KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING

Editor’s Note: This is a long read, but could save you thousands of dollars in installation costs, a huge difference in the quality of your door installation, and if you are a contractor or architect, it may save your reputation.

When choosing frameless doors for your project, there is a huge range of inferior products flooding the USA market. The vast majority of these are products with little or no engineering details to ensure stability, ease-of-installation and outstanding functionality. Companies that advertise frameless doors for $300 are clearly scams to attract your interest. Steel frameless doors are completely outdated and poorly engineered. Doors from Home Depot and Wayfair are pure junk. None of these have engineered solutions which hold up over time or offer thick, 2″ slabs with excellent sound protection and significant weight. A heavy, fat door, is the best door you can buy. This is true for both interior and exterior security doors – we sell both.

The details in frameless door engineering are largely not discernible to the private client. Architects and contractors are trained to understand loads, structural integrity, adaptability to all wall types and ease of installation. For that reason, it is imperative to get your architect or contractor involved, as they will save you lots of headache and poor decisions regarding the longevity of the doors for your luxury home.

Always ask about the thickness of the door and the material of the frame. Thin – stay away. Steel – stay away.

The engineering of the frame is extremely important

The most important factor in selecting a high-quality frameless door is the engineering and strength of the aluminum frame. Insensation is the only company that has mastered this design. All other frameless door companies produce frames which only have 90 degree connections to the drywall or only allow for a very thin skim coat of plaster over their frames. These products demonstrate a total lack of durability and no understanding of drywall application. If the doors use a steel ‘jamb’, know that these are first generation jambs which are extremely likely to cause cracked walls. In a survey of over 1500 architects in New York, we discovered that 95% of them will no longer use steel frameless jambs, due to wall cracking and ruined reputations using such. Any frame that is so poorly engineered to only use a thin skim coat of plaster over the steel jamb will crack, ruining your entire project.

Note: Two companies selling in the USA use antiquated steel jambs. If you don’t understand why this is inferior, ask us.

Laminate doors are a health hazard

Laminates are plastic. Our world is full of plastic, but you don’t need to have plastic doors destroying the health of you and your family. It has been proven that laminates cause heart disease and cancer. Do your research.

Note: Several companies in the USA sell laminate doors and do not inform their clients of the health hazards. If you don’t understand why this is inferior, ask us.

Thin doors are for cheap apartments

If the doors are only 1 9/16″ or 1 3/8″ thick, they are extremely poor quality and you don’t want them in your house. Those are for cheap rental apartments. These thin doors generally are manufactured by companies in eastern Europe like Hungary and are also sold at Wayfair and Home Depot.

Note: One company sells paper thin doors which are 1 3/8″ thick. If you don’t understand why this is inferior, ask us.

Compare Carefully

Get quotes, compare engineering, ease of installation, door thickness (size matters, for high-end architecture, you want at least 2″ doors), range of options and price, but mostly check quality reviews on Yelp.

Note: Most of the Florida door companies have horrible Yelp reviews. If you want to find them, give in ‘company name yelp’ in Google and inform yourself before you buy.

Beware if someone plays the Italian marketing game

Don’t be fooled by the myriad of companies claiming to have ‘Italian design’ but are manufactured with a few small machines in a garage in Florida. A frameless door doesn’t have a national value, it has an engineering value. If you want to consider the national value of a product, look to Japan, Scandinavian countries and Switzerland. This is where the best engineering and design in the world comes from. Insensation is a Swiss company founded in 1997. Swiss companies import 5 times as much goods per capita to the USA as Italian companies, which is indicative of Switzerland’s technical, quality and engineering prowess. Also, many companies will claim to have ‘European’ doors, but are made in authoritarian countries, like Belarus and Hungary, which are shunned by most of the world.

Note: Italian products are generally unsuitable for American projects as they were designed to accommodate 12.5 mm drywall (which is almost the same as 1/2″ drywall). They were definitely not designed for 5/8″ American drywall, but most suppliers will bastardize the installation process to appear as though it works. It is a weak fix that will cause problems with your walls down the line. If you don’t understand why this is inferior, ask us.

Beware of any company that wants to install their own frameless doors or claim to have pre-assembly

If the products can not be installed easily by any contractor, they are poorly designed and engineered. Insensation doors are pre-hung AND pre-assembled, making installation as easy as a battery drill to attach the entire completed assembly to your underlying wall structure. No videos needed! Just read our 3 simple steps.

Note: Beware of those companies who use fake advertising and claim to have ‘Pre-Assembly’, but they simply mean they pre-mill the parts so you can assemble the door. If you don’t understand why this is inferior, ask us.

Universal doors are superior

If there are different products for different wall types, thicknesses, push in and pull out, then it is poorly engineered. A top-quality frame works the same in all instances and is called ‘universal‘, like the frames we manufacture.

Door Construction

If the skins of the doors are 2 or 3 mm, then it is poorly engineered. Insensation high-end doors have 7 mm skins and are impact resistant and provide excellent acoustic comfort between the rooms. Italian and eastern European doors with honeycomb cores are as good as a curtain, providing no sound protection at all – the same goes for thin doors less than 1.75″.

Pre-assembly is the key to success and saving money

Insensation provides real PRE-ASSEMBLY, meaning the entire door and frame are one piece, with all components pre-installed, ready to be inserted in your walls. No other company will do that for you.

Note: Insensation is the only company, world-wide, which offers frameless doors with Intact Installation.

Test the doors!

Insensation has 7 innovative showrooms located in city centers around the USA. Architects and contractors are welcome to see and test the doors in our showrooms.

Insensation has the most advanced engineered, designed for USA walls, framelesss doors. Advanced engineering has to do with the suppression of cracks in your walls, the ease of installation, the quality of the leaf (thickness and density, skins and cores) and the integration of high-end state-of-the-art hardware (magnetic stops, locks, flush handles, NoHa handles, milled handles)

Inform yourself with an engineer or qualified construction expert before you purchase any frameless products. Get references and make sure your architect studies the CAD details before you purchase any product. If you need guidance, let us know.

Work with Experts, not Distributors

Insensation does not work with dealers or distributors. Building a multi-million dollar home should not be trusted to a 2nd or 3rd in line distributor who is not intimately involved in the development of the products they sell. We design and deliver our own technologies, we run our own high-tech showrooms and we work directly with top-tier architects and contractors. Our swiss engineering is unsurpassed in this industry – passion for the smallest details, high quality and exceptional designs. We create unique products through the combination of a Swiss approach to design, mutual inspiration and creative impulses with our manufacturing partners.

You will also find a wealth of information about our products in our Fast Facts section.