As everyone knows, internal interior doors should not only separate rooms with different functional purposes, but also serve as an element of decorative decoration.
When choosing a door, you should first of all pay special attention to its appearance, functionality and workmanship. Not so long ago, internal interior doors were not so strong and beautiful. Luckily, those days are over. Currently, various manufacturers are trying to compete with each other, constantly creating new, more functional and aesthetically attractive designs. Along with this, modern doors have a wealth of styles and shapes, they are quite strong and durable, and they are also able to effectively block the noise of neighboring rooms.
Materials. Recently, one of the most popular materials for the manufacture of interior doors is glued or solid wood. Strange as it may seem, but doors made of glued wood are considered stronger (several times) and more reliable, they do not warp or warp during operation, compared to doors made of solid wood. The most commonly used types of trees are: pine, ash, oak, mahogany or beech. In addition, interior doors can be made from smooth or embossed boards (fibreboard and chipboard), which in turn can be:
ordinary
medium-density (MDF), which are obtained as a result of the processing of wood fibers,
high-density (HDF), having a density 50% higher than the density of ordinary wood, therefore more resistant to distortion (they do not lead). In most cases, in the manufacture of interior doors, board and wood can be used at the same time. In this case, a solid frame (frame) is created from solid wood, which is lined with slabs.
Sash structures.
Door leaves can have the following design:
panel board,
paneled,
panel-panel.
Panel sashes are a wooden frame with a core made of stable chipboard, carpenter board or channel board, and veneered on both sides with plywood, HDF or plywood. Paneled sashes are a frame wooden frame, the fields between the elements of which are filled with plastic, glass, “plywood” or a wooden panel. Panel-panel sashes visually look like panel sashes, but they have a design like a panel sash: the base is a wooden frame, the cladding is double-sided, made of profiled boards, for example, MDF, having the appearance of a panel
Glazed or deaf.
All interroom internal doors can be deaf or have a glazing. The presence of glass in internal doors can affect not only their decorative appeal, but they can also allow a small amount of daylight from the room to enter the stairwells or corridors. Small fragments of glazing, made, for example, in the doors to the toilet or bathroom, can tell you if the light is on there, if there is someone inside. Basically, colored, patterned or frosted glass is used in the doors. Glasses can have a one-piece construction, and can be divided into small fields (sections). Taking care of your own safety and the safety of your children, you can order doors with glazing made of special safety or tempered glass. Tempered glass, if broken, shatters into small, non-sharp fragments, and safety glass cracks, but does not break into pieces. Doors of a deaf design are best used in rooms that require privacy, such as, for example, offices, bedrooms, and children’s rooms.
Left or right.
It is imperative that before buying doors, it is necessary to clearly plan their direction of opening and placement. If this is not done, then it may turn out that, for example, open doors to the bathroom will block the doors to the bedroom or block the tight corridor passage. The basic principle of door placement is as follows: after opening, they should take up as little space as possible in this room. To this end, you need to clearly determine which doors are best suited – left or right. Left doors are called those in which the hinges are located on the left and you need to open them with your left hand towards you, and right – in which the hinges are on the right and, therefore, you need to open them with your right hand towards you.
Alternative ways to open.
If the space available between the rooms is small, and ordinary doors in any case, regardless of the direction of opening, will interfere, then in this case it is necessary to think about folding, sliding or accordion doors. These types of doors are designed in such a way that after opening (partial or full) they take up as little space as possible.
Folding door.
This type of door is most often used in small spaces, such as pantries, dressing rooms or other types of niches. Such sashes may consist of two or more elements, interconnected by means of hinges. When open, they take up little space, when closed, they resemble ordinary swing doors in appearance. Compared to sliding ones, they do not require free space on the side of the wall. All sashes move along special guides, which are found in their upper part.
Sliding door.
They are used in places where swing doors take up too much space. They are opened by moving the sash sideways along the wall or into a special cassette inserted into the wall.
Swinging door.
This type of door differs from swing doors in the form of hinges. These doors can open in both directions. In addition, the swinging movements of the doors can be provided by a vertical axis passing through the side edge of the leaf.
The door “in the accordion”.
This type of door is mounted in the same cases as folding or sliding doors. As a rule, an accordion door consists of narrow panels made of chipboard, PVC or polystyrene, which are interconnected by elastic bands made of plastic or canvas. After they are fully opened, they are folded on one side of the opening “into an accordion”. They move according to the principle of folding door elements, however, each such panel has a separate suspension or roller.
Finishing.
Doors made of solid wood of various qualities (spruce, pine), covered with high-quality wood veneer (oak, beech or other exotic wood) are very popular. Usually, the top of the door is covered with stain or varnish. The cheapest in price are doors made of wood sheet materials. They can also be finished with veneer on top or covered with a special laminate that visually imitates the structure of wood. In most cases, I paint doors made of slabs in any shade that resembles some kind of wood in color. It is important to know that the most durable veneer is considered to be laminate or CPL type synthetic veneer. Its manufacturers recommend even in public areas. Laminate is practically non-plastic material and can be used for finishing flat doors. It has high resistance to abrasion, deformation, and also does not require special care. The laminate can be 0.2 or 0.7 mm thick. Wood veneer made from valuable tree species has less strength, but it has more flexibility. In most cases, it is used to cover paneled sashes. Doors made of slabs, as well as doors made of wood, can be decorated with various planks, doors with intarsia look especially impressive.
Noise isolation.
There are a lot of sounds in the house that I would like to simply take a break from. So, for example, the noise of water in the toilet or bathroom, the loud TV in the hall, the sound of beating meat in the kitchen, loud music in the room of a girl or boy, etc. e. In this situation, closed doors can not always help. This fact must be taken into account when choosing doors, and also check whether they will be a barrier to noise. Conscientious manufacturers check their doors for compliance with acoustic insulation standards (RW – acoustic insulation coefficient according to old standards, RA1 and RA2 – coefficients according to new standards). Typically, the acoustic insulation coefficient is 20 dB, although nowadays you can already find doors with a coefficient of 27, as well as 30 dB. The bigger, the better. Through such doors, annoying sounds and loud conversations that can be heard from adjacent rooms will not be heard.
One of the decisive factors in soundproofing doors is the type of filling of the sash. The best insulation can be guaranteed by doors made of wood-based panels with holes in the cavity, the worst – lightweight cardboard doors. In addition, the quality of the sound insulation of the door is affected by the type of junction of the sash to the door frame. At present, along with the usual non-adjacent sash, which has smooth edges without cuts, doors with an adjoining sash, which has special influxes and allows the door to be tightly closed due to the large area of contact with the frame, are widely used.
In the latter case, the doors will let in less extraneous noise.
Locks and handles.
One of the integral attributes of any door is the door handle. Conventional hinged door models use traditional push handles or knobs. Currently, the range of such handles is so wide that you can easily choose a handle for the style of the door or room, under the palm, etc. In folding, sliding and accordion doors, the handle is usually made in the form of a fixed handle. In addition, a lock is sometimes inserted into the interior doors. The most common type of lock is a simple one with a latch. In bathrooms and toilets, a small round handle with a combined latch is most often mounted.
Important points when buying a door. At the time of buying doors, you need to check what exactly is included in the price, which kit the manufacturer offers. So in some cases, the kit may include a sash and a box, in some – everything is separate. Sometimes it happens that the cost of glass is not included in the standard price, you need to pay extra for it separately. In most cases, you will need to pay extra for the door handle separately, but the lock and hinges, in most cases, are included in the standard cost of the door. Don’t forget to ask about transportation.
In some cases, it may turn out that it is included in the price or cheaper than elsewhere. Don’t forget door installation services. It happens that the manufacturer himself is engaged in the installation or recommends a number of companies cooperating with them. In this case, professional performance of work can be guaranteed, as well as an extension of the warranty period by one or two years. When planning the replacement of doors in the room, you must not forget about the deadline for completing the order (manufacturing time). This can be important if, for example, you are planning to lay a new wooden floor. The master will not be able to install the plinth near the door until it is changed. Therefore, it is best to either order a door in advance, or try to negotiate with parquet floorers, since not every master will want to come once again just because of the skirting boards.
We hope that our article will help you make the right choice, and the purchased door will delight you for many years with its beauty, reliability and functionality.