When it comes to choosing door material for your facility, you need have many, many options. But there are important things to consider before you make your choices. Different materials are better suited for different elements, so I understand when people come to LockNet exhausted, overwhelmed, and ready to give up. However, what you don’t want to do is get so aggravated that you choose the first door you see, just to be done with the entire task quickly. There’s a reason why doors come in so many different materials these days.

Door Material: Exterior Doors & Harsh Elements

Depending on your facility’s location, your exterior door can be faced with myriad different elements, ranging anywhere from the blazing hot sun to frigid and icy temperatures to exposure to harsh chemicals. All of that information must come into play when you choose a door.

Stainless Steel

Fortunately, you have stainless steel as an option. Stainless steel is tough enough for the exterior challenges listed above, but also serves as an appealing option for interior doors as well. Stainless steel isn’t prone to rust which is helpful if you need to wash your door often, and it has a natural resistance to corrosion, making it a front runner in the exterior doors race.

Stainless steel, however, does have a couple of drawbacks. It is more expensive than the other options, and there are fewer design options.

Hollow Metal

Hollow metal is another option that stands up pretty well to harsh elements, and it’s a popular choice for both interior and exterior doors. Hollow metal doors are made of cold-rolled steel and can take quite a bit of abuse. For this reason, they’re a great option for areas where you’re continuously moving product, such as stock rooms. The abuse that stock carts often cause can be handled pretty well by hollow metal doors.

While hollow metal holds up really well, it does need a sturdy coat of paint in order to help keep rust at bay. Hollow metal tends to let heat and/or cold air escape, so that’s something to keep in mind. And if you need a door that must be disinfected on a regular basis, hollow metal is more susceptible to damage from that process.

Door Material: Interior Doors & Their Options

Wood

If design is your key factor, wooden doors might be your answer. With seemingly endless design and finish options, wooden doors work well for interior applications. Detailed carvings on panel doors, sleek flat doors… the options for wooden doors are practically endless. They’re excellent sound dampeners, and great at keeping hot or cold air from escaping. Wooden doors are also surprisingly affordable, as long as you aren’t ordering an exotic wood or a particularly lavish design.

Granted, wooden doors have a few downsides as well. They don’t hold up well in changing climate conditions, as they tend to swell and shrink based on the temperature. They can also warp from humidity and be damaged by liquid, making disinfecting them fairly difficult. Wooden doors typically aren’t recommended for exterior applications.

Laminate

Laminate doors are another great option for interior doors. If the laminate is manufactured properly, it’s durable and can hold up well in a variety of situations. Granted, you’ll need to make sure the door is manufactured properly, and that means buying one that wasn’t laminated in the field, as those are prone to chipping and peeling, and can be very difficult to repair.

There are several design options when it comes to laminate doors, and they are relatively easy to clean and disinfect, but because laminate can’t withstand the elements without getting damaged, it cannot be used on exterior doors.

Choosing the right door material for your facility can be exhausting, but that’s why we’re here. Let us help you wade through that information and get you the door best suited for your facility!

 

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