How to choose the entrance metal door to the apartment
It would seem that the very first and logical thing you need to decide when deciding how to choose the front door to the apartment is to buy it with a wooden or metal cloth - but there can only be one answer. Modern realities show that uninviting neighbors often live in multi-storey buildings, which apartment thieves use with pleasure, who usually need very little time to get inside.
The presence of a wooden door is especially pleasing to these comrades, because any of them is relatively silent and breaks out with a crowbar from the hinges in a matter of seconds, against which even the most complex lock is powerless. As a result, the door should be steel, which, under any circumstances, will force the cracker to spend at least half an hour opening it, and therefore with a high degree of probability it’s easy to abandon this venture. The main issue has been resolved - further we will analyze in detail how to choose the entrance metal door to the apartment.
Content:
What should be the design of a quality entrance metal door
From the point of view of reliability, metal doors must be selected according to the following criteria: the thickness of the metal profile (base), the thickness of the outer steel sheet and the presence of stiffeners. On the one hand, the larger these values are, the stronger the door will be. On the other hand, for the same reason, an unjustified increase in the weight of the entire structure is possible, which will result in a lot of inertia when it is opened and quick wear of the loops.
The device of the metal front door
First, we will consider what elements a high-quality entrance metal door should consist of. A closed door frame is assembled from a U-shaped profile, onto which a steel sheet is fixed by spot welding. On the inside, quality doors have stiffeners - at least two vertical and three horizontal. Depending on the location of the castle, the middle stiffener can be solid or split in the castle zone. Depending on the model of the lock, the crossbars and their traction, as well as the castle armor plate, are placed. Between the ribs is inserted insulation. On the inside, the door is closed with an MDF panel or other suitable material. On the door frame, the door is hung on hinges with bearings - others simply cannot bear its weight. An additional protection against breaking the door out of the box is the anti-removable pin, which is pulled out of the door leaf when it is closed.
1. Stiffener
2. MDF panel.
3. Insulation.
4. Deadlift
5. Armor plate on the castle.
6. Sealant.
7. Box.
8. Door leaf.
9. Loop with bearing.
10. External clamping plate.
11. A metal sheet.
12. Removable pin.
Door frame
There are many varieties of door frames. The most widespread are boxes made from a corner, a profile pipe and a bent sheet. The best option for its manufacture would be a profile pipe with a metal cross section of 3-5 mm. The use of boxes made of a corner or a bent sheet is not recommended, since these structures are more prone to twisting and bending. The profile pipe, in addition to greater stability, is more convenient to install and better fixed to the wall.
Boxes from a profile pipe can have the following varieties:
Door frame from a profile pipe 50 × 25 mm. and 16 × 4 mm.
Door frame from a profile pipe 50 × 25 mm. and 40 × 25 mm.
Box from a profile pipe 60 × 30 mm. and 16 × 16 mm.
Door frame from a profile pipe 50 × 25 mm. and 40 × 25 mm. with an armored strip.
Boxes made of bent sheet have good sound and heat insulation, but they lose to boxes from a profile pipe in strength.
The most common are the following types of boxes of their bent sheet:
On both racks of the door frame, mounting plates are welded, with which the frame is mounted in the opening. The number of mounting plates, usually 3 to 4 pieces on each side.
One of the vertical pillars of the door frame is a carrier, door hinges are welded to it and holes for anti-removable pins are made in it.
The second rack is a lock and holes are made in it under the lock crossbars.
An important element of the box is the door narthex. This is a quarter for installing the seal. There are boxes with one, two and even three narthexes. As practice shows, with a good seal, one porch is enough, everything else will be unnecessary and will entail an overpayment of funds.
Box with two vestibules.
The next important element of the door frame is the platbands. In addition to decorative, they perform a protective function. By blocking the mounting seams, they prevent intruders from penetrating the mounting elements and do not make it possible to start a crowbar behind the box racks.
Door leaf thickness
It is set by the width of the profile from which the base of the door is made. The standard size for an apartment is about 50-70 mm, and if a street door is made, then its thickness can be increased to 100 mm. From the point of view of reliability, safety and insulating properties, the thicker the door is, the better, but the increased inertia will make it more traumatic, therefore it is better to dwell on a version close to the standard.
External and internal steel sheets
It is on these elements that the door's resistance to burglary and its weight depend. Sheets from 0.5 to 1.5 mm thick are welded onto cheap door leafs, most of which can be opened with a can opener without much difficulty. Making the thickness excessively large is also not recommended, since from a certain moment only the weight of the door increases without increasing its protective properties. The golden mean is the size of 2 - 3 mm, which provides good protection of the lock and comfortable use of the door.
Some manufacturers offer supposedly reinforced doors that have an additional steel sheet on the inside as a marketing ploy. Undoubtedly, this slightly increases their strength, but by and large, it is impractical, since to enter the apartment it is enough for the householder to cope with the external sheet. An additional disadvantage of this design is found if it is necessary to repair the lock, access to which is either blocked or possible only through a specially cut hatch.
To increase the strength of the door, the best option would be to use not two metal sheets, but one external, 3 mm thick. This will increase the overall strength of the structure and reduce its weight, and hence the load on the door hinges.
Stiffening rib
Their task is to withstand the torsional loads that occur during a rough force-breaking, when attackers try to bend the upper or lower part of the door leaf, or squeeze it out of the door frame.
In total, there are three systems for the location of stiffeners:
- longitudinal, when they are welded from top to bottom;
- transverse, with a horizontal arrangement;
- combined, using longitudinal and transverse, location.
To give maximum strength to the door leaf, the stiffeners must be combined, i.e. positioned both along and across the door leaf. You can see an example of such a door in the above image.
What do Chinese door manufacturers sin
First of all, this is not even quality, but the thickness of the metal, which in some doors is good if it reaches 1 mm.Checking this is very simple - just try pushing through the metal sheet of the door leaf, if it is even a little deformed, then there can be no question of any protection. Accordingly, a poor-quality "Chinese" can be recognized by weight - such a door will "tighten" by no more than 40 - 50 kg.
Indirect signs of a bad door are too bright shiny paint and the low location of the door peephole. The next problem with Chinese doors is the low reliability of the locking system - their locks by unknown manufacturers often “play” when the bolts fly out, and it is almost impossible to find accessories for them.
Cellular cardboard is sometimes used as a filler in such doors, it is understood that we can’t talk about the stiffness of the canvas in this case.
If the issue of price is not in the foreground, then before choosing a metal door to the apartment, you need to make sure that this is not a Chinese fake from unknown manufacturers, which the attackers will open as quickly as the wooden one.
Door insulation
Qualitatively made insulation protects the room from extraneous sounds, smells and heat leakage. In addition, the comprehensive installation of insulating materials improves the appearance of the door, as it provides for the finishing of the outer canvas and the quality of the slopes.
The first stage of isolation is the filling of technical voids inside the door between the stiffeners.
Most often, mineral wool is used for this, which has a complex effect - it works as a heat and sound insulator, does not burn and is environmentally friendly.
Some manufacturers use polyurethane foam or expanded polystyrene as a filler. The advantages of these materials include the fact that they are not able to accumulate moisture. However, if you choose the door to the apartment, then for you it will not be so relevant. The disadvantage of these heaters is their fire hazard. The advantages of using these materials to fill the voids of a door is that they are sufficiently dense materials and that the door in which they are installed does not have the effect of a drum if you knock on it.
The second point related to insulation is the presence of a high-quality sealant around the entire perimeter of the door. Rubber or silicone seals - they not only increase sound insulation, but also prevent odors from entering the apartment from the corridor, which is especially important in the presence of smoking neighbors. When choosing a door, you can stumble upon offers with one, two or even three contours of gaskets. The last option, assuring sellers, without fail, guarantees full protection against everything that can be thought up, but if you listen to the practices, they unanimously say that one circuit will do just fine if it is made of good material, and the door leaf itself is well fitted. Even two are recommended for insurance purposes only - just in case, rather than for serious reasons.
Finishing slopes. Whatever the door is wonderful in itself, but if after installing it there are cracks in the wall, then smells and sounds will freely pass through them into the apartment.
A well-made door and insulation dampen most of the external sounds, but when installing it in an apartment, one should not expect complete sound insulation, since there are so-called structural sounds transmitted in a solid, in particular walls. Therefore, you should not expect from the door that it will completely drown out the noise of the elevator or cope with external sounds with “bare” walls. But if before that you had a wooden door, then having put a high-quality metal door you will immediately feel comfort in terms of isolation from the outside world.
Door locks
It is impossible to fully consider all the nuances of installing locks due to the large number of their varieties. Each model has its own individual characteristics, which affects its installation and further operation, but there are basic rules recommended for compliance:
The lock should fit the door
An unstable door leaf or lock (even if only two) made of obscure materials will equally be a weak link in the protective properties of the entire structure, tasty for the house.
A kind of lock and the need for a latch
For an apartment door you need a mortise lock, the mechanism of which is placed inside the door leaf. Mounted or overhead analogues are not reliable and their use must be discarded immediately. The latch greatly simplifies the operation of a modern door, and in particular its locking. If there is no latch, then to turn the lock, the door leaf will have to be pulled or pushed.
Number of locks
Two issues are considered here - security and forethought. In the first case, the fact that two locks is a double job for an attacker is taken into account - two sets of different tools, twice the length of time required for opening, and, accordingly, increased chances of getting caught “on the hot”. The second reason is a banal reinsurance - if one of the locks breaks, then it can be slowly repaired or replaced, using another at this time.
Lock type
If you install two locking mechanisms, then there is no point in acquiring the same varieties - if a thief is able to open locks of a certain design, then the loss of time will be insignificant for him. For this reason, it is recommended to install mechanisms of different designs - cylinder and lever.
The cylinder is considered more difficult for an intellectual showdown - its secret part consists of many so-called pins. In order for the castle to turn, they must be arranged in a certain order. The disadvantage of a cylinder lock is relative fragility and location - a secret mechanism "peeks" outside the door leaf, because of which you can try to simply knock it out.
The level castle consists of thick plates called levers - hence its name. Opening such a lock is easier, but breaking it is much more difficult, since its mechanism is completely hidden in the thickness of the door.
Of course, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Lock manufacturers are constantly improving their devices, making them more reliable, but the rule is that everything closed by one person can be opened by another, is still valid. As a result, when deciding which front door is best to install in an apartment, it is strongly recommended to choose a model with two locks of various designs. This does not give a 100% guarantee on the skills of a professional, but the petty crooks, who are actually the majority, will definitely be scared away.
Additional security systems
Each of them is designed to complicate the task of a potential cracker, therefore, if the security issue is in the first place, you should find out which of the following is included in the door kit, and what can be installed separately.
Door hinges. The hinges with which the doors are equipped can be hidden or external. External hinges are welded to the door leaf and the pillar of the box. Since the door is heavy, the hinges are placed very powerful and some believe that it spoils the appearance of the door.
External loops.
According to sellers, the main disadvantage of external loops is that anyone has access to them and can be easily cut, and hidden loops are devoid of this disadvantage.
This is actually just a marketing ploy, and hidden loops have some disadvantages:
- They increase the cost of construction.
- Since the hinges are hidden in special sinuses, the useful opening of the door is reduced.
- Doors equipped with such hinges have a smaller opening angle.
- There is a high probability that as a result of excessive opening of the door, at an angle greater than that provided, the door frame may be deformed.
- Seats for hidden hinges slightly reduce the rigidity of the frame.
Cutting open loops is not so easy. In addition, all doors with these types of hinges are equipped with anti-removable pins that will not allow you to remove the doors even with hinges cut. Therefore, the type of hinges will not affect the burglar resistance of the door.It will be much easier to open the lock than to create so much noise by cutting the loop.
Anti-detachable pins. They are located in the door leaf and go inside the door frame. They are needed in case of a force breaking - if an attacker even manages to cut the hinges, he will not be able to remove the door leaf from the opening.
Night valve. The simplest mechanism, mounted on the inside of the door leaf and driven manually. Outside there is no access to it, so not a single tool will help the cracker.
Peephole. There is only one requirement here - a wide viewing angle, which allows you to see everything that happens outside.
Opening outward or inward. Definitely, the first option is preferable, since the web opening inside can be squeezed out with a jack. If, for any reason, the opening still has to be done inside, it is advisable to install a second additional door.
Exterior door trim
Its task is not only to give the door surface an appropriate look - the exterior finish should be as vandal resistant as possible and withstand the effects of solar ultraviolet radiation and precipitation. For this reason, for street doors, you can not use coatings made of wood materials that can pick up moisture - particleboard, MDF and the like.
Leatherette
At the time of the appearance of steel doors on the market, the use of this material in the form of upholstery was difficult for a banal reason - dermatin was nailed to wooden doors, and it had to be fixed to iron doors in other ways. As a result, dermatine was practically not used for some time with steel structures, with rare exceptions. Now for lovers of leatherette on the market there are pads that make dermatine fastening technology as simple as possible:
- The steel sheet is cleaned and degreased.
- In the right places, the base plates are glued to it.
- Foam or similar material is placed on the door, and dermatin is placed on it.
- The upper side of the linings presses the leatherette against the door leaf. At the same time, free areas of foam rubber stretch the dermatin.
- Between the plates you can stretch the wire - the craftsmen came up with many schemes for a variety of patterns.
The main disadvantage of dermatin is its poor resistance to mechanical damage, especially from sharp objects.
Paneling
A relatively new type of finish, using which panels of wood or plastic materials are used, up to 20 mm thick. Their main advantages are ease of installation and a wide range of colors and shades, which dermatin materials cannot boast of.
First of all, plastic panels appeared on the domestic market, which decorated Italian and Spanish doors, and with the development of the market, local manufacturers began to produce them. Wooden panels are positioned as products of the elite class, corresponding to the cost - in appearance such doors are difficult to distinguish from those made of natural oak, alder or pine.
In appearance, decorative panels can be with a flat or three-dimensional pattern. In the first case, thin plastic or MDF is used, which are coated with a film. For bulk, they take plywood, high-quality MDF or natural wood, on which the desired pattern is cut with a milling cutter, and then the panel is covered with film, varnished and tinted if it is an array.
The disadvantage of the panels is the same as that of dermatine - low vandal resistance. To increase their strength, an additional layer of plastic is sprayed onto the surface, but this does not completely solve the problem, and the cost of this procedure is quite high.
Hammer paint
The surfaces painted by it have a characteristic appearance - it seems that they were painted, they beat the paint with a hammer, and then varnished, but the drawings turn out to be rather discreet and beautiful. This effect is obtained due to the presence of aluminum powder in the composition.
In addition to the appearance, this paint has a number of advantages, which brought it to the number of leaders in exterior decoration:
- Suitable for all surfaces.
- The paint structure masks scratches and irregularities, therefore it does not require preliminary priming.
- The paint adheres well to the surface and dries quickly.
- Extensive color scheme.
- Easy to handle - it is sold ready-made, ready to use.
The following types of such coloring are distinguished:
Antik.
Velvet.
Crocodile.
Moire.
Shagreen.
The surface covered with a hammer paint becomes airtight, resistant to various weather conditions, ultraviolet, aggressive fluids, mechanical stress, vibration and temperature changes, which makes it vandal resistant.
How to order a door
Even if the store has already liked the specific entrance door to the apartment, you will have to decide which one to decide finally with the manager in the department. This is an inevitable evil, or vice versa, if the consultant is competent and competent. In any case, he can and should ask all questions of interest, tell about any doubts about the quality of the door as a whole and its details that appeared in the process of its selection, ask him to first calculate the cost of installation.
What the consultant will tell
By how a person will answer all the questions asked, you can form an opinion not only about himself, but also about the company as a whole. People are not born technically savvy - if the seller has really extensive knowledge, he correctly answers questions and finds answers to objections, that means he has been working in his place for a long time and regularly undergoes trainings for advanced training. This indicates the company's responsible approach to working with customers, and therefore, with a high degree of probability, to the process of production of its products as a whole.
If everything will be exactly the opposite - the consultant is in the store just “for show”, he may not even know the names of the door components and gets lost with elementary questions about the cost and installation time, then at least the implementation at the manufacturer is not so hot.
Of course, it may be that you have to communicate with the newcomer, but serious salespeople first of all teach “students” not to lie about the product, and if they still lack knowledge, then invite a more competent specialist to talk with the client.
Warranty service
The trivial questions about the timing of the manufacturing company on the market, where it came from and how it developed, will help to suggest the actions of its employees in the event of a breakdown or marriage of any component. Additionally, do not be shy to directly ask questions about warranty service - where and how it will be carried out, in what time frame, who is responsible for it and what may be the reasons for the refusal of a guarantee. All these points must be clarified “before” the door is purchased and installed, because then, if the order was made by one-day workers, there will most likely be no place to complain.
An important point - in addition to logical reasoning, it will be useful to trust your intuition. If, when communicating with consultants, there is a lasting impression that “somehow everything is wrong,” it is better to postpone the purchase and study the catalogs of the house in a relaxed atmosphere. If the company does not have directories that can be studied at home or the site where they are posted - there is definitely something wrong with it.
