Entry Doors and Patio Doors in Toronto

The measure

Co-owner Steve Mercer comes out to measure. He worked as a home inspector before he focused on windows and doors, so he looks at the sill, the framing and how the house has settled, not only the width and height. If there’s soft wood under your threshold, you hear about it at the measure instead of halfway through the install.

The install

The old door and frame come out as one piece. Water that has been getting past a worn sill for years tends to show up here as soft subfloor, and it gets repaired before anything new goes in. The new pre-hung unit is set plumb and square, the gap around it is insulated and sealed, and the hardware is adjusted until the door closes with light pressure. Then the trim goes back on. We don’t subcontract installs, so the people in your house work for Fortress. More on how we install doors.

Steel, fibreglass or patio: which door goes where

Steel is the value pick and it’s strong. The skin can dent if something hard hits it, so it suits a side door or an entry under a porch roof. Fibreglass costs more and earns it on a front door that takes the weather. It holds a wood-grain finish, it can be stained, and it doesn’t swell every spring the way a wood door does.

At the back of the house, the furniture usually decides. A sliding patio door doesn’t swing into the room, so it’s the practical choice where a table sits close to the opening. Garden doors swing open like French doors and give you the full width of the doorway, but they need clear floor space to open into.

The security is in the frame

When a door gets kicked in, the door usually holds. The frame splits at the deadbolt, because that one bolt is all that ties the door to the house. A multipoint lock throws bolts into the frame at the top, middle and bottom with one turn of the key, which spreads the force along the whole edge. If your entry has glass sidelites, ask about laminated glass at the measure. It cracks on impact but holds together.

On a whole-house job in Oro-Medonte, the owner wanted the look of wood without refinishing it every few years. We put in a fibreglass front door with a multipoint lock and laminated glass in both sidelites, plus a new patio door with a multipoint lock and security glass.

Questions Toronto homeowners ask about doors

Do you replace the frame or just the door?

The frame, every time. A new door hung in an old jamb that has gone out of square will stick and leak just like the one it replaced. The door and frame come out together, the sill and subfloor get checked, and a new pre-hung unit goes in.

Should my front door be steel or fibreglass?

Fibreglass for a front entry that takes rain and snow head-on, since it doesn’t dent or swell. Steel is good value for a side door or a covered entry.

What does the warranty cover?

The True Fortress Exclusive Lifetime Warranty covers the doors and the labour to service them, not just the parts.

Do you install doors outside Toronto?

Yes. Our head office is at 4725 Sheppard Ave E in Scarborough, and our Barrie office on Pepin Court covers Barrie and Simcoe County. You can see every area we cover on the service areas page.