I need to replace my front door. The previous owners installed a wooden front door that is so thin that I can punch a hole through it. The center section of the door is made of planks that are overlapped and glued together. The planks are separating and allowing outside air to pour In through the gaps.

So, educate me on where to buy a new door. We are definitely wanting to upgrade. Maybe to a nice metal door with inset glass. Might reno the entry way and remove the side light windows to make room for a double door.

TIA

Following as were interested in replacing our front and back door as we recently remodeled and they look out of place. Where are you located? I'm in houston

We are near Abilene.

I know you asked about steel but we went with fiberglass for our front door on new construction. It looks close enough to wood for us but way better insulation and will hold up to lots of use. The only issue is lead times right now, there just aren't as many suppliers for fiberglass as steel so you'd need to plan ahead.

I can get you the name of the guy that built our doors for our home build if you like. He's in Enid, OK. He was faster and lower priced than production doors.

My experience - Lowe's/home Depot are impossible to work with to order a custom door. A direct to consumer door store was super expensive. Finding a good contractor and working with his door supplier (wholesale) + paying him to install is the way to go.

Thanks for all the replies/suggestions. I think the wife is sold on a metal double door. Problem is that it will require a complete rip out of the existing door/frame and exterior rock to make it fit. I don't have quotes yet, but I am assuming it will be pricy. Here is a pic including the side lights. You can see the rock outside in the entry way.

Yikes. Doing a double front door here will be very challenging and very expensive and the scale of it will look very odd. Does not fit the house or the space in the entry way. Just replace with a fiberglass or other wood door. You could let more light in by getting a door with a light insert that is frosted/privacy glass.

Yes, go through a lumber supply company and not a big box store. Will have more options and more professional help.

For the person located in Houston…

https://texags.com/forums/61/topics/3206823

Replacing the entire front door with new casing and side windows isn't cheap. I can imagine the cost of double metal doors.

You'll want to verify the frame can support a metal door. When we built our home we had to determine if we were doing an iron door before the framing went up. The double door had an iron frame that was installed during home framing, and that they framed3 layers of 2x6s around the iron frame to support the doors, which were about 300LBs each.

I've felt a lot of metal doors that were much lighter weight, but know what you're buying and that any framing that exists or will be installed can support it long-term.