Iron doors are extremely popular, right now. They match just about any home décor if you’re careful with the door you pick, and they’re incredibly resilient without requiring a lot of maintenance. In fact, they’re some of the strongest doors out there and only need a quick paint job every few years to keep them in tip-top shape.
However, there is one problem that iron doors do suffer from more than other high-end doors. You need to make sure they’re insulated properly.
There are a lot of reasons for this, and we’re going to go over those, and we’ll go over the key benefits of proper insulation in iron doors, too.
Let’s get started.
Why is Insulation Important? The Benefits of a Properly Insulated Iron Door
First, you should probably know why insulation is so important.
Practically every door material is going to offer some sort of insulation. Even though iron doesn’t do it as well as, let’s say hardwood, it does block out wind and light, and it does help you retain the controlled climate in your home a lot better than if you just had an open doorway.
Even so, all doors require a bit more insulation in certain areas, and for iron, that’s even more important. While the iron door itself will insulate your home a bit, any gaps can create major problems.
1: Better Retention of Climate Control
As a homeowner, you go through a lot of trouble controlling the temperature in your home and keeping the place comfortable according to your preferences. Well, no matter how much you run your air conditioner or heater, if you have points in your home that are poorly insulated, a lot of that climate-controlled air will escape or be affected by outside factors.
Properly insulating your iron door can prevent that from happening. You’ll almost immediately notice that you don’t have to use your HVAC system nearly as hard just to achieve the indoor temperature you’re comfortable with.
2. Soundproofing
This is one of the benefits of proper insulation that many people don’t think about, but insulating your door is about a lot more than just controlling the temperature in your home. It can actually help you block out noises from the outside.
Sound travels via the air. In fact, it is essentially just an arrangement of vibrations in the air. When you don’t have a properly insulated door, sounds from outside, whether they’re kids playing, trains going by, or loud music playing, are much more audible inside your home.
Obviously, that can be a major annoyance. You might have a toddler who’s napping, need to work in peace and quiet, or just sit down and enjoy some Netflix on your day off. If your door isn’t properly insulated, all those outside noises can easily affect your ability to do those things, and living in your own home can become a major chore. Just ask anyone in a poorly insulated home next to a railroad track or high-traffic roadway. Getting a good night’s sleep is hard. Let alone enjoying yourself on your time off.
Insulation blocks the travel of sound and makes it far less obnoxious when you’re simply trying to enjoy yourself or get things done around the house.
3: Lower Energy Bills
You might have noticed that we mentioned you wouldn’t have to run your HVAC system or other climate control devices as much, earlier. Well, that is actually another benefit beyond simply making it easier to retain your home’s interior climate.
Well, those happen to be some of the most energy-intensive appliances in your home. There’s a reason your energy bill climbs every time you have to turn them on for extended periods of time.
This is even worse when your door isn’t properly insulated because a lot more energy is used to continuously control your home’s temperature.
When your door is properly insulated, and the HVAC system doesn’t have to work as hard, you don’t have to use as much energy to control the interior climate. This naturally lowers your energy bill.
Even better, if you live in a fairly moderate climate, you can usually turn your HVAC system off a lot of the time. This allows you to completely avoid the increase in your energy bill because you’re not using those energy-hog appliances to cool the home down or heat it up. It just feels comfortable naturally.
4: Eco-Friendly
This isn’t a benefit that directly affects your day-to-day life, but it is something that helps work toward the greater good of humanity. As we said, you can use your HVAC system less or even turn it off entirely most of the time. Not only does that mean you’re not raising your own energy bill, but it also means that energy resources aren’t being used to power those devices.
This means that power plants aren’t working as hard; especially when large populations all take these small precautions. As such, those power plants aren’t generating as much in terms of emissions, and over time, we end up with a healthier planet that benefits everyone.
5: Cleaner Air
When a door isn’t insulated properly, it allows air to blow in through the gaps between the door and the frame. That’s bad enough, but what’s in that air is even worse.
Depending on where you live, a lack of insulation around your door might allow outside air to bring dust, pollen, and other contaminants into your home’s air. This might be extremely noticeable if you have very bad allergies, or you might not notice it at all. However, it’s not good to breathe that in 24/7 without any sort of ventilation.
Many people end up having to use air purifiers to clean the air in their homes, and all they really need is to insulate their homes better.
Insulating your door properly prevents those contaminants from entering.
6: No Breeze
Have you ever been sitting on the couch, enjoying some Netflix on your day off, and suddenly, a cold breeze comes through and shocks your senses a bit? Well, that is usually a problem with your home’s insulation, and most commonly, it’s the insulation around your door.
We just briefly mentioned this, but there are gaps between your door and the door frame. This is present with all doors; not just iron doors.
If a cold breeze blows outside, and you don’t have your door insulated properly, you’ll feel it in the house when you’re least expecting it. This impacts the interior temperature of your home, but it’s also simply uncomfortable to deal with.
How Insulation Works with Doors
Iron doors do somewhat insulate your home just by being in the doorway. It’s obviously a lot better to have a completely uninsulated door than it is to have a giant open hole in your home. However, it’s not optimal for all the reasons we gave before. First, iron isn’t the best insulation material, and second, there are gaps between the door and the frame that no amount of fitting will help.
You need insulation.
What is Insulation in a Door?
When you think of insulating something around your home, you probably think of something like what you do with your home’s walls. You pad the inside space between the walls with insulation material, and that does all the hard work.
Some doors have this to an extent. Such as hardwood doors with insulated cores or carbon fiber doors. However, that’s a rare, and very expensive, feature. You’re unlikely to find it on a standard iron door.
Instead, door insulation is typically comprised of rubber, silicone, or similar stripping that goes around the doorframe.
It’s fairly easy to install, and unlike insulating your walls, you don’t have to worry about touching the door itself or tearing anything up.
How is Insulation Installed?
Door insulation is incredibly easy to install properly. It’s always best to have it professionally installed, but it is something that you can do on your own with basic tools and a steady hand. The trick is to take your time so the installation not only works properly but looks good, as well.
First, there are a few types of insulation that can be used. We’ll go over the two most common options.
You can use rubber strips designed for door installation. These work great, last a long time, and are easy to put up. However, they take a little more time, and you will need some basic tools.
Then, there is silicone insulation. This comes in a caulking container, and you simply squeeze it on. This is fast, easy, and reliable. However, it’s also easy to mess up if you don’t have a steady hand. It can also wear out faster, and mess-ups can create some very unattractive visuals around your doorway. As a plus, it usually dries clear. So, it’s practically invisible insulation.
There is also the old-fashioned metal stripping that you can get, but it’s more difficult to install, doesn’t work as well, and can cause problems if the metal gets bent or otherwise deforms.
To install rubber insulation, it’s usually as easy as using a manufacturer-recommended adhesive and sticking it to the doorframe like a glorified sticker. You’ll have to use a utility knife to slice away excess and make it fit properly in your doorway. A standard staple gun that costs about $10 at your local hardware store is also commonly used, but it doesn’t create as clean of an appearance.
As we said, silicone is just squeezed on. You’ll just need something to quickly remove any mess-ups before it solidifies, and you might need a utility knife to cut away excess if the caulking gun gets away from you a bit. Beyond that, you just need the time it takes for it to dry before you start using your doorway again.
Non-Doorframe Insulation Considerations
The doorframe is the most important part of the door to insulate, but it’s not the only thing you can do to add more insulation to your home.
There are two other important factors you should consider with iron doors.
1: Window Glass
You can go through the effort of insulating the door frame all you want. Most iron doors use glass fairly extensively, and if that glass is just regular old single-pane glass, it’s going to let a lot of your climate-controlled air out.
Instead, you should opt to have the glass replaced with an insulated glass option.
The insulated glass will provide all the benefits we mentioned earlier. It will help lower your energy bill, and make your home feel more comfortable, and yes, it will have a positive impact on the environment since you won’t need to use your HVAC or climate control devices as much.
Some doors come with this insulated glass installed from the get-go. However, if you have an older iron door, or you buy a cheap one, you might have to take it to a glass specialist to get it fitted with new, better, insulated glass.
As a bonus, there is a non-insulation-related upgrade you can make to your door’s glass to make it better at insulating your home.
Fogged glass, while marketed as a privacy feature, actually helps with all the things insulation does. This is because it helps reduce the amount of sunlight that enters your home; keeping your home cooler in the summer months when you likely have your HVAC system running at full blast.
2: Finishes
This isn’t as big of a factor with iron doors as it is with wood doors, but it is still something you should consider.
The door finishes, usually just painted with an iron door, greatly impact how much heat it attracts. Choosing the right finish and a color option that reflects heat can keep the door from absorbing as much heat throughout the day, and this will help keep it from heating up your home slightly.
Where to Get the Best Iron Door?
If you’re looking for a new iron door that can provide all the benefits of proper insulation that we mentioned here, you need to check out Wholesale Iron Doors. Wholesale Iron Doors specializes in bringing high-quality iron doors with all the latest features and design implementations to you at reasonable prices.
