Front doors · Winnipeg
Front and exterior doors built for Winnipeg winters
A front door here faces months of wind and deep cold. When it lets in a draft, grows a rim of frost or needs a shoulder to close, the fix might be weatherstrip and a new threshold, or it might be a new door and frame. We connect you with independent local door installers who can tell which, quote it in writing and do the work.
- Repair or replace, explained plainly
- Steel, fibreglass and wood compared
- Triple-pane glass and the rebate
Check first
Cold, drafty or frosted: fix the door or replace it?
Stand at the door on a cold, windy day and look for these:
Frost on the inside edge
Moist indoor air is reaching cold metal or a gap. Often the weatherstrip, or a door pulled out of line.
Daylight at the bottom
A worn sweep or a threshold set too low. Both are replaceable parts.
Hard to close or latch
Sagging hinges or a shifted frame. Adjusting the hinges and moving the strike plate fixes many.
Rot, rust or a bowed slab
A soft jamb or sill, a rusting steel skin, or a door bowed past what weatherstrip can seal. Replacement usually wins here.
Materials
Steel, fibreglass or wood entry doors
All three work here with good weatherstrip and a careful install. Patio and storm doors are on the doors overview.
Steel
An insulated core in a steel skin. Strong and good value, though the edge can frost in deep cold and it dents or rusts where paint is broken.
Fibreglass
An insulated core in a moulded skin that won't dent or rust and can look like wood. It holds its shape well through big temperature swings.
Wood
Handsome and repairable, and right for many character homes. It needs finish upkeep, and a storm door in front helps it last.
Door glass
Glass in entry doors: inserts, sidelights, transoms
Glass brightens a front hall and is where a door loses the most heat. A cracked or fogged insert, sidelight or transom can usually be replaced without a new door: see door glass replacement.
On a new door, choose triple pane; the rebate requires it.
Rebates
Rebate rules for doors
A front door is one of the openings the provincial rebate covers, and it is run by Efficiency Manitoba rather than Hydro. What matters is the door you buy: it needs ENERGY STAR certification and an NRCan number, and if it has a glass lite, that glass must be triple pane. It also has to be your main house door to the outside, not the door from the garage or into a closed-in porch.
Swapping only the glass insert in the door you have won't qualify. If the rebate is part of your decision, ask the installer for the product's certification details before you sign, then read our rebate guide and the program page, since the rules change.
What affects the quote
What affects a door quote
Replacing a door with one the same size usually doesn't need a City building permit, but a bigger opening or new sidelights can (City of Winnipeg home projects). The front door quote itself comes down to:
- Door slab only, or a prehung door and new frame
- Material and finish: steel, fibreglass or wood
- Glass: a lite, a full insert, sidelights or a transom
- Hardware: handleset, deadbolt, lock prep
- The opening: out of square, a rotted sill, or a size change
Measure the door and the frame, and send a photo from outside that shows the sidelights and trim.
Settled houses
Out-of-square entries on settled houses
Houses on Winnipeg clay settle, and front entries show it first: a gap wide at the top and tight at the bottom, a door that rubs, a strike plate moved more than once.
A new prehung door comes in its own square frame, shimmed plumb inside the old opening; a badly racked one is reframed. That's ordinary work here, and a good quote says how it'll be handled.
Storm doors
Pairing with a storm door
A storm door takes wind and snow off the front door and holds still air in front of it, most usefully on a wood door or one facing the wind. More on storm doors.
Questions
Front door questions
Explore your options
Related door jobs
Local installers replace front doors across the city and nearby, including River Heights, Wolseley, Tuxedo and Charleswood, Transcona and Selkirk.
Send the door size and a photo
Width, height, a photo from outside and what's bothering you. We'll pass it to local installers who do entry doors, and they'll quote in writing.