FAQs
How should I care for my hardwood door?
Wood door maintenance really depends on direct sun/water exposure. The frequency of door maintenance varies with individual applications.  A door without an over hang or porch is going to weather quicker than a covered door. The bottom line is every few months, look for dulling in your finish which is usually the result of sun burning your door.  The sun&#;s ultra violet rays are bad things, but no worse on doors than anything else. We recommend that your door be wiped down or rinsed off.  When pollutants accumulate on the finish, they are often very acidic and will really wear down a finish. You should always check for cracks in the caulk around your door unit, but this is no different for a wood or metal door.   As a rule of thumb, every 12 to 18 months the exterior of a door should receive a light sanding with fine sand paper, about 220 grit.  After this, one should take a clean cloth, apply a little paint thinner to it and thoroughly wipe the door off.  After the door dries for a few minutes, apply a single top coat of polyurethane. When applying polyurethane, brush it on.  Please do not short cut and try the aerosol cans.  It is important to get a complete coating on the door and do not be afraid to let the polyurethane drip into crevices and cracks to keep the door sealed for best protection against water damage.  Voila, the door is good for another 12 to 18 months.  It really is that simple.  Finishing kits are available for purchase on this website - click here.

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Always remember, wood came from a living breathing tree and it is more sensitive to the elements than metal, but it is far more beautiful.  It will change and grow in character over its life.   With just modest attention and care, a wood door can last for many, many years. 

For help in selecting a door or for further advice, call toll free us at 866-645-.   

Finely crafted wood doors are a source of individual expression and beauty in domestic and commercial architecture. Wood has the ability to adapt to many designs, allowing for thousands of creative possibilities. Wood sets the standard for all other door types to achieve. But no other material delivers the architectural detail, precise shadow lines and mesmerizing grain patterns of wood.

The inherent warmth of wood doors is due to millions of naturally occurring, tiny honeycomb cells between the fibers, which provide a relatively high percentage of air volume, an excellent insulator. According to WDMA sources, wood's insulating properties are 600 times more effective than those of steel. And because wood doesn't conduct hot or cold like most man-made materials, the possibility of "thermal bowing" is diminished. Thermal bowing is caused by extreme temperatures, when one surface of the door is very cold at the same time the other side is very warm. When the cold side of the door contracts and the warm side expands, the uneven pressure that results may cause the structure to bow. Wood is much less susceptible to this problem.

Door protection during remodeling and construction.
Doors installed during a home remodel or construction should be protected from construction traffic.  However, never seal door behind an air tight vapor barrier as severe damage can occur to your door from excessive heat build up from the solar heat gain of sun exposure.  No warranty applies to doors experiencing such conditions. The same applies to the installation of air tight storm doors over a wood door, steel door or fiberglass door.

Easy to install and finish
Wood is easily planed at the home site to fit odd-sized openings. Imperfections in framing and jamb systems are not the roadblocks that they might be for non-wood, less-adaptable door materials. In addition, shavings from planing a wood door are much less irritating than fibers and other debris from man-made materials. Wood doors, when prepared properly at the home site, take stain evenly and beautifully. In this way, wood is more forgiving than non-wood surfaces.

&#;Do not use wood conditioners prior to staining mahogany, oak, cherry. Conditioner is good on woods with wild grain variations and most softwood products. On hardwoods, it most often seals the wood and prevents your stain from doing its job and penetrating the wood grain.  Your finishes will tend to be light and off color.&#;

Like anything worthwhile, wood doors require care. We recommend you install wood entrance doors under an overhang that blocks the sun. When finishing the door, all six sides, (four edges and two faces), must be properly sealed, per manufacturers instructions. Avoid applying dark-colored paint, as it is more prone to noticeable fading in the sun. Inspect your wood door every one to two years. Finishing tips - click here.

Fire rated door option.
We can do most any door style for you in a 20 minute fire rated door (required nationally between your home and your attached garage). Up charge will apply. Call or contact us for details.

Setback for bore option.
Our lock set bore is set to 2-3/8&#; setback.

Rough opening: Tips for accurate measurement.

Delivery and lead time information:
All doors are made to order and lead times vary. Contact us.

: (717) 566-
Regular office hours: Monday - Thursday  8:30am - 8:00pm ET  (Fri. til 5:00)

*All doors shipping to Florida areas requiring DP rating will have $475 added to the  price because they require special frames, sills & hardware to pass code.

*Now shipping doors to Alaska - for customer pickup in Anchorage, add $475 to any door unit! 

    
 

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How will my door be packaged for motor freight shipping?
When your merchandise arrives, particularly, doors you can expect the product to arrive on a motor freight carrier.  Dealing with a motor freight carrier is definitively different than using UPS or the Postal Service.  When your product arrives, expect it to be heavy and bulky.  Door units can weigh between 100 and 450 pounds in their crate.  ***Do not expect a motor freight driver to help you unload.  They will move your product to the tail of their truck and from that point on, the load is yours to manage.  Have some able body friends on hand to help out or whom ever you can recruit.  Often, door units are easier to manage once removed from their crate and you might want to uncrate immediately after removing your shipment from the truck. 

 A driver has been known to be of more assistance if you are to offer them some financial consideration, but this is not always a guarantee.  Good luck and be safe in unloading your merchandise

Exterior door unit crate: Garage door delivery crate:

Shipping Damage: We have always replaced any damaged items in a prompt fashion. On door units, normal lead times may be needed. Very, very rarely are there any issues unless an item is damaged in transit. Almost never as long as UPS is not involved. We do not encourage ordering from us if you are unsure of what you want. We are fast in response to all issues. Problem situations take precedent over new orders.  We do ask that you inspect shipments thoroughly upon receipt and prior to signing. Damaged shipments should be refused or received with notation of apparent damage. Details of damage is helpful, but most importantly, noting that damage is recognized helps all parties when settling claims. When receiving smaller items by UPS Ground or US Mail, please inspect for shortages or wrong items and report to us within 48hrs.

All damages must be reported within 24 hours to Millwork for Less 

Return Policy for non defective, or no warranty items:
You must contact Millwork for Less within 24 hours of receiving delivery to obtain an RGA number. 
Call 866-645- for an RGA# - 9- 5 ET. 
All freight on returns must be prepaid by customer.

No returns on doors and door components.

Cancellation fee - 3% on credit card orders.

Company background - About Millwork for Less

door tour - Read about our 2nd Annual Door Tour as we document our East coast travels on rented Triumph motorcycles seeking out customer doors that were purchased from this website. Click Here

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Do you have any impact rated door systems that would meet Florida building code.
Yes, we can do DP-50 rated structural.  We do not often do impact glass, but have doors for coastal applications.
Learn more...            

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Chaoda.

                *All doors shipping to Florida areas requiring DP rating will have $475 added to the
                price because they require special frames, sills & hardware to pass code.

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  Safe Shopping
   
When you are shopping securely online, you&#;ll see a tiny golden padlock in your address bar right next to the address which now reads &#;HTTPS&#; instead of &#;HTTP.&#; the &#;S&#; stands for &#;secure,&#; as you have been transferred to a secure line to prevent hacking and identity theft among other information gathering techniques such as key-logging and screen-mirroring software. Both of these identifying marks reassure our customers that their orders are safe and secure.

     Appearance and workability information on wood doors vs. other materials

• The appearance of  wood projects a natural custom look as opposed to a plain cold appearance of other materials.

• Wood doors can be cut to size, or cut for inserts, and resealed better than other materials.

• Wood is an excellent insulating material. Its cellular structure has millions of trapped air cells that forms a natural barrier against heat and cold.

• Wood doors do not get as hot on the face in the summer or as cold on the face in the winter.

• Wood doors are easy to plane, whereas other materials would be difficult or impossible to plane.

• Tests show that most air loss occurs around and not through a door.

• Other materials can rust, delaminate or get an irreparable dent in its skin.

 

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Understanding and Specifying Materials for Custom Wood Doors

Published: June 08,

Whether you are trying to closely match an existing style of door, or would like to design a door for a special application, there is a wide variety of basic materials and construction methods in practice, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.

Materials.

Wood doors can be made from solid woods, composites, veneers, engineered components or a combination of these. If you are looking for the most traditional and historically accurate style of door, you should specify solid construction for both the frame (rails and stiles), as well as panels. Prior to the s, this was the only type of door available, and is by many millwork aficionados considered the best and only way to make a door.

The more modern construction materials have evolved from an increase in the cost of premium hardwood materials, a desire to maximize "stability", cost and longevity as well as concern for the environment. As such, wood doors are sometimes veneered, whereby thin slices of premium hardwoods are glued onto all of the visible faces of a door frame made of either a cheaper wood, waste products or composites. A discriminating eye can detect a veneered door, even a very well done one, from a distance because every edge and corner of the door involves two pieces of wood (with slightly different graining and coloring), rather than one piece of wood. Veneering is a very old practice and for other reasons was developed into an art form in the eighteenth century by cabinet and furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale.

Some wooden louvered doors are made with a compromise - solid wood panels in the door because it is very difficult to veneer the profiles on the panels, with engineered and veneered stiles. Rails can be solid or veneered as well. The promise of these doors is that they have more stability because the stiles are made of small pieces of wood which is less like to deform than monolithic construction, and they have more of the full aesthetics of a true solid door.

Construction Details

The strength of a wood door is governed in great measure by the strength of the joints that hold the individual components together. Beginning with traditional door designs from the pre s, most doors were made from solid wood, and the frames were assembled with mortise and tenon joinery, optional pins through the tenons, and a wide variety of sticking profiles. A typical 6 panel door would have 6 panels, 2 stiles, 3 sub-stiles and 4 rails for a total of 14 mortise and tenon frame joints. The mortises and tenon joint has the most strength of any wood joint, and is governed by the length, thickness and glue area of the tenon. Well made wooden doors seldom rack, or fail at the joints, even when there are so many of them.

Because of the cost and time involved in creating mortise and tenon joinery, modern door manufactures of developed alternative joinery methods including doweling, screwing, pocket joinery, biscuits and butt gluing. These methods are less labor intensive and can often be performed in a mass production environment on specialized equipment. The results are often adequate, especially in smaller doors like cabinetry and furniture. But if your project requires an elegant 3" thick solid rail and stile entrance door, you definitely want to specify mortise and tenon joinery.

Environmental Impact

Sustainable forestry management is becoming more and more important as our tree resources are continually depleted by increased demand, as well as urban, suburban and rural sprawl. For the environmentally conscious, doors can be specified to be made from FSC (Forestry Sustainability Council) certified materials, or with other green techniques like re-processed wood (from old barns, old wood floors, demolition projects) or wood substitutes like MDF, particle core or PVC. For utility grade doors, where aesthetics are not a concern, there is practically no downside, however for premium architectural grade for projects where aesthetics is important, other methods need to be used to maintain the visual appeal of the door.

The advent of CAD, CNC and software control of milling equipment has greatly helped to minimize the waste created in the door manufacturing process. Because of the expense of hardwoods, manufactures have installed optimizing rip saws and chop saws, as well as elaborate software to make sure that every scrap of wood is used in the door, and cut off and rippings are kept to the bare minimum, thus stretching the precious supply of hardwoods to make more doors that require the full natural effect of woods.

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