Exterior Wood Door help

[Scott Brandstetter]

My son got an order for a customer who insisted on a solid wood exterior door. I've not built an exterior door out of wood and would appreciate any tips on what wood to use, how to seal it, etc. (a lot of "woods" in this sentence)

Thanks in advance

[Jay Jolliffe]

Your going to get a lot of Ideas here. Is it going to be painted?....I've built more interior doors than exterior. On the exterior doors I used quarter saw mahogany. Didn't warp & stayed nice and flat...They were for my house & shop & I did paint them on the outside...

[Andrew Hughes]

Vertical grain Dougfir.Nice tight growth rings.Make sure it's kiln Dried.And painted should outlast several home owners.

[Tim Geary]

There is a good video on YouTube season 19 episode 2 of the new Yankee workshop.

[lowell holmes]

332667332665

The unpainted door is the one I made to replace the old door.
The painted door is the rotten original door. I made the door because I wanted to re-use the leaded glass.

It is made of vertical grade fir.

[Jamie Buxton]

The cost of vertical-grain doug fir has gone up quite a bit. In my dealers, it is now essentially the same cost as rift-and-quartered white oak. Hardwood is more ding-resistant than softwood.

[lowell holmes]

The cost of vertical-grain doug fir has gone up quite a bit. In my dealers, it is now essentially the same cost as rift-and-quartered white oak. Hardwood is more ding-resistant than softwood.

Vertical grain fir is very dense and while not as hard as qs white oak, it does quite well for doors. I can't argue with using qs white oak though.

[Andrew Hughes]

Nice looking door Lowell,I'd pick Vg dougfir over oak esp if you could get some old growth.My house and most of my Neighbors have Fir Doors that are about 63 years old.Mine gets full sun in the morning haven't seen any dry rot yet.
I do have a covered porch,And about 25 layers of paint.
Some of my neighbors have newer doors from Lowes or Home Depot.And they look like S**t Joints are open and the clear coats are half baked off.

[lowell holmes]

I'm fortunate in the fact there are three sources of hardwoods in Houston. They stock vg fir, so all I have to do is get in the truck and go get some.
It's like a kid going to the candy store.

Curly maple and walnut are awesome. The selection of qs white oak is good.

Just a note about the raised panels in the door, they are not solid. They are two 3/4" thick panels with vapor barrier between the panels. I think I saw that in one of Norm's videos.

[Frank Drew]

The last two I made were 1) mahogany (my general preference); and 2) redwood, by customer wish; I'd opt for a harder wood had the choice been mine. I also made a few redwood interior doors for the same house and they looked wonderful under finish -- more gold than red.

[Wes Ramsey]

I'm going to start working on a new front door probably this summer, but most of what I have to work with is southern red oak and post oak. Will any of those work well for a covered exterior door? I also have some 2-3" walnut and cherry boards, but those would come out much darker than I'd want. I assume about anything will work, but I want it to look nice. I didn't quarter saw any of the wood, but there are always some that turn out quarter or rift sawn. I'll have to go through my stacks and see what I have.