Entry & Front Door Installation in Colorado

Fiberglass, Steel or Wood at Altitude

Fiberglass is the right answer for most Colorado homes, and it is what we specify most often. It does not swell, rot, rust or dent, it handles the daily 40-degree swing without moving, and it holds a finish far longer than wood on a sun-facing elevation. Modern fiberglass grain textures are convincing enough that most people cannot pick them out from the sidewalk. Therma-Tru and ProVia are both fiberglass-forward lines and both are what we lean on here.

Steel is the lower-cost option and it is genuinely fine on a protected entry with a deep overhang. Two honest caveats: it dents, and a dent is permanent; and once the skin is breached at a scratch or a chip, it will corrode from the inside out. On a west-facing door with no cover, it is not the choice we would make.

Wood looks the best and asks the most. Real wood on a Front Range elevation is a refinishing commitment measured in years, not decades. Pella’s aluminum-clad wood entry door is the way most people should buy that look — wood on the inside where you see and touch it, an aluminum skin outside where the UV is.

Before You Buy a Door: Is It the Door?

The most common thing we get called about is a front door that sticks in summer and lets daylight through in winter. That pattern usually reports on the opening, not the door.

Colorado’s expansive soils move houses. When a frame goes out of square, the slab stops meeting the weatherstrip evenly — tight at one corner, gapped at the other. A brand new door dropped into that same frame does exactly the same thing, which is a genuinely expensive way to learn what the problem was. The same goes for a failed sill: if water has been getting under the threshold, the framing beneath it may be soft, and no door sits properly on soft framing.

So we look at the opening first. Sometimes the answer is a strike-plate adjustment and new weatherstripping, and we will say so. It is a worse day for us and a much better one for you.

What a Properly Installed Entry Door Gets

Everything that determines whether a door still works in ten years is buried behind trim within an hour of the crew arriving, which is exactly why it gets skipped.

The frame is set plumb, level and square before anything is fastened. A sill pan goes under the threshold so water reaching the sub-sill is directed back out instead of into the floor framing. Head flashing is lapped over the weather barrier so gravity keeps water outside without relying on a bead of sealant to last forever. Shim spaces are insulated with a low-expansion foam that will not bow the jambs and bind the door. The threshold and weatherstripping are adjusted after the door is hung and the trim is on, not before.

The most common failure we are called to look at is not a bad door. It is a good door in an opening nobody flashed.

Entry Doors in Wildfire (WUI) Areas

In a Class 2 area under the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, an exterior door must be approved noncombustible construction, solid core wood not less than 1¾ inches thick, or carry a fire protection rating of not less than 20 minutes. Glazing within the door — a lite, a sidelite panel, a transom — follows the window rule: tempered glass, multilayered glazed panels, glass block, or a 20-minute rating.

Adoption is happening jurisdiction by jurisdiction, so what applies depends on your address rather than your county. We confirm it before the door is ordered, because an entry door is a made-to-order product and a wrong assumption is a lead-time problem, not a same-week fix.

Frequently Asked

What entry door brands do you install?

Primarily Therma-Tru and ProVia. Pella also offers an aluminum-clad wood entry door, which is what to look at when you want real wood inside without real wood’s maintenance outside. We are a Pella Certified Contractor.

Is fiberglass or steel better for a Colorado front door?

Fiberglass for most homes here. It handles the daily temperature swing and the UV load at altitude without swelling, rusting or denting, and it holds a finish much longer on a sun-facing elevation. Steel is a reasonable lower-cost choice on a protected entry with a deep overhang, but it dents permanently and corrodes from the inside once the skin is breached.

My front door sticks in summer and gaps in winter. Do I need a new one?

Possibly not, and it is worth checking first. That pattern usually points at the opening rather than the door — a frame gone out of square from settlement, or a failed sill. A new door in the same bad opening behaves the same way. We look at the opening before we quote a door.

How long does a front door take?

The install is usually a day. The lead time in front of it is the variable: entry doors are built to order, so plan in weeks between signing and installing, and longer for custom sizes, specialty glass or a door that has to meet a wildfire code requirement. You can watch the order move through our client portal rather than calling to ask.

Can you add or replace sidelites and a transom?

Yes — entry systems are specified as a whole opening, so sidelites and transoms are part of the same order and the same frame. It is also the moment to get the glass right, since sidelites are the part of an entry most likely to be looked through and least likely to have been specified for privacy or exposure.

Do you refinish or restore existing front doors?

No. We replace exterior doors; we do not strip, refinish or restore an existing slab. If what you have is a sound door with a tired finish, a refinisher will serve you better and cost you less than we would.