Building an energy efficient entry door that looks old.

[saniel]

I am thinking of building my own entry door. I live in lower michigan, so it gets cold, and it gets wet. I have a loose plan that I have been thinking about following, and I wonder if there are any opinions about my design ideas.

I was thinking of starting with a piece of rigid foam insulation. I would sandwich this between 2 thin sheets of OSB or Plywood. This would be my core, providing me with sturdiness and insulation.

I want to then cover these with old barnwood planks or another similar aged looking wood.

Essentially, I want a very old looking door, but I want it to be efficient as well. Does this sound like a good place to begin?

cheers,
daniel

[PEG688]

 Do some goggling on Fine Home Building  a guy did a good article on entry doors a while back , I'd guess within the past two years .

Your basic plan has merit , weight and width will be your enemy.  You might think about a tube steel frame to resist warping and to keep thickness down. You could fill it with expanding foam to reduce thermal transfer of cold.

A satin ply plywood would be better than OSB to attach your exterior skin to it will hold fasteners  and glue better than OSB , I'd give it a edge on stability as well over OSB against warping.

But sure you basic idea is good.  Now expand on it!   

[PEG688]

Here's the basic idea , you need to tweak the design some but getting to basic design well be a stepping stone.


http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/articles/build-a-cherry-entry-door-with-weatherproof-threshold.aspx?nterms=65764&ac=ts&ra=fp

[Huge29]

Sounds like your idea would be really thick.  Not to mention that I don't think it would lack real strength for security purposes.  Look up like craftsman style door that you could likely modify from a standard flat slab solid core door by adding some simple wood strips??