Archive for the ‘Mayer Door’ Category

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.

I’m proud to announce that C.R. Mayer has been renamed and re-branded as Mayer Door. Our web site is now located at www.mayerdoor.com, and my e-mail address is now chris@mayerdoor.com. Don’t worry – the old web address will be forwarded to the new one, and email to the old address will still get to me (though you may get an automatic reminder than it has changed).

Why the change? There are several reasons:

• While we have, over the years, represented a variety of products over the years, doors have always been at the core of our business. And today, we have the best selection of quality doors and related products ever, Special-Lite, TruStile, SELECT Products and Ambico. We wanted to be able to more effectively communicate that.

• The venerable C.R. Mayer brand has been good to us, and it’s well known among our customers. However, it says nothing about the business itself. The new name carries the Mayer name forward but includes something about what we sell.

• From a visibility standpoint, www.mayerdoor.com will be much easier for prospective customers to find.