Have you ever felt a draftiness inside during the winter near your front door? A house’s entryway can be a vulnerable point, allowing winter’s chill to seep inside, unless you have a reliable storm door. Not only can you avoid the chill of winter inside your door by investing in a quality storm door, there are a surprising number of additional benefits you’ll enjoy too.
Storm doors are truly one of the most underrated upgrades you can add to your home. They may seem like a minor feature, yet their benefits make it well worth the time and effort of installing them.
How Storm Doors Benefit a Home
Chicago homeowners experience some of the toughest winters across the country, but throughout the year, a proper storm door provides an array of truly undeniable advantages.
1. Protects Against Severe Elements
Let’s begin with the obvious. Storm doors add a protective shield for the front entrance of your home, helping to keep weather elements outside where they belong. Whatever it is—rain, snow, or ice during the winter, or hail, wind and heat in other seasons—a screen door is extremely effective in protecting the entry door behind it. With this double layer of protection at your front door, you will be more at ease knowing that the main entryway to your home is snug and secure.
2. Extends the Life of an Entry Door
A beautiful entryway will last years longer with the right storm door in front of it. Fading, warping, and other signs of wear are much less likely to affect an entry door shielded by a quality storm door. During the summer months, hot sun rays can cause fading and warping, but a storm door’s protective glass panel diffuses the intense damaging rays, preserving the beautiful front door behind it.
3. Adds More Natural Light
A storm door’s glass panels allow your family to enjoy more natural sunlight. Simply adding a screen door to the front entrance brightens up your hallway and the rest of the home. This can truly boost the atmosphere inside a home, and although it won’t actually increase your vitamin D, it still can lighten the moods of everyone inside. And with so many choices in decorative art glass, you can enjoy added curb appeal too.
4. Keeps Insects and Other Pests Away
Fresh air is invigorating, but when you want fresh air without inviting in pests and insects at the same time, a storm door with retractable screens becomes a huge benefit. Install one with screen panels, and you’ll get an appealing source of outdoor air and light while keeping pests outside where they belong. Even during the winter, flies, bugs and unwanted pests seek the warmth of your home, but a storm door helps keep them out.
5. Produces Superior Air Circulation
Handy retractable screen panels also produce a superior source of air circulation. Row houses, for example, which are in abundance in the Chicagoland area, have fewer windows than other homes, and can benefit greatly from a good storm door. This can be a simple solution to improving air quality throughout the entire home, producing excellent air circulation in every area of the house during warmer months.
6. Preserves Energy
During winter months, a typical entry door can be a major source of energy leakage in a Chicago home. As any door ages, weak points develop along its edges, allowing air to pass in and out, wasting valuable energy. Storm doors can insulate your home, preserving energy, just as storm windows or double- and triple-paned glass windows keep valuable energy inside and the elements out. In fact, studies show storm doors reduce energy loss through entry doors up to 50 percent. This benefit alone is worth the cost of a storm door addition.
7. Adds More Security
As another barrier between the outside world and the inside of your home, a storm door not only keeps pests and harsh elements outside, but also potential intruders. Many screen doors come with protective grills, bolt-and-padlock security features, advanced vault locks, reinforced fiberglass, laminated security glass, and strengthened screens for additional protection.
8. Reduces Neighborhood Noise
Depending on your part of the neighborhood and the street you live on, life in Chicagoland can be a bit noisy. A solid-core storm door creates tremendous noise-reduction that cuts outdoor noise from entering a home. Fiberglass and steel storm doors have foam insulation that provides both increased energy efficiency and all-important noise reduction.
9. Increases Curb Appeal
Another undeniable benefit of installing a quality storm door is that it can increase your home’s curb appeal. This becomes even more important when putting your home up for sale. There are many elegant styles and designs available that can perfectly match your home’s architectural design. A proper storm door not only provides energy preserving, noise reducing, and money saving benefits, it also boosts the overall look of your home’s exterior.
Wonderful Options for Your New Storm Doors
Wondering what type of storm door is the best fit for your home? Our team provides thorough consultations to understand your needs and match doors to your home’s architecture. We recommend top-performing ProVia storm doors—available with practical, elegant features such as retractable screens, designer glass, heavy-duty storm protection and more.
Get the Perfect New Doors to Grace Your Home
Whether you need storm doors to protect against Chicago’s harsh weather, gorgeous patio sliders to create easy access to your outside entertainment spaces, or attractive entry doors to fashion welcoming curb appeal, our team at Siding & Windows Group can help.
Learn more about the many beautiful, energy-efficient replacement doors we offer for your Chicago home.
