A new glass door for your home will look lovely, and a custom door even more so, especially if you get a little creative with the glass. But getting a custom door is a little different than when you get a generic door. With generic glass doors, you're limited to the stock on hand if you need something quickly, and limited to what's in the company's catalog if you can wait a bit for delivery. With a custom door, though, you have many more choices.

Custom Sizes Will Take Longer

First, as you'd expect, custom doors are going to take longer. They need to be put together from scratch, and if a part is on backorder and you don't want to choose a substitute, the construction could take a while. Be ready for that when you order, although chances are you'll get the door pretty quickly if it's not very fancy. The more different the door has to be, the more time you're looking at. For example, a door meant to fit a frame on a relatively new house that was part of a development and not custom-built will be easier to construct as the parts are more readily available. If you're trying to replace a door on a very old house, though, where the frames are nowhere near standardized, you'll need a specially constructed door that will take a little longer.

Tempered and Dual-Pane Glass Are Not the Same

You get to choose the glass in a custom door, and guess what? You have a lot of options. These are mainly tempered glass, dual-pane glass, tempered dual-pane, laminated, and combinations of these. Do be careful to specify what you want as many people just ask for dual-pane or assume that tempered is the same as dual-pane, which it's not. Tempered glass is specially made so that, if it breaks, it doesn't shatter into shards, but rather into pellets. You can have a single-pane glass door made of tempered glass. So, be specific and be sure you know exactly what glass you're getting.

You're Not Limited to Just Clear Glass

A lot of glass doors have plain, clear glass, but you can get frosted glass, colored glass, and even stained glass now. Stained glass—unless you're getting a premade product—will take the longest of the options, but it is gorgeous. Of course, if this is a replacement storm door, you may just want plain, clear glass. Frosted glass is nice for interior rooms where you want to block off a clear view inside but also want some extra light, such as a laundry room.

Contact door and window companies such as Broadview Glass Window and Door about getting that replacement glass door for your home. Be patient and take your time choosing the components so you get a product you'll love to use.