Types of Doors for Offices

Does the type of door matter when it comes to security and access control? What are the pros and cons of each type of door? Read on to find out more.

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First of all: It's a big difference between a main entrance door which is more robust, harder to open unauthorized, fire regulated and most often also bigger compared to an interior door which is merely there for reducing noise in a meeting room.

There are three types of doors:

Glass doors - the architect's favorite but it comes with the according price

Metal doors - best choice for price / value

Wood doors - not a very common choice

Main entrance doors are typically stronger glass doors with thick steel frame or larger metal / wood doors.

Interior office doors are either regular standard size store-room doors or if glass doors they are typically thin aluminum frame doors. If you take away one piece of advice from this guide: don't do sliding doors - they are incompatible with any kind of commercial lock which you might want at one point.

Let's dive into the different door types for offices and commercial buildings:

Glass doors

Glass doors look amazing but they are high maintenance: You will need to clean them everyday and the locking mechanisms you will need are more on the expensive side. You can get double glass doors or single glass doors and they differentiate mainly in the type of frame they have: Full frame, Half frame or sometimes even no frame (not recommended). Here are some different types to explain the differences in glass doors:

Glass door with frame on top and bottom
‍Glass door with frame on top and bottom
Kisi's opinion: When choosing glass doors, be very careful of which frame they come with - architects typically don't really consider door security. Ask the architect to select a door that works with magnetic locks - they typically have a thicker frame. Any fancy ideas like hiding the lock in the wall will lead to problems eventually where things get misaligned and you have more trouble than joy with your door.

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Metal Doors

Metal doors are in its simplest form store room doors that are hollow inside. The great advantage is that you can run cables through the door, you can drill into it and modify it with signs of your company.

Most of them come with some sort of "fire rating" which just means that they are able to withhold a certain temperature of fire for something like 90 minutes.

They also come in "left hand outswing" or "right hand outswing" meaning opening from the left hand side or right hand side. Typically you never would want to install an "inswing" door because of emergency reasons, people need to be able to just run out the door.

standard metal door
metal / steel door for office

Wood Doors

Wood doors are mostly used in residential houses - if used in a business environment they are typically semi-glass doors or doors to smaller and private spaces. Typically they are not normally being used in a corporate office environment and more in industries like medical facilities where privacy is needed.

standard wood door
wood door in office
Kisi's opinion: Wooden doors are a not very typical choice for the modern office, let's just say that.

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