I will be adding a new exterior door to my Queen Anne period house. I am thinking of going with Simpson. Any opinions? Also I am thinking of changing the size of the door from 36″ to 42″. Any pros or cons? Thank you.
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Pros - I think exterior doors are a good thing to have.
;)
Simpson, I just used three of my first Simpsons.
one was a half light wood exterior prehung. The door seemed fine and the jmab was a decent fit. overall, it was worth having but nothing to jump up an down over. But I do a lot of custom doors too so I am used to very good stock.
There were too minor difficulties. One is that the company sends along a stringent set of rules about having the door primed and sealed as soon as it is installed. I have no problem with that, because I learned a looooonnngg time ago to never install a wood door without first sealing it.
But the problem that made me scratch my head is that I ordered it pre-primed so I could put it right in with this cold weather and not worry too much. It came with primers sprayed on the faces, but not a bit on the most important edges where warter wicks in... so I had to primer it right away anyhow.
The other interesting thing is that at least one hinge was upside down, making me wonder about the quality of the training or skills they have on the line. Know that most doors are assembled to frames by the distributor though, so hinging and manufacturing were probably at two entirely different locations.
The other set Of Simpsons were a custom pair for a utility storage area. Seemed OK again, except that the hardware was definitely on the cheap side, considering what I paid for them.
I have no long term experience with Simpson, but at this point, I would say that I would probaly use them again.
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You're Simpsons were hung by someone like Brosco. Simpson only makes slabs. But you knew that, right?
I can buy from a lumberyard with its own door shop, and they can get Simpsons slab-only from Brosco, then hang them using frame and sill components bought locally. This makes some things possible that Brosco won't do. Like ultra-special hinges, select hardwood frames, thresholds, mortise lock machining, etc.
Try these guys sometime. http://www.ciwood.com Located in Phoenix, but will ship anywere. How about something in mahogany, at a thickness of 2-1/4"? No problem.