Front doors · Windsor, Ontario
Front doors for Windsor homes, from old porches to new builds
The front door is the one the street sees, and in Sandwich and Ford City it's one the City's grants name outright. Before ordering anything, find out which job you have: a door that needs weatherstripping and an adjustment, a door that needs new glass, or a door that's done. We connect you with independent local door pros who can tell the difference and will quote whichever it turns out to be.
- Repair, reglaze or replace
- Steel, fibreglass and wood
- City grant and heritage notes
First, the diagnosis
Repair, reglaze or replace the front door?
Repair it
Drafts at the edges, a latch you have to lift, a door that sticks every August: new weatherstrip, a sweep, a hinge shim or a moved strike plate usually cure these.
Reglaze it
A cracked insert or a sidelight with a blown seal is glass work. Swap the insert first and keep the door; door glass replacement explains how.
Replace it
A split or warped slab, a soft frame or sill, a steel skin rusting through, or a wish for a wider door or new sidelights. That's when a new door earns its price.
Materials
Steel, fibreglass and wood compared
Each has its place. Not sure the front door is the one to fix? The doors and screens overview covers every door with glass in it.
Steel
Strong and usually the least expensive. It dents, a dent can rust, and a dark steel door in full afternoon sun gets hot to the touch.
Fibreglass
Won't dent, rust or rot, and stays steady through a humid summer. It can be painted, or stained to look like wood.
Wood
The look many older porches were built around. It moves with the humidity and needs its finish kept up, so fit and sealed edges matter.
Glass in the door
Sidelights, transoms and glass inserts
Glass is most of a front door's character. A new door can come with a full, half or small lite, sidelights on one or both sides and a transom above. Privacy glass lights the hall without putting it on show to the street.
Large glass reaching low in an entry door must be safety glass, and so must a sidelight wide enough that someone could take it for a door. If you like the door and only its glass is tired, a new insert is a much smaller job.
Local rules and money
Heritage streets and grants: Sandwich and Ford City
In the Sandwich Heritage Conservation District, replacing a door in its existing opening doesn't need a heritage permit; a new or altered opening does. The rules are in the City's Sandwich district plan, and the Olde Sandwich Towne page sums them up.
The City's Sandwich Town and Ford City improvement plans each offer a residential grant, and front doors are on the list of eligible work alongside windows and porches. Ford City's only counts work you can see from the road, and each program wants two contractor estimates with the application, so read the current guide before any work starts. The Ford City page and our grants guide go further, and the pro we match you with can write the itemized quote an application needs.
Across Ontario, the Home Renovation Savings Program rebates ENERGY STAR certified doors by the opening, usually alongside a home energy assessment. Glass swapped into an old door isn't eligible.
What affects the quote
What goes into an entry-door quote
A front door is quoted as a door and a job:
- Material, style and finish, including colour on each side
- Glass: lites, sidelights, transom, privacy or decorative
- Same opening, or a new size that needs framing and a permit
- The sill, subfloor and frame once the old door is out
- Hardware: lockset, deadbolt and hinges
- Interior trim, exterior capping and disposal
- Heritage details that need matching on older homes
A photo from outside and one from inside, with the rough width and height, gets you started. Grant applicants should ask for an itemized written quote.
Drafts and bugs
Weatherstripping, sweeps and thresholds
A lot of front-door trouble lives at the edges. Flattened weatherstrip lets in air, dust and summer bugs; a worn sweep leaves daylight under the door; a threshold that has dropped leaves a gap. All three are parts that can be replaced on the door you have, and they're a sensible first step before pricing a new one.
Add-on
A storm door in front of the new one
A storm door with a screen insert turns the front door into a summer breeze door and takes some weather off it. Ask the installer whether one suits the new door's finish, especially on a sunny side. For an existing storm door that slams or sags, see screen door repair.
Questions
Front door questions
Explore your options
Before you replace the front door
Local pros replace front doors across Windsor and the County, including Olde Sandwich Towne, Ford City, Walkerville, South Windsor and Tecumseh.
Photograph the door from outside and in
Two photos and the rough width and height are plenty. We pass them to local door pros who replace entry doors. Applying for a City grant? Say so, and ask for the quote itemized.