{"id":167,"date":"2011-01-24T10:41:32","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T17:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/french-door-basics\/"},"modified":"2011-01-24T18:40:41","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T01:40:41","slug":"french-door-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/french-door-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"French Door Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"

French doors add a touch of class and openness to just about any room where they are installed.\u00a0 For many years they have been a popular alternative to the basic sliding glass doors that we grew up with. Replacement of sliding glass doors with french doors is a fairly affordable upgrade.<\/p>\n

First a word on terminology:\u00a0 Many people think that the term \u201cfrench door\u201d refers to two doors in an opening that swing out of the house.\u00a0 This is not correct!\u00a0 French door refers to the type and construction of a door\u2026 It consists of a frame, usually wood, forming the borders of the door and glass in the center.\u00a0 The glass can be a single piece or can be divided up into smaller panels that we call \u201clites\u201d. Here are just a few of the many possible configurations of french doors.\u00a0 Click to see larger image:
\n\"FrenchDoorsThumb\"<\/a>
\nThese are just some of the basic designs.\u00a0 There are many other styles with arches, curves and asymmetrical layouts.<\/p>\n

They can be installed as single doors, pairs of doors, doors with sidelites or doors with transoms.\u00a0 They swing in, out, fold to one or both sides, slide or they can be double acting. Typical door height is 80\u201d but 84\u201d and 96\u201d are also standard heights.\u00a0 Standard french door widths range from 24\u201d to 36\u201d in two inch increments.\u00a0 Sidelites range from about 10\u201d to 20\u201d, also in two inch increments.<\/p>\n

The glass can be be clear, beveled, opaque or there are many special order styles of glass to choose from:\u00a0 Glue chip, reeded, frosted to name a few.\u00a0 Here is a link to glass choices at one of the manufacturers that I order from:\u00a0 TM Cobb glass choices<\/a><\/strong>. I have installed many french doors that have leaded glass designs available by custom design or stock glass styles from the factory. The different glass choices provide various levels of privacy should that be a concern.<\/p>\n

French doors can be used for both interior and exterior installations.\u00a0 Inside the home or office they are used to separate rooms for privacy while still keeping a an open feeling throughout.\u00a0 I have installed french doors in hallways, offices, bedrooms, closets and even bathroom doors (using the privacy glass described above).<\/p>\n

For exterior use, french doors are usually used as access doors to patio or yard areas at points where we used to put narrow frame aluminum sliding doors.\u00a0 They can be configured to swing in, out or as sliding french door units.\u00a0 They are sometimes used as front entrance doors but unless you have a fairly private entry area I would not recommend them with decorative leaded glass or one of the glass styles above to block the view from the street or walkway.<\/p>\n

The sliding french door units usually come with an included sliding screen.\u00a0 Inswing doors allow the use of regular screen doors.\u00a0 Outswing french doors do not lend themselves to screening unless you use the retractable screens on the inside of the opening.\u00a0 Looks a bit clunky but is a solution if you require screening.<\/p>\n

Exterior french doors are offered in solid wood, vinyl, fiberglass and wood with clad exteriors.\u00a0 All can be good choices depending on the look that you are trying to achieve and the weather exposure.<\/p>\n

I only recommend solid wood french doors if the location has good weather protection.\u00a0 That includes protection from both sun and rain.\u00a0 The problem is that most of the stock wood doors that are readily available at home centers or lumber yards are made using veneer construction.\u00a0 This means that While the door is made of real wood, it is actually constructed of many different pieces glued together and covered with the thinnest wood veneer (or skin) that you can imagine. Just a small amount of water intrusion or expansion and contraction will cause the veneer, especially on the bottom rail, to buckle along the line of the grain.\u00a0 There really isn\u2019t a good way to repair this once it happens.<\/p>\n

The clad doors (wood inside with aluminum, vinyl or fiberglass outside) offer the best of both worlds if you want to varnish the inside of the doors for a natural look. Virtually maintenance free on the outside, they are offered in a variety of stock colors and many offer custom colors at an additional cost.\u00a0 The interiors are usually left for the homeowner to finish in a paint or stain of their choice. They are generally a bit more expensive than the other options because they are only available as complete prehung units.<\/p>\n

Fiberglass french doors are a very popular way to go.\u00a0 They are what I install for most of my customers.\u00a0 They are all dual glazed with low e available as an option. Most are installed as single lite (one big pane of glass). This type is offered with snap in grids for the interior to create a 10 lite effect (these are removable for glass cleaning). Another option is internal grids, usually available in white.\u00a0 These match the style of many of the vinyl windows that have been installed over the last several years.\u00a0 Another cool option is french doors with internal blinds<\/a><\/strong> window units that allow them to be raised or lowered or tilted in or out.<\/p>\n

I install french\u00a0 doors all over San Luis Obispo County\u2026Please call or email me for more information about french door choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French doors add a touch of class and openness to just about any room where they are installed.\u00a0 For many years they have been a popular alternative to the basic sliding glass doors that we grew up with. Replacement of sliding glass doors with french doors is a fairly affordable upgrade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9,11,8,7,10],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doors","tag-clad-french-doors","tag-exterior-french-doors","tag-fiberglass-french-doors","tag-french-doors","tag-interior-french-doors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thedoorguy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}