For this project we needed over thirty sturdy and attractive interior doors, but we wanted doors that offered the classic look, but not the cost, of traditional wood.

Video Transcription

Michael: The interior doors in our project house are not only attractive, but they’re also environmentally friendly, and were easy on our budget. However, we had a lot of different choices when it came to doors and they had to meet our criteria. We wanted doors that offer the classic look but not the cost of traditional wood. So the majority of the doors we chose were made out of an environmentally friendly composite wood product called Medium Density Fiber Board or MDF. Scott Colby with True Style Doors helped us with our selection. According to Scott, MDF offers a number of benefits. Scott how is MDF actually created? Scott: Well Michael, MDF is made from a hundred percent wood residuals. From chips, shavings, saw dust, and it’s incorporated with the bunion that allows it to under heat and pressure become dimensionally stable. Michael: So it’s environmentally friendly, but what are some of the other benefits, as you as a manufacturer working with MDF? Scott: Well one of the things we love about MDF is that it is such a versatile product. It’s free from grain and nuts, so you can come in any direction, machine it. It paints exceptionally well because again it does not have the grain that is associated with wood. And it doesn’t warp like wood does, wood has memory, MDF doesn’t, it’s 2 dimensional, it’s stable and versatile product. Michael: So no warps, no cracks, once we have a door that fits, it’s always going to fit? Scott: Exactly. Michael: MDF doors also have sound dampening properties to keep noise to a minimum and they generally cost 20 to 30% less than standard wood doors. But we didn’t just choose MDF for it’s quality and cost. Because the MDF is easy to work with, True Style was able to design doors that match the architectural style of the house. Scott: Well the way we‘ve matched homes architectural styles, come out the concept called Authentic Designs. What that is we’ve taken 13 different architectural genres from Tuscan, New European, Colonial, High Country, and then how do doors incorporate into those architectural styles. What we did is we did a history lesson, basically on what is that style, and then how do doors incorporate into it from a panel sticking options to a front elevations. And then allowing our customers to find the right door for the right type of home they’re building in and not substituting for something that is, that’s imitation or doesn’t like fit that architectural style. Michael: In order to match the style and d?cor of the study, we chose wood doors instead of MDF. This raised our door budget, but one glance shows that it was worth it. Well Scott I look at this door and the beautiful stain on it, and you think this is not an ordinary MDF door, and I know you’re doing some wood doors, explain to us what the differences are? Scott: Well Michael, what we’re doing is that instead of using MDF, that’s the core product, we’re using another engineered product for the core. What’s it allowing us is to keep the financial stability of our doors so if she’s in the high humidity climates she doesn’t wart, split or crack. The next step is actually we’ve just put veneers on the top, on both surfaces and an edge bandit to give that look and feel of a sawed wood door, with all the *2:46 that typically associated with it. Michael: So you get the best of both worlds. Scott: Exactly. Michael: The whole deal. Now I noticed you have a glass panel in here, and we did not add this after we installed the door, it came like this. Tell me a little bit about options as far as designing the doors themselves. Scott: What were trying to do is give you, and the designers, and architects among the design flexibility in the product. Basically picking the style and then incorporating different elements to, whether stain grade, whether it’s paint grade. Taking panels out and putting like we see here, glass with the panel. We did that throughout your house, we did a pantry door for you, but that ones an MDF. So the look is identically the same, same molding, same style with same glass, but interchanging it between different types of mediums, stain grade or paint grade. We’re allowing the designers to actually tie in a feel of architecture, and then replacing panels with like pretty glass for example. Michael: And you normally don’t see these type of doors in the big boxes when you go to buy them, where do you go look to buy a door like this if you’re building a new house or just remodeling your existing home? Scott: Well, Michael we have over a thousand dealers across the United States that allows you to go in, pick a door, design it. You can go to our website, you can go on design your own door, pick the designs you want, print it out and then we got our dealer network on our website and actually find the one in your local area. Michael: Okay and price ranges doing something like that, designing your own doors. What are you going to have to pay for doors? Scott: Well, the nice thing about the True Style product line is it allows design flexibility without the cost, so I can go from any broad range of homes from you know a 300 thousand home to up to a multi million dollars. So anywhere from say 200 dollars all the way up to a thousand. Michael: Okay, big range. We got some plastic on here, can you pull some of that off so we can see the door really looks like once it’s done. Scott: Oh definitely. And what we’ve done here, Michael, the ease of after finishing our product. We have these little corks underneath that it allows you to do it at the end is to actually cut in, at this point, and actually just peel it off. And really just showing, a pretty glass underneath it. Michael: That is a beautiful door. Thanks. If you like more information on how MDF can give your new home a classic custom look, at an affordable price, visit the Composite Panel Association website at pbmdf.com.