design. It can be a labyrinth or pins. A labyrinth is a curved edge of a door leaf and jamb in a certain way. When closed, they form an inseparable connection.

Anti-removable pins are welded to the frame from the side of the hinges. Reciprocal holes are made in the door frame. When the doors are closed, the pins go into the holes, blocking its removal. This option is easier to implement (and cheaper).

Door Box

To choose the right metal door, pay attention to how the frame is made. There are two designs: with welded steel “ears” and holes for fasteners right in the frame itself. The first option is used in those houses where the thickness of the walls allows them to be installed. The second one, with holes in the frame, is also suitable for panel houses with their thin walls.

In addition to the design, look at the thickness of the metal from which it is made. At a minimum, the thickness should be no less than the sheet of the door leaf. Otherwise, it can be knocked out or squeezed out.

To keep your house warm and quiet, pay attention to seals and insulation. Seals (rubber rollers around the perimeter) can only stand on the door leaf or only on the frame, but it is better that they are both there and there. Also, to keep warm and so that sounds do not get into your apartment or house, the frame itself must be insulated. It is hollow, and a heater is installed in these cavities. This is very important not from the point of view of reliability, but from the point of view of comfort.

Hinges

The door hinges of an iron door must be designed for heavy weight and long-term use. The weight will have to withstand at least 100 kg, therefore ball hinges are usually used. The movement at the door will be easier if they are on bearings.

The optimal number of loops is two. With a larger number, it is difficult to center them, which will affect the service life. Two loops of normal “carrying capacity” are enough. If it costs more, most likely, the factory did not have normal hinges and put those that are.

By design, door hinges can be open and hidden. Hidden ones are considered more reliable, since they are invisible from the outside and cannot be cut off. But they have a number of disadvantages:

• They are more expensive.
• The limited opening angle of the door is about 90 °, while for external hinges it can be 180 °, therefore, there may be problems with the skidding of large items.
• When the door is opened, a shoulder of force of considerable magnitude is formed. Attempting to open the doors wider can cause the hinge to skew.
• When installing such hinges, the door frame is trimmed, which reduces its strength.
• It is difficult to properly position the insulation at the installation site of the hidden loop.

In general, a rather ambiguous choice. With a limited budget, it is better to choose external hinges, but with the obligatory presence of anti-removable elements (labyrinth or pins).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMpq1gkT3jQ

Locks and locking devices

The locks themselves, their structure and reliability can be studied for a long time. But it is worth remembering that in the design of the door in the area of ​​uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe installation of locks there should be a reinforcement plate. The thickness of the steel should be at least twice as thick as in other places. If the additional lining is made of a super-durable steel grade (manganese) – this is an additional plus to choosing this particular metal door.

What locks to put

Those who do not want to delve too deeply into the study of types of locks just need to know that for a sufficient level of reliability it is desirable to have two locking devices of different systems. Most often they put a cylinder and lever. On the door, they should not stand next to each other, but at a distance from each other. The greater this distance, the better – this reduces the possibility of squeezing the door, since the locks are separated by a considerable distance. It is also desirable to have a latch on the inside. Its design is up to you. This is so that if someone is at home, it was impossible to open the door from the outside. More constipation brings more trouble to the owners than inconvenience to burglars.

One of the traditional locks can be replaced with an electronic lock. It does not have a keyhole, it opens not with ordinary keys, but with a remote control, as on an anti-theft device for cars. A good option, but it costs a lot. Installing a two-in-one lock is not entirely correct with two systems. After all, two locks are needed precisely so that the crossbars are spaced as far as possible.

When choosing a lock for a metal door, European or American brands are often preferred. Yes, they are more expensive, but more reliable. Italian firms Cisa, Mottura have proven themselves well, Turkish Kale, Austrian EVVA, German Saturn and Diamant are not bad. If the budget is limited, there are good Russian ones: Kerberos from St. Petersburg (with a cut-off lever) and Barrier.

Additional locking devices

Some doors are equipped with additional devices for protection against mechanical breaking. These are pins and crossbars, which, when the lock is turned, slide out of the door leaf, entering the holes made under them in the door frame. There are several types of these devices: thrust, deviators and crabs.

If, when the key is turned, the pins appear above and below the door leaf, these are rods. If additional pins come out in a horizontal plane (usually in the upper and lower parts of the lock side, but can also be on the hinge side) – these are deviators. The shape of the deviators can be any – in the form of round pins or rotary hook-shaped ones. If the pins appear both from the bottom / top and from the loop side – this system is called a “crab”.

All of them are good as additional measures against mechanical breaking: if they try to squeeze the door leaf from the door frame, they will greatly complicate the task. But if they open it with a master key or some other “intelligent” method, this will not help. In addition, please note that all bolts work from the lock. So if you decide to choose a metal door with crossbars, the lock must have outlets for connecting to them. If they are not, all additional constipation is useless.

Warming and soundproofing

Without insulation in the interior of the door leaf in a house or apartment it will be cold and noisy. After all, steel is a good conductor of heat and badly delays sounds. Any suitable material is used as a heater: mineral wool, polystyrene foam, polystyrene foam. The question is which is better to use. It is better to be based on the characteristics of the insulation:

• Mineral wool. It can be basalt or fiberglass, it can be of different densities.
  • Basalt mineral wool is good for everyone, but it is afraid of getting wet (condensation at a temperature difference between inside and outside). When frozen in a wet state, after freezing, it turns into dust. If you want to choose an entrance metal door to the house, it is better to install it with a different insulation.
    

  • Mineral wool made of fiberglass is not afraid of getting wet, but it is inconvenient to work with it – it pricks.
• Styrofoam. A good thermal insulation material that is not afraid of moisture, but has poor sound insulation characteristics. Attractive only for the price.
• Extruded polystyrene foam. This type of insulation is significantly superior to other materials in terms of thermal insulation characteristics. From this point of view, it is ideal. But soundproofing is also not very good, and the cost is high.

The conclusions from all of the above can be drawn as follows: the choice of insulation for the door depends on the intended location of its installation. If you are going to choose a metal door to the apartment, you can take mineral wool. It is still relatively warm in the entrance and basalt wool should not freeze. Another point: it is better if they put not porous cotton, but hard, which is usually sold in mats. It has the best thermal insulation characteristics, due to elasticity it fills the cavities better.

When choosing a steel door for a house or cottage, it is better to refrain from basalt mineral wool. She won’t do her job. In this case, the best option is extruded polystyrene foam. It is also desirable that there be two independent insulation circuits: one at the outer part of the door, the second at the inner, and between them there is an air gap. This design increases the thickness of the door leaf, but the protection against cold and sounds is much better.

Another important thing to keep warm is the presence of seals on the door. Usually they are made of rubber in the shape of the letter D. They are attached around the perimeter of the door frame and leaf. This is quite enough for a metal door to an apartment. For the door to the house, it is desirable to have two circuits – protection against the penetration of cold will be more reliable.