SOLID WOOD DOORS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES, VARIETIES
No matter how forward by leaps and bounds modern technology, no matter what modern knockoffs of natural materials appear, all the same natural, remains natural and people will not stop surrounding themselves with such things. Solid wood doors are no exception, which recently were a little behind their synthetic counterparts - the blame for the high cost and no more. In all other respects, solid wood doors are far superior to all their congeners in terms of performance characteristics.
Solid wood doors: what are their advantages?
The main advantage of which have solid wood doors, undoubtedly, can be called their naturalness and environmental friendliness - what can be safer and harmless to humans, as not a natural material. In this respect, they can head off any modern doors. But besides their main advantage, there are other no less important positive characteristics - many people forget about them, which in itself is not the right thing. Such advantages include the following points:
1. Reliability and durability. Today, in houses and apartments you can still find interior doors, installed at the beginning of the last century, of course they are a little dilapidated, but if you apply restoration technologies, they will serve for at least as many years as they served before. It is necessary to take care of such doors and then they will please their owner for a long time.
2. very high thermal and sound insulation characteristics, which, by and large, all other modern doors cannot even dream of. Some people may argue with this. Their arguments can be answered with one strong argument - you have not dealt with the wrong doors. If wooden doors are made in accordance with modern standards and equipped with high-quality seals, then believe me, your attitude towards them will change fundamentally.
3. Depending on the type of wood used for manufacturing such doors, they also acquire the advantages inherent in a particular wood - for example, oak is very strong and resistant to moisture. In this respect, the most unsuitable wood for solid wood doors is pine - it is soft, absorbs water abundantly and as a result is highly susceptible to harmful microorganisms (mould, fungus).,
There are other, less weighty advantages of solid doors - first of all, we can note the beautiful appearance, which is inherent in both lacquered doors and painted ones. We should not forget about their quality moisture exchange - such doors are able to absorb excess moisture from the ambient air and return it back when there is a lack of moisture. And of course the ease of processing, which allows you to make solid wood doors with any unique surface shape.
Disadvantages of solid wood doors
Approaching the issue of studying the disadvantages of solid wood doors, the first thing to note is the susceptibility of most wood species to strong exposure to moisture and temperature variations - for example pine, under the influence of these factors cracked and swell quite strongly. In this regard, you need to choose carefully the type of wood or resort to modern impregnation, which can be said to work wonders - with their power, any wood can be made not subject to moisture, combustion, and similar flaws. As for the operational negatives of solid wood doors, the following points should be noted:
1. The need for regular care, which by the way takes a lot of effort and effort - if the first few years you can just keep their appearance in order, then later, in addition you will need to carry out some restoration work. Ordinary painting or varnishing is not sufficient here - layering of paint products only spoils the appearance of the door. The old paint will have to be peeled off and new paint will have to be applied in its place.
2. careful handling - no matter how sturdy the wood may be, all doors are quite susceptible to mechanical damage. Even oak can be damaged quite easily with sharp objects.
3. Rather complicated, replete with a mass of technological nuances of installation. No, in itself the process of assembling and installing doors is not much different from the installation of any other doors - here the main focus should be on protecting the wood from the effects of moisture, especially when it comes to solid wood entrance doors or doors installed in rooms with high humidity (bathroom, kitchen, bathroom).
In principle, with the main disadvantages seem to be all - it remains to note only that they may be added depending on the wood used for manufacturing.
Types of solid wood doors and their features
We will not enter into such moments as the presence on the door panels, the presence in them of glass inserts or additional decorative coating in the form of veneer - all this appearance, which you can deal with yourself. Let's look at the main differences due to the wood used to make the doors, which in most cases determines their performance qualities. Again, consider the most commonly used wood species. And so, solid wood doors are made from the following types of wood:
1. Doors made of solid pine. The main advantage of pine doors is their affordable price - it is not a rare and certainly not a valuable species of wood. To the disadvantages, these doors can be attributed a lot of factors - this and the softness of wood, and poor resistance to humidity and temperature fluctuations. Modern industrialists have learned to cope with the latter disadvantages - they do not use a solid pine, but a glued pine, which due to the different orientation of the fibers in one product has better characteristics.
2. Doors made of solid alder. The main advantages of alder doors are their high resistance to water, but this is not the end of their advantages. It is not superfluous to note the curative properties of alder - it contains a lot of tannins, which have a beneficial effect on human health. In addition, alder contains very little resin of all kinds. It does not even smell while burning and does not emit any harmful substances into the air - since ancient times this wood was used for heating the banya. Such doors are ideal for the street and for rooms with high humidity.
3. Solid walnut doors. This heavy, strong and hard wood species is used for relatively inexpensive doors - its low cost is due to the fact that it is not a rare species of wood. The undoubted advantage of walnut doors is a very beautiful and peculiar structure, which by and large can be given any color. In addition, walnut is perfectly polished - in this respect it cannot be compared with any other wood.
4. Solid oak doors are some of the most expensive of all such products. It is the heaviest, strongest and most durable wood with a unique structure. It is difficult to work, but it perfectly resists changes in temperature and humidity. It has unsurpassed heat and sound insulation, does not warp and does not change its original dimensions.
Other types of wood are also used for solid wood doors - ash, beech, maple and even such exotic woods as bamboo or merbau are quite often used. All these materials have their own special value. For example merbau is an oily wood, thanks to which it does not dry out; maple has high strength and is easy to handle; as for beech, its main advantage is the homogeneous structure (it is strongly exposed to moisture). Well, ash can be called the most elastic wood in terms of strength, not inferior to oak.
In general, there is plenty to choose from. By and large, solid wood doors can be made from almost any species of wood - herein lies the main catch, which is quite often used by unscrupulous manufacturers. Giving a certain color to cheap wood by modern means, they pass it off as a valuable species. Mere mortal, inexperienced in this business, by eye to identify a particular species of wood is almost impossible. For this reason, buy doors made of solid wood to be only with proven manufacturers, which many people trust.