Which interior doors are better to choose: pvc, laminated or veneer, reviews

The abundance of modern materials in products often misleads buyers. And if we are talking about replacing interior doors, this is doubly difficult, because you need to choose not only a durable and safe door, but also combine it with the overall style of the entire house.

In stores, many buyers have a question about which coating to choose: PVC or eco-veneer

When considering two coatings, PVC and eco-veneer, you should take into account all the advantages and disadvantages so as not to make a mistake in purchasing and install a quality product in your apartment.

Laminated interior doors

Laminated doors are doors coated with a special film that imitates the texture of many natural materials. There are 2 lamination methods:

On a paper layer impregnated with a special composition based on thermosetting synthetic resins. A film with a maximum thickness of 0.2 mm obtained in this way is called melamine. The coating looks beautiful, but is subject to abrasion, and even changes color under ultraviolet rays. This product should be handled very carefully, because... the surface of the door leaf covered with melamine film is difficult to clean from dirt, and the paper sometimes peels off. The advantage of the material is its low cost.
PVC laminating film is a more expensive option due to its considerable cost. This durable film layer, 0.4-0.8 mm thick, is glued to the door leaf using the cold method. It is called artificial veneer, eco-veneer, two-chrome or fiberglass laminate. The material is produced in reels. As a result of processing using electron radiation, the film acquires a number of properties:

Laminated interior doors

resistance to abrasives and household chemicals;
ability to withstand the effects of ultraviolet radiation and mechanical damage;
uniformity of color and texture within the batch;
light weight - from 10 to 13 kg.

The basis of the door is a wood frame. The second component is the cladding, which is usually used as MDF boards. The space between the plates is most often filled with cardboard, which reduces their sound permeability. This is the main advantage of laminated doors over hollow laminated ones. Some models are inlaid with glass inserts.

Attention: laminated doors do not lose their original shape in a room of any humidity level, but they can only be cleaned with liquid chemicals.

Advantages

Market research shows that door products covered with PVC film are in the middle and low price segment. Therefore, people with average incomes are mainly interested in such designs, who have a desire to purchase interior doors at an affordable price with the following properties:

quality;
wear-resistant;
durable;
attractive.

Related article: How to glue wallpaper onto plywood: surface preparation, choosing wallpaper

It must be said that, judging by the reviews, most buyers are satisfied with the purchase. They only note that often the door structure is completed only with the frame, but trims and other additional elements must be purchased separately.

The low weight of this design allows the door frame to be fastened only with polyurethane foam, as shown in the photo. This greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of the installation process, and also saves time.

What are veneer doors

Under this general term there are 3 types of finishes:

natural veneer;
artificial or eco-veneer;
engineering or Fine Line is a type of natural veneer.

They are all different in properties, characteristics, and price categories. Thin slices of expensive wood are natural veneer. They are attached to the door leaf with special wood glue using the hot pressing method. Veneer is produced by sawing, peeling and planing. The structure of the wood and its unique pattern are completely preserved.

Veneered doors

Sliced veneer with a thickness of 0.2-5 mm is mainly used as a covering for the door leaf. The starting material for it is oak, walnut, acacia, yew, beech, Karelian birch, elm, ash and other valuable species. To protect such an expensive coating from adverse influences and to give the doors sophistication and respectability, the surface is varnished. The price of a veneered door is cheaper than that made of solid wood. Natural veneer has 2 disadvantages:

decent cost when compared with laminated coating;
poor resistance to sunlight, which makes the surface darker over time.

Reconstructed or fine-line veneer

obtained by using special technology and using fast-growing tree species as raw materials: abashi, poplar. This wood has almost no flaws as a result of the fact that while it is growing, knots are removed from the trees. Due to its unique structure, “Fine-Line” does not resemble any wood pattern existing in nature, because it is created artificially. For production, peeled veneer is used, forming it into blocks and ultimately obtaining a material of rich colors with all kinds of patterns and sizes.

Fine-Line is applied using the “cold” and “hot” methods. In the first case, a special water-based glue is used. The second contains some types of formaldehyde adhesives. Under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, this veneer behaves in the same way as natural veneer, and besides, it is still only a fake of expensive wood. It contains from 92 to 94% natural wood, the rest is glue and dye. Among the positive characteristics we can note:

more affordable cost compared to veneer made from valuable wood;
almost complete absence of knots, knots and cavities;
the ability to imitate any rare breed.

When choosing, pay due attention not only to the design, but also to the quality of the door

Manufacturing

Let's talk about what PVC is and how doors are made with this film. Interior doors are made from solid wood, mostly inexpensive softwood. The inner surface is MDF sheets mounted on both sides of the canvas. Then this entire structure is wrapped in a dense film of polyvinyl chloride, that is, PVC. This synthetic material allows the door leaf not to be afraid of changes in humidity and temperature, and therefore not to be subject to deformation and cracking. The use of film generally makes the structure practically waterproof, so it does not require special care and can easily be subjected to repeated wet cleaning. In addition, door leaves with colored PVC coating do not fade and do not lose their presentable appearance even with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

Affordable and convenient technology makes it possible to produce PVC-coated doors of almost any design and any size. The standard ones are:

swing structures with a width of 40-90 cm and a height of 190-200 cm,
The thickness of the door leaf should be within 5-12 cm.

But if necessary, manufacturing companies can always make to order any non-standard model with an original shape, size, opening mechanism and texture.

What's better?

The characteristics of both laminated and veneered doors are similar. They have the same internal structure - a wooden frame plus filling. The advantages and disadvantages of both types are clearly visible in comparison:

An expensive version of a laminated door maintains a constant texture and color. It has a perfectly smooth surface, high resistance to moisture, temperature changes, abrasion, mechanical damage, and does not deform. However, if there is serious damage to the laminate, it is impossible to restore the door. The design solution of all existing models made of polymer material is the same. Due to its high performance characteristics, this type of interior doors receives many positive reviews.
A veneered door can be made of any wood, but its mechanical characteristics undergo changes after some time of operation. It is environmentally safe, and if the surface is damaged, its structure can be restored. Some models have complex geometry, but in the case of convex doors it is difficult to bend the veneer. Their installation in rooms with high humidity levels is contraindicated, so the list of places where they can be installed is limited. Over the years, the door fades and becomes darker.

Tip: in order not to confuse natural veneer with eco-veneer, look at it closely. The latter gives off a plastic texture that has a less respectable appearance.

Which doors are characterized by high sound insulation?

Quite rarely, people think about how much interior doors will isolate noise. Often, special attention is paid to appearance and cost.

However, in the future, ignoring sound insulation can play a cruel joke on you. After all, you will constantly experience discomfort.

Sound insulation helps protect against external noise. At the same time, people in another room will not hear what is happening in your room.

High-quality noise insulation is ensured by using high-quality fillers. It is very important to look at the properties of the gaskets and seals in the places where the canvas is adjacent to the box.

The following types of interior doors are characterized by the best noise insulation:

doors with ¼ hinged part;
options without glass;
doors with no internal voids;
models whose thickness is more than 4 cm.

The noise insulation of the recessed ¼ part is determined by the fact that the connection of the canvas and the frame is carried out over a large area. If you choose the right edges, sounds will not penetrate into and out of the room.

If the doors are equipped with glass, sounds will be transmitted quite quickly. This is due to the fact that the material is monolithic.

Even if you install three glasses, the sound insulation will not be of high quality. After all, vibrations from the room will be transmitted with the same amplitude.

Noise isolation can only occur in low or high frequency areas. Noises that are audible will be transmitted unchanged.

How to choose an interior door? Budget interior doors with a shield-shaped design are distinguished by good sound insulation. Inside there is cardboard filling with honeycombs or MDF.

Sound vibrations will be damped in any frequency range. External noise is reduced by almost half.

This is especially noticeable if the internal cavities are filled with polyethylene foam or polyurethane foam. However, such designs are made to order.

PVC doors

The polyvinyl chloride from which these doors are made is a chemically stable, environmentally friendly thermoplastic plastic. They have a lot of advantages:

Attractive appearance.
Small mass.
High wear resistance.
Durable even with heavy use.
Reliability and ease of replacing any worn part.
Environmentally friendly - the surface is antibacterial, does not cause allergies, and can even be installed in a nursery.
Easy care - dust is not attracted; you can use any household chemicals to clean the fabric from dirt.
High heat and noise insulation properties.
Resistant to temperature changes.
The ability to maintain a beautiful appearance in both dry and damp rooms, because... they do not dry out and do not absorb moisture. Finishing films allow you to decorate PVC doors to resemble wood or other natural materials.
Resistant to scratches and dents.

PVC doors

The disadvantages often include the versatility and great popularity of the product, so fans of interiors with pretensions to luxury refuse them. For others, oddly enough, the reason for abandoning this type of door was the relatively low price, thanks to which they appeared in many offices, but many do not want to carry this official attribute home. Although the assortment of reputable stores includes models specially made for the home. Due to the fact that this is still not natural wood, a number of characteristics are inferior to solid wood, but the cost is also incommensurable.

Flaws

With all the advantages, PVC doors also have many disadvantages.

You usually have to buy components separately, as they are not included in the kit. This is not entirely convenient; you can make a mistake with the color or texture.
Due to the presence of voids in the canvas, sound insulation is not very good.
Often the top film comes off from the base.

How to choose the right interior door

When choosing a door, you should focus not only on its appearance, quality, but also on some other points:

Do not lose sight of the fact that doors can be opened on the right or on the left. To determine which door is in front of you, stand facing it and try to open it towards yourself. If it’s convenient to do this with your right hand, then the door is right-handed, and if you do it with your left hand, then you got a left-handed door.
When you plan to install a door in a room where a humid environment prevails and the supply ventilation is weak, then choose a model with holes or grilles at the bottom. This option will reduce the humidity to normal and get rid of mold and mildew.
When changing a door, focus on the existing doorway. With a width of 800-900 mm, a single-leaf standard sliding or swing door is suitable. For an opening more than 1.1 m wide, it is advisable to buy double doors, and if the opening is very high, then you may additionally need a transom, which is installed above the door leaves.
Make sure that the connecting seams on the box and the canvas are smooth, without any gaps or roughness. The door frame and the door leaf itself must be made of the same material.
Consider the color scheme of the door covering - it should not be a foreign spot against the background of the interior of the room, but, on the contrary, fit into the design harmoniously and naturally.
Check the equipment, it is different for all manufacturers. The optimal choice is doors assembled in production, then you won’t have to select the fittings yourself and assemble the door block using improvised means.
Don’t forget about the warranty; if it lasts for 3 years, this indicates that the manufacturer is confident in the quality of its products. When ordering a door, it is better to pay for their installation, and after it is completed, accept the work by signing the document, then the promised guarantee will begin to apply from that moment.
When choosing, adhere to the rule that the price must be in full accordance with the quality. To do this, clearly define what you need doors for and for what room. The cheapest ones are quite suitable for the pantry, and where they are visible, they carry a certain aesthetic value and should last at least 10 years, try not to save.
When finances allow, buy not one door at a time, but all at once, otherwise later either the desired model may not be found, or the color will turn out to be different. It is advisable that there is only one door manufacturer, then they will not differ in design.
Check for quality certificates; well-known companies must have them, which is evidence of the high reliability of their products. Small companies usually ignore the certification process and you cannot be completely sure of the quality of their products.

Tip: stained glass will add individuality to your interior doors. The main thing is that its style matches the overall design of the room

Cost of popular models

The cost of quality interior doors will vary depending on the material. Elite models made of solid wood will cost 35 thousand rubles or more.

Doors made of wood, glass and MDF will cost 10-20 thousand rubles. At the same time, you can choose different decor options. Budget options will cost 2-4 thousand rubles.

Most often they are bought for residential apartments and private houses. At the same time, consumer qualities are not inferior to expensive models.

Reviews

Before choosing a specific interior door, it is useful to consider the various options provided by company websites, look at magazines, read reviews of people who have long purchased and are using some domestic or foreign model:

MDF doors

The man decided to save money, bought the cheapest interior doors, and this is how he speaks about them 4 years later: “I don’t want to look at them. There was no appearance - everything was stained, and when they tried to wash it, they began to peel off. I’ll have to replace it with new ones, but now I won’t save money.”
“For all the rooms of the apartment, I chose MDF doors coated with eco-veneer, made in Ulyanovsk at the Okean factory. They look stylish, the tinting is perfectly even, they fit well into the design, and even those placed at the entrance to the bathroom and kitchen are not deformed at all. It cannot be said that all family members treat them with care - children sometimes hit them with a ball and slam them, but they have been serving them flawlessly for 5 years.”
“We have had laminated doors from the Europan brand in our office for a long time. Performance characteristics are excellent. I’m thinking about installing the same ones in the apartment, especially since the load on them will be much less. Of course, they will be different in appearance, but the finish is the same, and the quality of the construction was impressive.”
“When buying interior doors, we made a choice based on the manufacturer. I have long heard that the highest quality doors are from Italy. My wife liked Legnoform. Expensive, at first I was upset, but now I’m happy - the product is really cool. It opens and closes silently and looks solid.”
“A friend who works in a door salon suggested that their most popular brand is the Finnish brand Fenestra. I didn’t like that the model range wasn’t particularly diverse, but I still found a suitable option for myself. Now I know why these doors are popular - that the price, that the quality - everything is at the level. We’ve had them for three years and we’re happy with our choice.”
“All my interior doors are Spanish from the Portadeza brand. I wanted quality, decent, but not as expensive as Italian ones. I settled on these, of course, their design is somewhat conservative, the construction is simple, but, as it turned out, reliable and durable, although they are made of chipboard.”

Remember that you need to choose not only the door itself, but also the frame and fittings. The quality of the installation also plays a significant role. Only if these factors coincide will the result be good.

Types of installation and necessary accessories

There are at least 5 common options for interior doors, taking into account the type of opening. Are you asking why little is known about them? Yes, because the swing structure is the one that hangs on hinges and opens towards or away from itself - it is familiar to our people. Many do not even consider other methods of opening, including because they believe that everything that does not swing open is newfangled things of dubious quality. Alas, it is difficult to move our man - but we will try.

To begin with, keep in mind the main thing - any design was created for a reason. Apparently, at a certain period of life, people began to understand that the swing nature of the opening is not optimal in all situations, which means that each model has its own characteristic area of use. And it’s not so much a matter of “like it or not,” but the ability of each design to better implement the intended functionality in a particular position.

So, swing doors are the most common category. Let's start with them. We invite you to talk about what installation methods, additions, and fittings are most likely used with interior doors made of eco-veneer.

You can’t forbid living comfortably... why don’t people want to give up the good old swing doors?

It so happens that interior doors will be more convenient to use if they open into the room - “from yourself”. But from which side to hang the hinges - it depends on the location of adjacent walls, on the presence of nearby windows, other doors, etc. Having chosen the optimal location, we begin to study the types of hinges, handles and additional elements.

Door hinges

Let's consider the existing options for door hinges from the standpoint of reliability and price.

The cheapest hinges are not embedded, but simply screwed to the surface. The so-called “butterflies” may be suitable for light and cheap doors made of eco-veneer, but they are not reliable, because due to the installation features they do not provide stability and rigidity to the door leaf. Perhaps the only ones who benefit when choosing such hinges are the installers: they are hung on self-tapping screws and spend no more than half an hour on the entire operation.

At the second level in terms of cost are overhead (card) loops. Made from brass and steel. One half is attached to the box, and the second - to the canvas. A completely acceptable option. Its disadvantage is that the hinges are tightly attached, and if you need to remove the door, you have to unscrew the screws, which is not always convenient.

The third option is detachable hinges. They are a two-piece set. Just like card ones, they are attached to the box and to the canvas, which, if necessary, can be easily removed and hung back.

Doors made of eco-veneer are lightweight. They do not require installing a third additional loop, as is the case with solid wood structures.

The fourth option is hidden hinges and, accordingly, hidden door installation. When you see such a model, you get the impression that the canvas is a continuation of the wall. Neither the hinges nor the box are visible from the outside, and there are no platbands at all. Hidden hinges are rarely used in conjunction with an eco-veneer door. Such mechanisms cost about 1200 rubles. Increasing the price of a model by 30-50% contradicts the task itself, which is to buy an inexpensive door with the appearance of an elite product.

Installation secrets, or why identical doors look different after installation

It all depends on the type of installation and the type of moldings. Let's look at 4 common methods:

The door leaf and platbands are in the same plane;
Application of aluminum box;
Arrangement of semicircular or flat platbands;
Use of telescopic moldings.

Installing the canvas and platbands on the same level is a fashionable trend, thanks to which entrance groups lose volume, become more refined and light. A door made in the same color as the wall, which is its continuation, looks especially impressive. To make the result appear even brighter, relief is made on the walls in the form of straight, wavy lines, ornaments that do not end at the junction with the door, but, on the contrary, continue, and serve as an additional means of camouflage for it.

Aluminum box is another fashion trend. And here they use 2 design techniques:

When the canvas is an independent object in the interior;
The door is part of the wall.

Smooth, durable aluminum gives the model a modern look, and also takes care of the integrity of the most vulnerable part of the door structure. But even in this case, no matter how attractive the idea may be, it is not advisable to use it in the context of installing an eco-veneer door. Why? – That’s right, because of the price, and it will jump 4 times, no less.

Which form of platbands to choose depends on the style:

In the shape of a semicircle: a spherical frame is obtained. Such models, as well as drop-shaped, corrugated, profiled, with capitals, in the Greek style, are suitable for classics. The top and two vertical semicircular crossbars are joined at an angle of 450;
Flat trims, as well as joining at right angles - for a modern design.

The platbands are made from the same MDF from which the canvas is made.

Sliding structures

There are several types of sliding structures. Some are simple, common and inexpensive, which means they are most suitable for doors in the low price segment. Others are complex, with expensive fittings and hidden installation. This category includes Invisible systems , rotary doors, and books. These are practically not used when installing eco-veneer doors - as a rule, they accompany interior doors made of solid wood or natural veneer, which belong to the expensive segment, because they themselves cost a lot and contribute to the rise in price of the model.

In general, sliding doors, no matter how beautiful they are, are designed to make up for the shortcomings of swing doors. We will not touch on the controversial issue of saving square meters, especially since in this case we are talking, rather, about a few centimeters. But the fact that the sliding system, when open, will not block access to the adjacent room, will not slam shut due to a draft, and will not injure a child’s hand when he decides to play with the door - it’s hard to argue with this.

They have their negative sides, for example, it is impossible to simply push the canvas when your hands are busy. They do not have a seal to protect against external noise. Still, experts believe that the main disadvantage of sliding doors is subjective. Their popularity is low because people are not used to such an opening system. Yes, and the roller mechanism, consisting of rollers, two guides and brackets for attaching them to the wall, does not always provide a 100% guarantee of flawless operation. Although, in aesthetic terms, a room decorated with a wide sliding door made of eco-veneer with an excellent imitation of mahogany or oak will undoubtedly only benefit.

Installation Features

PVC interior doors require compliance with certain rules during installation. Otherwise, the product will be installed incorrectly, which will affect not only its appearance, but also its service life.

The installation should be done away from heating devices. The maximum temperature that the material can withstand is 70 degrees Celsius.
The room must have a certain microclimate. With frequent temperature changes, cracks will appear on the door.
The optimal humidity level should not exceed 80%.
For cleaning you should use neutral solutions.

If you follow these simple rules, your interior doors will delight you with their original appearance throughout their entire service life.