My local lumberyard sells/recommends Thermatru doors. The local Lowes and Home Depot also sell Thermatru. Lowes also sells the Breakthru brand (made by Thermatru).
Some quick questions:
— This is the most important quesiton: What differences in materials are there between the two door brands?
The Breakthru appears to be the same in construction (at least in the brochure) but I couldn’t see what accounted for the 50% cost savings over Thermatru. Is it just mass produced and therefore lower cost?
— Thermatru is not prestained. What is required to achieve an even stain finish on the Thermatru fiberglass doors?
I’m OK with staining and finishing…OK, not great. Can I just stain the fiberglass door as it came from the factory? Or do I have to sand, seal, etc. like I would with real wood? The demo in the store had a nice even mahoganey finish. I want to get that finish.
Thanks all in advance.
Replies
bump
Can't answer your question about the difference betwen doors.
But staining the door isn't all that hard. But I do recommend getting the staining kit that ThermaTru sells. You can't use a regular stain- a gel stain is what you need, and the staining kit comes with everything.
Likely almost zero difference in materials, specs, and design. T-T must have made a deal with Lowes to sell at a ridiculous price, in exchange for Lowes prediction that they can do ridiculous volume. We'll see how long this lasts.
It's funny. Pella does ProLine, Andersen does 200, and each spends a bunch to develop a separate product that truly has some visible differences as compared to their high end brands, but Therma-Tru, with a simple product like a door, cannot do much at all to differentiate, so they in fact do nothing. Just a different label.
My advice . . . buy the Breakthru (what a stupid name.)
For staining, you gotta use T-T's stain kit, unless you can get the same thing as made by T-T but sold through Lowes.
The secret to a good fiberglass door stain job is in taking off the stain, not in putting it on. You need a stain rag to do the applying, and you do it a panel at a time, then the rails, finally the stiles. But at each section, or you can work maybe two sections at once, until you get better at it, you need to let the stain "set up" for a few minutes, then use a DRY brush and a CLEAN rag, and with the bristle tips, vigorously distribute out the stain evenly, FREQUENTLY cleaning the bristles with the clean rag.
What you're doing with the brush (and it needs to be a high quality natural bristle brush) is distributing and evening out the stain on the surface, and removing the excess buildup where necessary.
Hey Thang,
The TT stain kit is easy, and produces a beautiful result. We did our front door and our oak trim with the TT kit. Visually I can't tell any difference between the TT door and the real wood.
Just take a wee bit of time, follow the directions and you will do fantastic job.
kestrel
Darn! I made a mistake with the name of the doors. The name isn't Breakthru, it's Benchmark Doors:
http://www.benchmarkdoors.com/
It appears that they were a large door manufacturer that got bought out by Thermatru a few years back. Benchmark then started manufacturing the same Thermatru fiberglass doors at one of their plants. By all accounts, it appears to be the same door that is just specially marketed at big box retailers.
Sounds like just the thang then.
be roarin'
You are right about TT buying Benchmark. But that fiberglass door with the Benchmark name on it is made by TT in Butler, Indiana, on the same line where they make all their other fiberglass doors.