What you need to know about your doors construction!

Pre 1993 all doors were made from solid wood, Oak, Maple, Fir, Mahogany etc..... But After 1993 engineered stiles came about because the stable woods of the world were about gone. Solid wood doors would sometimes warp out of shape so bad they became simply fire wood.

Engineered stiles are designed not to warp by creating a laminated beam made from layers of plywood or multiple pieces of wood glued together. See figure below.

MOST VENEERED WOOD DOORS ONLY HAVE 5 PIECES GLUED TOGETHER

By reversing directions of the grain of the wood and it being glued together manufacturing could now use basically firewood grade material to create a stable base, that would not warp, to build custom doors from. One good thing about having a engineered wood door is that it no longer would have warping problems.

Now that the door builders had a stable platform for building door parts from all that was missing was a veneer to go over that engineered wood platform. Back in 1993 and later, door manufactures were using a very good quality of wood, oak, mahogany etc.... to put over this engineered wood beam, that was simply beautiful and would take a finish that made it look like a very expensive door. Only problem was that the beautiful wood veneer was 1/32" or thinner. About as thick as 3 pieces of 20lb. copy paper. The first finish was great, but over time as the finish would deteriorate some people are finding that because of their neglect, the finish would get gone from the bottoms of the door and the wood would start forming up to 5 lines showing cracks in the wood. These cracks are created from the finish missing on the bottom of the door and moister getting into the laminated beam and causing the separate pieces of wood swelling and causing the very thin veneer to split at the joints.

When we re-finish a veneered door we can only hand sand these doors because one might remove the veneer and leave you with the laminated beam showing.

TYPICAL ENGINEERED STILE LAMINATED DOOR AFTER 1993

Thank Goodness Some Better Things have happened since 1993

Most doors are still constructed from engineered stiles using a veneer as the outside wood. But things have changed the veneers are much thicker now most quality engineered doors, like we sell are a much better product than before. The veneers are about 3/16" or thicker so that these doors can be refinished many times without worrying about getting through the veneer.

QUALITY CONSTRUCTED ENGINEERED STILES WITH MUCH THICKER VENEERS