New technology makes replacement doors a snap
Replacing a home's interior doors has always made a big difference in the look of a house.
But until recently, the mess and expense involved in replacing doors served as a deterrent to making that change. Doors had to be cut, planed and then painted on site. So, it was a time-consuming and messy process.
That is no longer the case, however, said Walter Knitter, general manager of HomeStory Chicago, based in Elk Grove Village. Today homeowners can get the considerable benefits of updating their homes with new interior doors with almost no hassle, thanks to major advances in technology developed in 2008 by HighMark Digital of Sacramento, California.
"You can transform an entire home by replacing old, uninspiring doors with stylish new doors," Knitter said.
HomeStory's door-measuring technology generates custom replacement doors by taking 13 precise digital measurements and capturing the geometry of the existing doorframe. Using those measurements, new doors are uniquely milled on an automated door machine and then painted, all in the factory rather than in a customer's house.
Installed in minutes, the custom-fitting doors close properly, preventing any drafts, making the home much quieter and more energy efficient.
Doors can shift over time as a house settles and fixing the ill-fitting doors that result used to involve planing down the existing door and then repainting or staining it on site. People also ran into problems when they replaced carpeting with hardwood floors, leaving them with large gaps at the bottoms of their doors. HomeStory can also painlessly correct these issues.
The company is taking a home renovation that used to take lots of time and involved hiring a contractor, and are transforming it into something that only takes a couple of hours or days, depending on the number of doors involved.
In addition, since the doors are painted in the factory, you won't see any brush or roller marks and installation is seamless. Delivery generally takes three to six weeks once the measurements are taken.
HomeStory's signature series solid core doors are made of medium density fiberboard, or MDF, which is more durable than wood. However, wood, mirrored, glass-paned and hollow core doors are also available.
Homeowners tend to choose solid core doors for hallways in order to cut down on noise, Knitter said, but they may choose to go with hollow core doors on closets in order to save money.
An almost infinite number of hardware choices for hinges and locksets are also offered, or homeowners may also choose to re-use the ones they already have in order to economize.
Knitter said HomeStory offers seven different shades of white and eight different styles of door. A hot new trend, he said, is for people to mix their stained door frames with white doors, for an updated look.
Mirrored doors, in which the mirrors are inlaid into the door and not just attached to it, are also very popular, especially for closets, and can be installed as sliders, not just on hinges.
HomeStory has been in the Chicago market for about three years but it changed hands this past summer and new owners are expanding the company's geographic reach to all of the seven-county Chicago area. The company plans to move into adjacent areas of Wisconsin and Indiana next year.
For more information, visit www.HomeStoryChicago.com or call (847) 258-3417.