Fiberglass door comparisons. What could possibly be the difference?

hi welcome back to my channel this is jay johnson windowpurchase.com and if this is your first time here here's a little history on me i've been in the industry since 2001 and i've actually published three books on windows since 2008 the last book that came out was shopping for windows 101 that came out on amazon kindle barnes and noble about two and a half three years ago the first one i put out 2008 though was how to shop for windows and doors and even though all of my videos except for one so far has been on windows or sliding patio doors this one is going to be my segment on doors and today particularly fiberglass i have too many clients that call me for consulting from coast to coast and they're like well jay i want a fiberglass door and i'm like great what kind and they're like what do you mean i'm like well there's different grades different grades what do you mean well let's break it down in front of you on this table is three fiberglass doors okay what could possibly be the difference well besides price you have energy efficiency you have durability you have warranty you have the colors that may or may not be available in the door and the type of glass or the type or style of door slab that may or may not be available where you might see this in 15 different selections you might see this in 25 different selections but maybe some of the stuff available on this is not available on this it's kind of tricky so let's break it down for you the first thing people don't ask is what's the thickness of your door skin and most companies won't tell you the actual thickness but i will tell you for this particular brand that i'm using for the presentation these two models which is their higher end have the thickest fiber glass skins for entry doors in the industry so you could run out and get other quotes but if you're pricing doors from other brands the skin is not going to be as thick as these two now this is another fiber glass door but because this is still a good door but it's not as good as these the skin on this is much thinner than the skin on these even though they're all fiberglass doors so what else difference could be well a couple of my videos go over the performance rating trap you need to know the performance rating so you have some degree of energy efficiency on a window or door but the energy efficiency alone does not tell you how durable the product is or the longevity of it or how it's warranted so if you watch any of my videos excuse me on one of the performance readings on windows doors and skylights is u-factor u-factor has to do with the amount of heat that transfers back and forth through the window and door all day long heat moves the cold if this is the door system you bought and you have the heat on in the house the higher the u-factor the faster the heat goes through it if it's heat and humidity outside the higher the you factor the faster the heat goes through it so essentially what you want is a low u factor if you are shopping for windows or doors and keep in mind u-factor measures the heat transfers not only through the frame but also the glass the whole thing the whole enchilada so this is good better best okay two caveats this one is so good in this company's brochure it claims it has the lowest recorded u-factor measurements for any entry door in the entire us actually pulls down to 0.09 this is their second top of the line door and this will pull down with no glass in it a point one six keep in mind there's about a one degree temperature difference for each u factor so 16 minus nine is there you go it's about a seven degree temperature difference between these two doors now this one is actually a 0.14 well how could this lower end door be more energy efficient notice i didn't say be a better door i said be more energy efficient than this door that's made a lot better because wood does conduct the framing system of this door is made so much better and it's more durable plus you have a 15-year finish warranty on this you have a 15-year finish warranty on this you have a 10-year finish warranty on this one okay so there's some differences right away 15-year finish warranty 15-year finish warranty 10-year finish warranty with all that being said the fact that this door is constructed much better it's the fact that you have more that is actually conducting more heat than the foam that's in here so you got to watch that you could if you just shop for energy efficiency you can miss out on the durability and longevity you can miss out on well he'll fix the door skins or how are they stained or how are they applied or how long is the finish warranty for and another thing on finish warranties whether it's fiberglass or steel i don't care whether it's painted or stained i don't care but you got to read the small print because in a lot of these warranties on doors their idea of warranting the finish is a lot of these companies send you the paint or stain kit oh i guess they figure you're an expert on painting and staining your own door when the finish starts to falter here's another one for you some door companies on the market make doors that are so bad that within the warranty it states that if you get an entry door and it's a dark color on the outside and then you put a storm door over it that they no more longer warranty glass break due to heat buildup between the two doors because if you don't vent a storm door in the summer it could get potentially up to about 230 degree heat trapped between those doors well if they met a better door they wouldn't have to worry about it because your better door companies will stain it a dark color or paint it black you could put a storm door over it never vent it and they will warranty such things whereas some companies won't that's why i keep telling you guys over and over again get warranties first and save yourself a lot of time because if you're reading a warranty that you can't live with why would you waste your time calling the company up and having to come out and do a 30 minute or one hour four hour presentation where you don't usually learn what you're supposed to learn anyway when if you got a copy the warranty you could have said you know what this thing sucks let's not have this company out or this warranty is great let's definitely look at this company over here so what else could be the difference between these well i'm glad you asked again this brand and don't text me what brand i'm not here to promote anyone i'm here to teach you what to look for and what to ask so i don't want to get any emails what doors were on the table not going to tell you i'm telling you what to look for these two doors have what's called fourth generation greening process it's done by nickel vapor deposition and basically it pulls off the most authentic wood looking doors that you can get except they're not wood they're in fiberglass this door is third generation and presumably all the other fiberglass door brands on the market are only using third generation so if you want a much better looking door when you're going stained you could do a lower grade vinyl door i'm sorry fiber glass door you could even do a textured steel door the textured steel doors look pretty good if they're done right but if you're looking for that high-end look and you're looking for an extremely well-built product that has very respectable performance ratings this one actually has the best in the us of course it's two and a half inches thick i mean hello and yeah i know i get some people saying well jay that would be overkill for my house really are your walls only this thick or are your walls thinner than this door this door is still going a wall it's going to be a heck of a lot thicker than this door system is so quit thinking that if you go high-end on something that actually does what it says it does then it's going to start to outperform the efficiency of your wall that's just crazy talk because if your walls are that bad maybe you need another house or a better builder if you had to build new construction there is no window or door on the market that i've seen from anybody at any price that is actually going to outperform your walls in most cases and one of the few cases i've seen that in and the client was smart enough to know they had a house on a lake that was used as a summer and there was no insulation in the walls but they knew that when they retired they moved to that place full time they wound up getting high-end doors end up getting triple pane windows but they had a company come out to do the insulating in the walls and in the attic better first because in that case the windows and doors actually would have outperformed the walls but they knew that anyway as always if you find my videos useful helpful uh not only subscribe but please tell other people because i spend a lot of time and money putting these videos together i have no help i have a shoestring budget and that's it my name is jay johnson window purchase thanks for listening

Channel: jay johnson

Views: 8,145

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Id: pY1v03ZY8IM

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 27 2022