Wooden doors have always been the top choice among homeowners when it comes to buying a door for their house. However, buying a wooden door can be an overwhelming experience due to the vast range of options available in the market.
Searching through markets, you must have come across two types of wooden doors, engineered and solid wood doors.
Engineered wooden doors are an amazing substitute for solid wood doors. They provide technical lead while imitating solid wood’s appearance and feel.
Although the exteriors of solid wood and engineered wood doors might appear to be similar, their composition is entirely different. If you want to purchase a wood door for your house, it is better to conduct thorough research on engineered and solid wood, and its pros and cons beforehand.
For your convenience, Graana.com, Pakistan’s smartest property portal, has come up with a profound analysis of solid and engineered wood doors to let you know the difference between them.
Properties of a Solid Wood Door
As the name suggests, solid wooden doors are composed of 100% natural wood, excluding the hardware, which is typically made of metals. These conventional solid wood doors are hefty, sturdy, and a bit costly.
Nevertheless, wooden doors appear quite elegant and have the ability to imply sophistication to the decor of your home. Aside from this, they can be moulded into any design and shape. Also, you can paint them as per your distinctive style and liking.
Solid wood doors are produced either by using a single lump of solid wood or by wooden frame and panels. Both hardwood and softwood are used for the construction of solid wood doors. You can either use hardwood like oak or softwood like pine for building a solid wood door.
However, the kind of wood you opt for must meet the demands of placement and usage.
Given their strength and resilience, solid wood doors are typically used as entrance doors in homes for additional security. It is difficult to break through them.
Moreover, these doors are good insulators, which means they do not conduct heat or energy, making them energy-efficient. Doors built using hardwood are also good at making the room noise-proof due to their volume.
However, being a non-synthetic material of construction, every type of wood offers a different level of toughness, durability and humidity level. In Pakistan, one of the most commonly used woods for the production of doors includes pine, kail, diyar, and ashwood.
Properties of an Engineered Wood Door
In layman’s terms, they can be thought of as a contemporary approach to conventional wooden door manufacture. They are composed of numerous sheets of engineered wood, for instance; hardboard or fiberboard. These sheets are glued and pressed together to form a complex, solid core.
For the finishing, its outer layer is covered with natural wood veneer, and edge banders (stripes made of plastic or wood) are affixed to its edges.
In terms of appearance, both types of doors closely resemble each other, and you can not tell them apart at first glance.
The only significant distinction between the two is that engineered doors do not display any of the weaknesses of traditional wooden doors.
Moreover, they come at a considerably lower rate in comparison with solid wood doors in Pakistan. People often mistake the low price as an indicator of poor quality, which is not true in this case.
Engineered wood doors, although cheaper than the other ones, possess similar or somewhat better qualities. They are really dense and sturdy, and sometimes even weigh more than solid wooden doors, making them the strongest among their counterparts.
In the wood market, you will come across a wide variety of engineered wood doors, incorporating different designs and sizes. They generally offer great soundproofing and are not prone to being affected by dampness in the air.
Also, they are fire-resistant and can be shaped and painted to appear like conventional panel-and-frame wood doors.
Pros & Cons of Solid and Engineered Wood Doors
Here are the pros and cons of solid vs engineered wood doors.
Cons of Solid Wood
- They might boast classic aesthetics, but they are extremely prone to weathering.
- Due to multiple layers of wood going in various directions, they are more likely to get warped.
- A phenomenon like warping and twisting adversely affects the insulating ability of a door, making it less energy-efficient.
- Solid wood is prone to dampness, hence, solid wooden door is not a good choice for people living in areas with high moisture levels.
- Their production is not beneficial for the environment, as they are manufactured using 100% natural wood.
Pros of Solid Wood
- They offer a classic aesthetic appeal to the house.
- Buying them can be a good investment as their high cost increases the value of the house.
Pros of Engineered Wood
- Being factory-manufactured, engineered wood doors have a much more stable core, making them moisture and weather-resistant.
- They are more sturdy and durable than solid wood doors.
- They are more eco-friendly, as less wood is consumed to manufacture them. They come at affordable rates.
- The domain of choices and level of modification in engineered wood is vast.
Cons of Engineered Wood
- It is hard to work with heavy and dense engineered wood.
- It requires its edges to be covered with lippings. Otherwise, layers of veneers would show, making it look rough.
- In most cases, the urea-formaldehyde resin is used to manufacture the wood, which might produce toxic gases and lower air quality..
- A few types of engineered wood boards do not show much resistance to humidity, which might result in their veneer peeling off.
Both types of doors have their pros and cons. Due to the tumblers used to manufacture them, solid-wood doors are usually more high-priced.
Moreover, they are essentially sturdy and firm. On the other hand, an engineered wood door can sustain its form and provide better insulation.
For more information on related topics such as types of doors, visit Graana blog.
