Two leaves that meet in the middle, and both of them open. The widest welcome a doorway can make, with no fixed panel wasting half the opening. Installed by our own employees, backed by a 15-year labor warranty.
The Choices
Picking the door type settles how it opens and not much else. Every door we order is built to the exact size of your opening, and these six choices are what we actually sit down and go through, at your kitchen table or in the 4,000 sq. ft. Southgate showroom where you can swing the real thing.
Fiberglass with dovetailed hardwood stiles and rails for the stained-wood look without the upkeep, 20-gauge steel with a composite lock block for security and value. The main doors page compares both with real wood, which we do not carry, so you can see why.
Clear, privacy, or decorative glass, with insulated Low-E glazing wherever there is glass. Narrow sidelites beside the door and a transom above it turn a dark hallway light without giving up the wall.
Stained woodgrains in mahogany, cherry, oak, knotty alder and fir, or a smooth slab in the color you actually want. ProVia's home visualizer shows the door on a photo of your own house before anything is ordered.
Handlesets and deadbolts are the visible half. The working half is a three-point locking system that anchors the slab at the top, center and bottom, with a security plate behind the strike.
Widths and heights come in eighth-inch increments, so the door fills the opening it was measured for. Nothing is trimmed to fit on installation day, and the frame goes in as one piece with the slab.
An aluminum storm door in front takes the rain, road salt and afternoon sun so the entry door does not have to, and swaps its glass for a screen when spring shows up.
We do not publish a price per door, because an honest one does not exist. A storm door and a double entry with sidelites are not close to the same job. Cost tracks the size of the opening, the material, the glass and hardware you choose, and what the crew finds once the old frame comes out. What we promise is the full number in writing at the estimate, before anything is ordered, with no pressure to sign that day.
Flexible financing is available. You can also open and close the real thing at our 4,000 sq. ft. showroom in Southgate before you commit to anything.
In Detail
A French door is really a pair of doors pretending to be one: two full-glass leaves hung on opposite jambs, meeting in the middle. The style is centuries old because the idea never stopped working, and it remains the doorway that makes a dining room, a patio wall, or a grand entry feel like an occasion.
One leaf is the active door, the one with the handle you use daily. The other is the passive leaf, held closed at the top and bottom by bolts until you release it, and then the entire opening is clear. Between them runs the astragal, a weatherstripped spine fixed to one leaf that the other closes against. That strip is the whole game in a French pair: it is what separates a sealed double doorway from two doors with a draft down the middle.
Locking follows the same logic as a good entry door. The active leaf throws a multipoint lock into the passive leaf, and the passive leaf bolts into the frame above and the sill below, so the pair braces itself rather than rattling against itself.
The obvious answer is furniture: a sofa, a piano, or a grill goes through an open pair without the tilt-and-pray routine a single door demands. The daily answer is lighter. Opened wide on a summer evening, a French pair turns a dining room and a patio into one room, and even closed, two leaves of glass put more daylight into the back of a house than any window the same wall could carry.
A hinged patio door is one swinging leaf beside a fixed glass panel; a French pair swings on both sides. Choose the pair when the opening is genuinely wide and you want all of it, and the single hinged door when the wall is tighter or the budget wants the fixed panel. Either way the leaf seals by compression against the frame, the same way a front door does.
Use one leaf daily and let the passive leaf stay bolted until you need the width; the astragal and weatherstripping last longer that way. The hinges of both leaves appreciate the same drop of oil an entry door gets, and blinds sealed between the glass panes keep the privacy question answered without anything to dust.
More Door Types
A door is chosen twice: once for where it goes and once for what it is made of. These are the other openings we build for, backed by the same 15-year labor warranty.
The front door, with or without the narrow sidelites beside it. This is the one that sets the tone for the whole front of the house, and the one a stranger judges first. Fiberglass or steel, glass or solid, in a finish you pick rather than one the big-box store had in stock.
One panel glides sideways past a fixed one. Nothing swings into the room or out onto the deck, which makes it the practical answer for a patio where a chair or a grill sits close to the wall. Big glass, small footprint.
A glass door on hinges next to a fixed glass panel. It swings clear like a real door, so the whole opening is usable, and it seals against the frame rather than riding in a track. Available with blinds sealed between the panes.
A painted aluminum door that hangs in front of the entry door and takes the weather so that door does not have to. Full-view models swap the glass for a screen when spring comes, so you can leave the front door open and still keep the bugs outside.
The Advantages
Most wide doorways cheat: one panel moves and the other is furniture. A French pair gives the opening back, both leaves swinging clear for moving day, party nights, and every breeze in between.
No Fixed Panel
Both leaves are hinged and both open, so the full width of the opening is usable.
Sealed at the Meet
An astragal closes the joint where the two leaves come together, the spot cheap pairs leak.
Glass With a View
Full-length insulated glass in both leaves, clear or divided, with blinds between the panes available.
15-Year Labor Warranty
On the installation of the pair, on top of the manufacturer's coverage on the doors.
What Sets Us Apart
When the company that sold you the job is not the company that installed it, a warranty call two years later turns into a search for whoever did the work. We do not work that way. Our own employees do the installation, never subcontractors, and the 15-year labor warranty comes from us, so there is one company to call.
1979
Family-owned and operating since
15
Year labor warranty on our workmanship
3
Generations of the Adkins family
We are a Pella Platinum Elite Certified Contractor, which means our crews are factory-trained and certified directly by Pella. They are our own employees, on our payroll, not a subcontracted crew hired for the week.
View Our CertificationFactory-Trained Crews Certified Directly by Pella
Our Own Employees, Never Subcontractors
Our Process
A door is a one-day job done right and a lifetime of annoyance done wrong. Four steps, one point of contact, and a house that is closed up before we leave.
01
We measure the rough opening, check the sill and the framing around it, and give you straight numbers in writing. You can also come open and close the options yourself at our 4,000 sq. ft. Southgate showroom.
02
Widths and heights are made to your measurements rather than picked off a rack, so the door fills the hole it was built for. You choose the slab, the glass, the finish and the hardware before anything is ordered.
03
Our own factory-trained crew pulls the old unit, checks what is behind it, sets the new frame plumb and square, seals it, and finishes the trim. Floor protection goes down before the old door comes off.
04
We open, close, lock and unlock the door with you, adjust the threshold and the strike, haul the old unit away, and register your 15-year labor warranty before we go.
Warranty
15
Years Warranty
Every installation is backed by our industry-leading 15-year labor warranty, on top of the manufacturer's coverage on the door itself. If the workmanship ever needs attention, one call and we make it right, at no cost to you.
180 Month
2
Years Warranty
Most door companies stand behind their installation for only a year or two. Once that coverage runs out, drafts, leaks, and seal failures become the homeowner's problem to fix.
24 Month
French Questions
Yes, that is the point of a French pair. The leaf you use daily has the handle; the second leaf releases with bolts at the top and bottom and swings just as freely. Nothing in the opening is fixed.
Old pairs earned that reputation at the middle joint. A modern pair closes against a weatherstripped astragal, and the active leaf locks into the passive leaf at multiple points, so the meet is sealed and braced instead of loose. The glass is insulated Low-E, the same package as the windows.
Yes. A double entry carries the same fiberglass or steel construction as a single front door, in the same finishes, and it is the natural answer when the entry opening is wide enough to deserve two leaves.
Adkins & Sons employees, factory-trained installers on our own payroll, never subcontractors. The unit is built to your measured opening, set plumb and square, sealed, and covered by our 15-year labor warranty on top of the manufacturer's coverage on the door itself.
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Areas We Serve
One family company out of Southgate, working across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties since 1979. Find your city below for local details.
