can owner-built exterior door meet DOB energy requirements?

We want a big door for our first floor back wall (if all goes well, it would open onto a deck). Our GC says it has to be a commercially bought door, with stickers indicating it meets energy standards. But then we are limited to a 7-foot door; anything taller would not get through our front door. My husband would like to build an 8’6″-foot tall French doo, where each panel of the French door would fold, four panels in all. Each panel 2’3″ wide and 8’6″ tall. Each panel would contain a glass panel, made of two panes of tempered glass with argon in the sealed space between the panes (commercially bought, of course). Is there any way such a door could meet DOB requirements? And assuming such a door does meet requirements, how would we convince the DOB to accept it? Thanks!

Guest User | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Guest User | 3 years and 3 months ago

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We went to the DOB homeowners night last night – spoke with a very pleasant engineer who gave us the definitive answer: no site-built door will be approved, no matter how good, because it will lack the sticker.

andriywww1990 | 3 years and 3 months ago

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What mdr suggests, buying pieces of commercially made product and building them into units might be the way to go. Sometimes you can get units in prehung frames and join them to firm a wall and cap the spaces where they ajoin with trim or 1x stock.

Guest User | 3 years and 3 months ago

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Just saw these – thanks. We are going to the DOB homeowner night today and will ask questions. If we get discouraged we will look into getting two 8′ or 8 1/2′ doors and installing them together.

andriywww1990 | 3 years and 3 months ago

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At what point during a renovation does this energy requirement kick in? What i am asking is, is there a threshold? 50% of the value of the property? Or a new c of o? Or just any new door when a permit is pulled? I would be doing everything i can to be sure i understood when that code kicked in and trying to find a way out.

I make doors. Making one home made door that operates as a single unit and seals well is possible but making a pair of them that operate as say a pair of brownstone doors gets tricky.. you also must keep in mind that any modern energy efficient doors not only have insulated glass but also have an insulated core. I have purposely never made an insulated core exterior door because i was always afraid that if mousture got into that core and could not get out, it would rot the doors from the inside out.

MDR | 3 years and 3 months ago

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Not likely you could get that approved. Better to buy four individual door or two pairs and install them. They will seal and operate much better than something home-made.