How I finally made sense of custom front door pricing

When I went for my entry door last year, I found the wood species differences were way more significant than people assume. I chose a white oak door beacuse it was the only one that met my size requirements, wich is a massive relief because the local millwork shop I used for the initial measurements kept trying to push me toward somethig cheaper like pine. By the time I settled on the oak, the delivery window they gave me was six months out. That seemed crazy at first, but they explained that the grain and drying process takes a specific amount of time to keep the piece stable.

I ended up going with a 34 by 80 unit. The big mistake I made when ordering was only looking at the door itself, forgetting the prehung component. Since the door was allready custom made, I had to pay extra for a custom jamb to match the frame, and it added about a thousand dollars to the total bill. The hinge selection was also critical; I went with heavy-duty wrought iron hardware because of the wood thickness, which looked much better than the standard brass options. If I had to give one tip, always get a quote for the entire door assembly, not just the slab. That way you won't get a huge bill for the extra molding and framing later on. It makes the whole project feel a lot more solid.

I have to call BS on the six month wait being about drying. Any shop doing exterior doors has kiln dried stock on hand, that's standard for white oak. What you were actually paying for was thier backlog, not some special curing process. I've bought a few doors over the years and every shop that quoted a long lead time was just busy, plain and simple. When my guy told me eight weeks, I asked around and another shop said four. Same species, same size. Always ask what the lead time actually consists of before accepting it as some technical necessity.

Been doing carpentry since before prehung units were even common, and we used to hang everything slab-on-site with a hand plane and a block of shingles for shimming. One thing I learned the hard way with big stained doors: watch which way the door faces. A big wood door taking afternoon sun will cook the finish right off it in a couple seasons, and the panels will swell and stick every humid summer. Keep a coat of good exterior varnish on it every few years and leave a hair of clearance at the latch edge, or you'll be planing it every June like I used to.

Update: took the advice about a local shop and the quote came back way more reasonable than the big name places, so that part's sorted. Still stuck on what the old carpenter said about sun exposure though. Our entry faces due west and gets blasted all afternoon. Does a storm door help with that, or does it just trap heat and make things worse?