Build a High-Performance Exterior Door
This beautiful door is ideally suited to energy-efficient homes and can be made with common building materials.
Synopsis: Natural builder Ben Graham and custom woodworker Mike Lamp demonstrate how they recently designed and built a 3-1/2-in.-thick R-10 wood door using salvaged cherry lumber. The door’s construction details, product selections, and design choices are explained thoroughly. The second half of the article shows how Graham and Lamp installed the 140-lb. door and integrated it into the home’s building envelope. Exploded drawings show how the door and its two-piece jamb assembly are constructed.
We recently completed a deep-energy retrofit to an 80-year-old Vermont farmhouse. The many improvements we made included new windows, new mechanical systems, and the addition of 4 in. of exterior mineral-wool insulation. Not surprisingly, the project also called for new energy-efficient exterior doors to complement the home’s high-performance building envelope.
For an ultra-efficient house like this one, entry doors are often sourced from Europe, where high-performance doors are more mainstream than in…
Start your 14-day FREE trial to access this story.
Become a member today and get instant access to all Fine Homebuilding content!
Start your free trial nowAlready a member? Log in
View Comments
Great door, thank you for the inspiration. I have just built one very similar to this one from Western Red Cedar. Also, the insulated glass unit is arched at the top instead of the top rail being arched, so it gives it a slightly different appearance. Hardest part is finding the door hardware for a 3.5" thick door! Only place I could source it was Rock Mountain Hardware, as you did. Again thank you for the leadership and inspiration - much appreciated
Hi.
Any chance the rational for using Roxul board could be explained? I can guess maybe sound attenuation, or perhaps just builder preference/what's on hand. Is it lighter? Other factors?
Hi Tyler,
The clients chose rockwool because it has it has lower global warming potential (GWP) than XPS foam. They insulated the whole house with rockwool for the same reason. EPS and poliso also have much lower GWP than XPS.
Patrick McCombe senior editor