Are Solid Wood Doors Worth It?

Although doors can serve an aesthetic purpose and completely change the look of your home, a door's material can greatly impact your house's value. Before you buy an interior door for your home, you need to consider a few factors, including the material, the finish, and the look.

When buying a door, you might come across solid wood doors. There are numerous choices of materials like hollow core and solid core doors, and the type of door you choose drastically affects the upkeep, price, and available finishes. For most people, though, solid wood interior doors are the superior option.

In this post, we’ll help decide for yourself if solid wood doors are worth it for you–let’s dive in.

What Are Solid Wood Doors?

As the name suggests, solid wood doors are made of 100% natural wood or solid wood. This doesn’t mean these doors are made of a single slab of wood—several wood panels are stuck together to create a solid wood door. Doors can be made from a variety of wood types, such as softwood like pine wood or hardwood like maple. Solid wood doors are versatile and are one of the most popular types of interior doors and exterior doors; they’re also very robust and last a very long time.

Are Solid Wood Doors Worth Buying?

When it’s time to install an interior door, you’ll have a lot to consider. It’s crucial to compare the pros and cons of different types of doors and consider which qualities you look for in your door to find the best fit for you. But for most people, solid wood doors are a great option because of their premium quality and stunning looks; they also have many other benefits, including:

Price

The most important factor for most buyers is the cost of the door and the service charge of installing an interior door frame. For many, this can be the deciding factor between solid wood and hollow core doors.

For the most fundamental solid core doors, expect to shell out around $100 to $200. High-end designer doors can run you around $350. It’s also important to factor in the cost of hiring someone to install the door, which can cost another $150 to $300.

On the other hand, hollow core doors are much cheaper. The basic models usually go around for $40 to $100, and higher quality ones go for around $140. The installation cost is also usually cheaper as they’re rather easy to install.

If you’re looking for an affordable option, hollow core doors are great, but the durability and longevity of solid wood doors can make them more cost-effective in the long run.

Quality

Quality should be one of the key factors when choosing a door, and solid wood doors usually sit at the top of this category. A natural solid wood door is almost always of higher quality than its hollowed-out counterpart.

Solid wood doors’ quality, weight, finish, and construction ooze quality. Their durability and finish give them the versatility to either be an interior or exterior door, and they’re very good at blocking sound.

Insulation

Insulation is a crucial factor that some people overlook. Heat isolation is a major concern for any house, and a solid wood door provides better insulation than the alternatives. They don't let the heat enter in the summer, and in winter, they prevent warm air from escaping.

Hollow core doors, on the other hand, have air pockets that help transfer heat, leading to insulation that isn’t quite as strong.

Deciding what type of door to buy can be pretty daunting, but by focusing on a few key elements like price, quality, and durability, you can easily make the choice that’s best for your home.