As with any decision to improve your home, while you may have an idea of what you need in your head, when it comes to the finer details, it can be difficult to judge and juggle all your options! We know that when you hire us to improve your home or space, you’re hiring us for our knowledge as well as our skills, so we thought we would pass some of this knowledge onto you in the form of this blog post so you can be a bit for-armed when you call us, knowing which wood you’d like to use for your new door!
Exterior or Interior doors and frames?
The first big thing to take into account when choosing the right wood for your new door and frame is whether the doors and frames will be internal or external. This will be an important distinction for the material you use on your new door!
External doors and frames need to be made of strong, stable wood that can withstand the elements and any unwanted forces from someone trying to break in. At the same time, they need to be able to withstand the elements, and in the case of extreme climates be able to expand and contract in different weather. This is especially true in cases such as Scotland (or abroad such as Norway), where they will have to freeze and thaw out multiple times while still keeping their strength.
Internal doors and framing don’t need to be as sturdy and durable as external ones, so the greatest thing to take in account is aesthetic and in some cases, insulation. With internal doors, it’s best to use woods that can shape and warp well, so they can be tailored to the look you’d like, at the same time as staining well, to go along with the overall aesthetic of their space. If you are in a cold climate, it may also help to have wood that insulates well to help save on energy bills!
External door and framing woods
If you’re looking for a wood that can withstand the elements and unwanted force, but also keep costs down, then the most popular option is white oak. White oak has all the strength that regular oak does, but it can also be stained or painted to any colour you’d like as the wood retains it well. As oak is very common in the UK it’s much cheaper than most other hard woods due to its availablity.
If budget isn’t a problem however, the absolute top quality wood for external doors and frames are teak, followed very closely by mahogany, which only just loses out due to Teak’s slightly superior moisture resistance properties, allowing it to last a bit longer in the UK’s humid climate.
Internal door and framing woods
As stated above, when thinking about an internal door and frame, you want to look at a material that doesn’t need the durability of an external door, but just a bit of insulation, sound-proofing and ability to shape and stain.
When it comes to a wallet-friendly option for your doors and frames, we believe engineered wood is the best choice for you. Even though the material is not completely natural, undergoing some chemical processes during construction, they are a perfect blend of sturdiness and insulation without costing as much as singular wood will. They can also be bought pre-stained or painted to save even more money.
We believe the best option for interior doors however is Cherry wood. They are fairly heavy and weighty, which not only keeps them durable but have a certain gravitas about them when opened and closed. They also have a natural beauty about them that can also be adapted with staining.
