Doors do break and when they do its hard to repair. At Abba's locksmith we pride ourselves on repairing before replacing. Repairing always saves our clients money and time. On Tuesday I went to a building in Forest Hills Queens to take a look at a door that the fire department broke into because there was smoke coming out the apartment. Unfortunately the damage was too great to fix so I measured the door to be replaced. In Queens and in all of New York City 98% of the apartment doors are fire rated 90 minutes. This means that the door will not be compromised for 90 minutes in a fire. Known as a Kalamein door the fire rated door is a steel clad door that is metal on the outside but solid wood inside. Usually equipped with a mortise lock and a jimmy proof drop bolt I recommend this door for all apartment entry door. I also recommend this door when you want to protect your apartment from a break in. The Kalamein door can with stand damage from a craw bar and usually it stands strong for a very long time.
For residential homes we recommend solid 2" thick hard wood doors. The reason you should have a 2" thick door is because it is less prone to being craw barred opened. A thick hardwood door also withstands weathering better than a thin soft wood door. The best is oak, because it is still affordable and it looks very nice. The most standard is from either home depot which is usually made from cider or pine. I personally have installed oak doors and let me tell you they are very hard, trying to put a deadbolt on it took me nearly half an hour to cut a hole into it. We here at abba's locksmith we provide all choice of hardwood and other doors, including iron, wood, steel, and aluminum.
