Best door pros near Emory, TX

Residential exterior doors should swing inward. While this cuts into your living space and prevents you from putting furniture near the inside of your door, it also means that the hinges will only be accessible from the interior. Hinges that sit on the outside of your home leave your property far less secure, as someone looking to get in could simply unscrew them and remove your door. Additionally, inswing exterior doors will be operable even if you have snow or other obstructions outside.

You should rekey your house every three years to minimize the chances of someone gaining access to your home. You can do it more than that, but it depends on the level of foot traffic and visitors you get. Businesses, for instance, routinely rekey their locks every six months to a year. If you experience a break-in or a house key has gone missing, rekey the locks immediately. The same goes if your lock becomes damaged.

Brickmould isn’t just for doors. It’s used around windows similarly to how it's used around doors. The purpose is to create protection and ward off moisture and insects that could otherwise invade the gap between the frame and the home’s exterior. As with doors, brickmould creates a finished look on the windows and acts as a decorative element.

To build a standard size, six-panel door yourself, you’ll need four 2-foot by 6-foot boards, one 2-foot by 8-foot or 2-foot by 10-foot board, and a sheet of 3/4-inch, paint-grade plywood. The 2-foot by 6-foot boards will serve as your stiles, top rail, and horizontal and vertical mullions, and the wider board will serve as the bottom rail, which is usually wider than the other horizontal pieces. The plywood will serve as the panels, but you’ll need around five 1-foot by 6-foot boards to make your own panels if you want to stain the door rather than paint it.