Many manufacturers are taking the wood out of their doors and frames to help prevent water damage to the most commonly exposed areas of a door. They are removing the natural wood around door glass and from lower door jambs, bottom rails, and sub-sills and replacing it with an extruded composite, an injection-molded plastic, or a cellular PVC.

“Over the last four or five years, there’s been a continuing trend to take out opportunities for rot in [doors and frames],” says Chris Brown, brand manager for Peachtree Doors. According to Brown, many manufacturers have chosen to arm their doors and frames with aluminum cladding to prevent water damage. But others, like Peachtree and Therma-Tru, while still offering cladding, are now also substituting another material for wood in the parts of their doorframes that are most likely to come into contact with water.

Substituting a wood composite (like Therma-Tru does in its FrameSaver frame), C-PVC, or injection-molded material in the lower jambs prevents moisture from wicking upward to the rest of the doorframe, as it would if wood were used.

Door sills are also being enhanced to further prevent water intrusion past weather stripping by raising them or by adding weeps and by substituting a man-made material for wood in the sub-sill “Entry and patio door manufacturers [are] trying to deliver more benefits for the dollar to our customers. … If we can eliminate or reduce the opportunity for rot, then the homeowner and the builder are going to run into fewer problems, even if something is not maintained properly,” says Brown.

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