Overview
Because they were only replacing half the openings in Wheaton’s beautiful Gary United Methodist Church, at one time, it was essential that the look, style and color of the replacements match existing doors.
Sunbaked, uneven finishes on the church’s exterior doors required annual refinishing. Additionally, signs of delaminating led to the decision to choose a high-performance product rather than retrofit with wood.
Special-Lite® introduced the industry’s first flush door for exterior entrances utilizing Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester (FRP) face sheets in response to the need for scratch and dent-resistant doors. They design, engineer, and manufacture FRP doors with a Mylar-coated face sheet that provides long life, even in applications involving heavy traffic and extreme weathering.
Prior to Anderson Lock having our own Door Division, we specified and installed Special-Lite doors for schools, churches and selected segments of the commercial entrance market. Each door is custom-ordered and manufactured.
Methodist Church trustees reviewed FRP SL-18 finish samples, but to assure that the new doors would look like their traditional colonial-style wood doors, right down to a realistic oak grain detail and color finish, the trustees traveled to Special-Lite’s home office and manufacturing plant in Decatur, Michigan, to select the molds and walnut-painted finish for four pairs of exterior doors.
Anderson Lock’s door / hardware sales representatives, Jamie Holtz and Jim Walsh, measured and ordered doors, and replacement hardware.
Our service techs Nick Nikolaev, Scott O’Brill and Marino Zaccaro removed old doors (which were saved for donation) and completed the installation on one sunny summer day.
