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When choosing a door for the space between your garage and house, steel is your best bet for fire safety. While wood—and sometimes glass—doors are common, they have lower fire-ratings. Fire-rated steel doors can withstand flames for up to three hours—double what wood can manage (90 minutes). Glass, while non-combustible, can crack under extreme heat. Steel may cost more, but it also offers the best protection. Steel isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing choice, but as long as your door meets the International Residential Code (IRC) standards, it’ll do its job in protecting your family and home.

Though you can remove your interior door and paint it on a flat surface, doing so can be more time-consuming and labor-intensive. The easiest way to paint an interior door is by simply leaving it on its hinges and then painting both sides of the door all at once. That way, you can avoid having to reinstall the door, you don’t have to find a project site to paint it, and you get a faster dry time.

Before attempting to reinforce an apartment door, speak to the property owner. If the door hasn’t been updated in a while, the landlord may offer to cover the cost of a professional locksmith or your expense of this security update. Rekeying a door can be a costly and lengthy affair, so try low-impact, inexpensive tricks—like installing a deadlock or a door jammer—first.

A prehung door is a door that comes ready to install, already mounted in its frame with hinges and stop molding included. Because everything is factory-aligned, installation is quicker, more precise, and convenient, as you don't need to drill or align the hinges yourself. This makes it a smart option if your current frame is damaged, uneven, or if you're working on a new build. Installation involves fitting the entire unit into the rough opening, shimming and leveling it, and then securing it. If you are replacing an existing prehung door, the process is even simpler, often just requiring you to swap the old unit for the new one and secure it with a few screws. Prehung doors typically cost only slightly more (around $20) than a door slab alone, making them an efficient choice.