I'm in need of a 30" interior door, to be used as a pocket door. Home Depot is selling pre-primed doors (no predrilled holes) for $19. They also sell doors for $34 and I can not find much difference. It is important that the door remains perfectly flat over time, so I am leaning toward composite construction doors. Any comments about the $19 door?
You can rely on the salesbeing at Home Depot to tell you the difference, or you can write down the part numbers and look them up on the Internet.
Some of the cheap hollow-core doors have cardboard spacers inside. Less cheap doors have MDF-type spacers. It's likely something like that.
W/ no more information than that, no, not really... :)
I'd compare the weight of the two. For the application, the composite is _probably_ going to be more stable; vinyl/plastic even more so if can stand the appearance.
A _very_ good solid wood door properly finished will also work but is likely to be 10X the price, of course.
--
re: "Some of the cheap hollow-core doors have cardboard spacers inside."
Last year, my friends had a house built that came stock with "6 panel doors", white with a grainy texture.
The day they moved in they asked me to put a cat door in the door that goes down to the basement. I asked them if they were sure they wanted me to cut a whole in a door on their first day - what about the warranty if I screwed it up?
They said they asked the builder about having a friend put the cat door in vs. hiring one of his guys and he replied "Have your friend do it. If he screws it up, I can replace the whole door for less than I can have of my guys put the cat door in for you."
Once I started the job I knew what he meant. Not only were the spacers cardboard, the whole door was cardboard! It was basically paper pressed into a mold to give it the paneled, grainy look. I think the "paneled" shape and copious use of spacers is what gave it it's strength.
I don't know if it was a $19 door, but I don't think it was worth much more.
I put one of those el cheapos in and regret it. It's functional but while installing, I hardly bumped it against a table and it punched a hole in it. Patched, looks OK but I would have bought better if I'd known how chincy it was.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.