Archive for the ‘Wood Doors’ Category

FSC Logo With TruStile Door Certification Number

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international certification system that recognizes the highest levels of environmental and socially responsible forest management.

Use of FSC certified materials is one of the most widespread environmental strategies employed by contractors, mills, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers to demonstrate environmental performance across the supply chain. It is also a key factor in sustainability and green building standards such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program.

To earn FSC Chain of Custody certification, companies must develop and implement procedures that cover all of the elements of the relevant FSC standard. These procedures include accounting for the purchasing, inventorying, manufacturing, sale and recordkeeping of certified materials as well as establishing protocols for determining appropriate FSC claims and the use of logos.

Door distributors, as well as manufacturers, must be certified by an independent third-party to participate in the Chain of Custody. Certification numbers may be verified at www.fscus.org/

C. R. Mayer & Company Inc. represents TruStile Door in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Western Tennessee and the Florida panhandle.

Why is it so hard to find durable exterior grade wood doors?  Manufacturers have not forgotten how to make them. The problem is a shortage of suitable high quality old growth timber.  In the past, old growth forests (forests that haven’t been logged for 200 years) covered large parts of the United States.  Those ancient trees provided the finest quality wood products.  Today the few old growth trees that remain are precious, protected by federal agencies, and largely unavailable.

So, now what?  My recommendation is not to use wood doors on the exterior of buildings.  There are lots of other great materials such as aluminum, fiberglass reinforced polyester (FRP), acrylic modified polyester (AMP), brass, bronze, etc.  Doors made of these materials won’t rot or rust.

However, if you have to use exterior wood doors, here are my recommendations:

• Limit door leaf sizes to about 3 ft. wide by 7 ft. tall.  Bigger doors cause more problems than smaller doors.
• Protect doors from the weather.  At a minimum, provide overhang equal to one-half the door height and extending three feet on either side of the opening.
• Seal and paint all six sides of each door leaf, including hardware cutouts.
• Be very skeptical regarding claims that wood composites are “as good as real wood”.
• Expect to do yearly inspection and refinishing.  Preventive maintenance is indispensable.