Replies

1. 
   Gene_Davis | Aug 10, 2007 07:34pm | #1

   Go to the JLC forum, and read this thread.  It is in the Finish Carpentry section, titled "ThermaTru door problem"

   http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38268&page=3

   I'm not shilling for ThermaTru, although I used to work for them.  The thread shows how TT assisted a customer with a problem.

   TT doors go from where they are made, in either Indiana or Oklahoma, to their prehanging distributors.  The distributors buy the doors as slabs in pallet loads of 25 per, and it is the distributors that do the rest, to make the prehung units that deliver to the lumberyard dealers.  ThermaTru attempts to control quality at the prehang shops by conducting training, writing their assembly manuals, and selling to them all the parts for prehanging EXCEPT FOR the wood frame parts.

   TT doors are no more or no less difficult to install than most any prehung door.

   ALL foamfilled fiberglass doors are less stiff than their steel-faced counterparts, and all will warp when the exterior surface heats up due to sun exposure.  The behavior is called "thermal deflection," and can occur even in winter.  TT has taken steps to control this by using stiffer latchside stiles in the ClassicCraft line, and by using SMC (sheet molding compound) formulae that result in a FG skin with lower thermal expansions.  They can control it, but not make thermal deflection go away.

   No one makes a competing product that performs any better when the exterior surface warms up.

   If you want a fiberglass door because it gives you the look of wood, but none of the problems of wood, then you need to realize the drawbacks of fiberglass.

   If your door will face west or south and get direct sun, and your entrance has little to no overhang, you may wish to reconsider your door spec.

   If you buy a TT fiberglass door, stretch your budget and do the ClassicCraft model.  It is square-edged as is a wood door, and has a beefy latch stile to give it heft and stiffness.

   If staining, you MUST use the TT finish kit.  There is nothing that will perform as good, period.  If your painter balks and tells you he does fine with other products, find another painter.  The TT clearcoat that goes on after the stain job has cured, outperforms anything you can get off the shelf.  Any shelf.

   If you are not staining, but want a fiberglass door and will paint both sides of it, then consider TT's SmoothStar model.

   Good luck.

1. 
   MtnBoy | Aug 10, 2007 08:55pm | #2

   Wow, you are a wealth of information! One builder said fiberglass is more energy efficient than the insulated steel I wanted. Not looking for a wood-lookalike and won't be staining it. Whatever it is, it is. Most of the doors won't have much exposure. Worst one will be front entry, which is a 4 degrees off dead south exposure, but it sits back under a porch 6 feet. Still, this is the south (GA).Same builder said you get a tighter insulation seal with fiberglass as opposed to steel for 2 reasons: fiberglass does not contract in cold weather as steel does. And, fiberglass doors use a compression weatherstripping which gives a better seal than the magnetic. That part I'm not sure of, but if the metal door has shrunk, then the seal won't be as tight because the door isn't as tight in the jamb. So, I'd give him that.Not interested in real wood at all. Not here; not with its maintenance.I haven't yet, but will read the JLC thread after work today. I thought about this issue after reading another thread here (about wood doors?? not sure) about how the local distributor can make or break a ThermaTru door. And that's not true of other brands, I suppose??Thanks for your help. Good weekend to you.

1. 
   Snort | Aug 11, 2007 01:38am | #3

   I just ordered 3 TTs today...after I ordered, I flipped over their catalog, and the address is Maumee, Ohio...do you think Calvin can get me a better deal?<G>BTW, what do think of the American Style? Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press

   Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.

   They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,

   She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.

   I can't help it if I'm lucky.

1. 
   Gene_Davis | Aug 11, 2007 03:11am | #5

   TT's American Style is apparently their name for what everyone would recogize as craftsman styling.

   The craftsman high-waisted two panel door with a lite in its top quarter, is what I have put into every house I've built since leaving TT in '99.  One of the things I did when I was there was to run the new product development operation, and I had been recomending they do a craftsman line of ClassicCraft for a few years before the sale of the business.  The distribution said it would not sell well, and we did not do it.  My guess is that it is doing pretty small numbers.

   But even a small slice of a biz that knocks out over a million slabs a year makes for meaningful numbers, especially when you look at what the CC line does for the company's bottom line.

   The TT suits are housed in an office park in Maumee, OH, but the plants, as I said earlier, are in IN and OK.  When I was there, employees could buy doors at the cost of production, which is a super deal.  TT was harsh, and fired employees that abused the program by reselling product.

   Pay heed to my remarks about the finishing kit, if staining.  There really is no substitute for the waterborne topcoat they use (if that is what they are still using.)  People would use the most expensive solvent-borne spar varnish they could get, and the stuff would still peel off in sheets after eight months of exposure.  Then they would blame the door.

    

    

1. 
   Snort | Aug 11, 2007 02:45pm | #6

   Good to know, thanks. Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press

   Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.

   They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,

   She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.

   I can't help it if I'm lucky.

2. 
   tom21769 | Aug 11, 2007 02:07am | #4

   We have 4 Thermatru entry doors in our house.
   About 10 years after we bought the house, one of them developed condensation between the panes. This was on a west-facing door, the most used entry in the house.

   Although we had no purchase record for the door, the local distributor gave us a warranty replacement right away, charging only for the service-call labor.

   So I'm pretty impressed with the company and, despite this one problem, with their product. I did use the finish kit on the replacement door and followed the manufacturer's instructions to the letter. After several years, this finish has held up very well (unlike the original, which possibly had not been applied with the TT finish kit).