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Tru-Stile: A Solution for Architectural Green Designed Doors
Photo by permission of Tru-Stile’s MDF door with 3form® Fossil resin.
In the last year, there have been numerous articles about greening your home using bamboo flooring, low flow toilets, and energy star appliances. You never hear a peep about using environmentally friendly materials for your exterior and interior doors. Besides your windows, doors are one of the largest architectural features in your home.
Since 1995, Tru-Stile has been manufacturing eco-friendly medium density fiberboard (MDF) interior doors. With 350 door design choices and the ability to build any custom design, green designers no longer have to sacrifice design or break the bank in order to specify green doors.
What makes these doors environmentally friendly? The MDF doors are made out of 82% post industrial waste as certified by the SCS (Scientific Certification Systems), so no new trees are cut down to produce these doors.
All doors contain low emitting adhesives. For those consumers, who are concerned about their indoor air quality, TruStile now offers a no-added formaldehyde standard option for a slight up-charge. These doors are made out of Sierra Pine’s Medex, a water resistant MDF with a no-added formaldehyde binder. Even the stiles and rails are engineered MDF.
In addition, Tru-Stile has a reclamation process for the remaining MDF scraps, which are ground up and donated to its agricultural partners. One of the Company’s partners is an organic dairy farmer who uses the scraps for cow bedding. The reclamation process reduced their manufacturing waste by 65%, which amounts to 20 tons of scrap that does not end up in a landfill. Less waste also translates into less garbage pick-ups and less fossil fuel burned from trucks on the road.
In addition to the environmental attributes of the doors, the Company lists the following advantages to using its MDF doors:
- 350 custom styles to choose from. Visit the door design tool or product catalog to design your dream doors.
- True stile and rail construction.
- Not routed and filled with cheaper core materials like most MDF alternatives. See picture to the right of a cross section of the door.
- 3 hinges for 6′8” doors and 4 hinges for 7’0” and above doors.
- Designed to provide superior, architecturally-correct details
- All interior MDF doors come with a ten year limited lifetime warranty and five years for MDF exterior doors.
- More stable and durable than wood doors.
- Smoother surface for painting than natural wood
- More affordable than wood doors.
- Unrivaled smoothness and finishing
- Short Lead Times
- Eligible for LEED credits for Materials & Resources and Indoor Air Quality
- Doors are available in either 1 3/8” or 1 ¾” thickness. See Tru-Stile’s sound transmission data for its doors.
- Exterior doors are made out of water-resistant MDF and uses special engineered stiles, rails and panels.
- Partnered with leading glass and resin manufacturers, like Benheim and 3form® (an eco-friendly company), to provide 40 creative options for its glass doors.
- All doors are factory primed with Sherwin Williams low Voc primer.
The interior doors in my house are made out of wood with MDF panels. Since the doors have been painted, the panels have never shifted, which would ordinarily cause the paint to crack. Additionally, the doors have not warped or stuck. I applaud the Company’s use of Medex. My bathroom cabinets are made out of Medex. It is a very solid, heavy material. Read my article about Medex for further information.
A side note about the warranty, the doors must be factory primed and painted on all 6 sides in order for the warranty to apply. Before you pay your painter, stick a pocket mirror under your doors to check to make sure the bottoms were painted as well as the tops.
The retail suggested slab prices for a 2 panel door are as follow:
Interior 6’8” 1 3/8 inch: $280 (add $80 for a formaldehyde-free version)
Interior 6’8” 1 3/4 inch: $300 (add $80 for a formaldehyde-free version)
Exterior: $830
(Note, these prices are for slab prices only so you still need to get a pre-hung price from a distributor.)
Both commercial and residential Tru-Stile doors are offered throughout the United States and one dealer in Canada. Check the website for dealers in your area.
With all the money you spend greening other items in your house, shouldn’t you consider greening your doors as well? Personally, I think that is an open and shut decision.
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on March 27th, 2008 at 11:23 am
They are very nice and good quality. The exteriors don’t cost any more than most upscale exterior doors you would buy at Lowes or Home Depot.
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on March 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
LVN, they have alot of designs as well as custom options if their designs do not float your boat. Speaking about transportation, what’s up with the LV monorail? I assume there is a green aspect to all of this? Anna
on March 27th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I love these doors. I thought about using salvaged doors as a way to be green but these are a beautiful option as well.
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on March 27th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I’ll have to bookmark their site and see if they have a local vendor in my area. Are the prices in your post for a prehung door (with frame) or just a slab?
Excellent point on using a mirror to check for paint on the top and bottom of the door, most people forget!
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on March 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
You would think I would have known to ask that. I just put an email into my contact at Tru-Stile and will edit the post to reflect pre-hung or not. I know about the mirror when the door company I used tried to void my warranty because the doors were not painted on the top and bottom. This you never forget. One better, check about the molding of your doors. Most times, it is not painted. I was told by one painter, it is because no one looks up there! (except me….) Anna
More interior door stories coming…..
on March 27th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
N & J,scroll around the design center. There are some beautiful designs. Oh, about dinner, can I come??? Anna
on March 28th, 2008 at 2:24 am
In addition to saving on energy - the manufacturer gets to save on the cost of garbage pick-ups. I do wonder what “post industrial waste” is. Does anybody know.
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on March 28th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Hi Glenn, You are right the manufacturer saves on garbage costs. Post industrial waste is waste leftover from manufacturing of some other wood product. In the case of MDF, it is wood waste that is glue together. I hope that helps. Anna
on March 29th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Hi Anna,
Thank you for your prompt response. You seem to have a real handle on what you are posting and shows you have done all the research. Very refreshing.
Glenn in Naples’s last blog post..Naples Real Estate News 03/20/08
on March 29th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Thanks Glenn for the nice compliment. I try to research as much as I can but sometimes I really need the feedback from others who have so much more expertise. Always feel free to chime in because Green Talk is a community to help each other. I surely don’t know all the answers.
Green Home Improvements, the price above is based upon only a slab. I have not changed the post since I am waiting to get a prehung price for the doors. Thanks again for the question. Anna
on April 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
They are not shy when it comes to price then (slab only)! If the quality is good then the price should not be an issue since most of the “cheap doors” that you buy at home centers fall apart or warp after a few years.
As I tell my clients, if you buy my top end products you will only have to pay for my labor once.
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