Picking doors for addition-- costs and recommendations?

[Anonymous]

We're planning an addition with both interior and exterior doors. Trying to wrap our heads around costs, brands, and other considerations. How much more expensive are French doors (interior and exterior) compared to single (interior or exterior) or patio doors? What brands are a good value (we don't want cheap crappy junk, but we also aren't sticklers for looks and are willing to deal with the minor inconveniences of things like a patio door that doesn't glide quite as smoothly as the pricier ones)? We are glad to go with standard sizes on these to keep costs down.

What doors did you get, how much did they cost, and are you happy with them?

Are there any good stores, websites, forums, etc to learn about and compare options?

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

Can your contractor advise? Our contractor gave us a few options he likes and we chose among them.

[Anonymous]

If you’re not replacing all the other doors in the house you need to match those.

[Anonymous]

Except for the cheapest big box doors they're all made to order. That means nobody will give you pricing information, beyond maybe vaguely saying that one line is "$$$" and another is "$$". Pricing is set by the retailer and the manufacturers don't want to offend them, so they won't talk MSRP.

So you have to go to a retailer and have a sales rep work up an order for you. Problem is, if they sense you're just shopping they don't want to waste time on you.

So it's hard to get started, to figure out whether a line is even in your price range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except for the cheapest big box doors they're all made to order. That means nobody will give you pricing information, beyond maybe vaguely saying that one line is "$$$" and another is "$$". Pricing is set by the retailer and the manufacturers don't want to offend them, so they won't talk MSRP.

So you have to go to a retailer and have a sales rep work up an order for you. Problem is, if they sense you're just shopping they don't want to waste time on you.

So it's hard to get started, to figure out whether a line is even in your price range.

What are the downsides of the cheap big box doors? For exterior doors I would guess they are less energy efficient, but do they have other problems too? For interior doors, what do you gain by going for more expensive doors>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except for the cheapest big box doors they're all made to order. That means nobody will give you pricing information, beyond maybe vaguely saying that one line is "$$$" and another is "$$". Pricing is set by the retailer and the manufacturers don't want to offend them, so they won't talk MSRP.

So you have to go to a retailer and have a sales rep work up an order for you. Problem is, if they sense you're just shopping they don't want to waste time on you.

So it's hard to get started, to figure out whether a line is even in your price range.

What are the downsides of the cheap big box doors? For exterior doors I would guess they are less energy efficient, but do they have other problems too? For interior doors, what do you gain by going for more expensive doors>

Cheap doors look and feel cheap. The cheapest ones are hollow and feel light. A panel door will be molded plastic, not real wood. They generally only come in either flush or 6-panel. Anything other than that you have to order.

I've ordered doors from Home Depot, they're OK. They have access to thousands of designs. If you're not in the trade they probably treat you better than a building supply store. The service varies tremendously from store to store, you have to find a store where the special order guy is on the ball.