When it comes to home values, Portland has had a rough time of it in recent years.

In 2023, living within the city itself may have caused your home's value to fall, with Axiom claiming that this was the result of people looking to move into the suburbs. Naturally, that meant prices just outside of the city rose due to the increased demand - great for sellers but not so much for those still in the city who had to watch values decline.

There are signs of a recovery, with prices anticipated to rise by about 0.2% during 2024.

Why does any of this matter to you?

If you're in Portland and thinking about selling your home, you obviously want to maximize its value before you put it on the market. However, that market isn't really playing in your favor right now - potentially leading to lower-than-expected prices - which means you have to take other measures to raise your home's value.

That's where thermal break technology built into interior doors and exterior doors comes in. Read on to discover why thermally broken doors not only improve your home's thermal performance but make it a better prospect for people who are looking to buy.

What Is a Thermally Broken Door?

Think of thermally broken doors as the barrier between your home's interior and the temperature outside.

Of course, you could say that about any new door you buy. They all offer some protection against the cold weather - or the warm if you want to keep your home cool - but a thermally broken door does it differently.

How?

These doors use thermal breaks, built into the door's metal framing, to create an insulated barrier between your home and the outside world. This barrier is essential for steel and iron doors, both of which conduct heat because they're made using metal. With a break in place, you get low thermal conductivity that results in two things:

• The heat inside your home doesn't escape as quickly.
• The warm or cold air from outside can't get into your home.

Fixing the Thermal Bridge Problem with a Thermal Break

To understand how thermally broken doors work, you first need to understand the concept of thermal bridges.

A thermal bridge - also referred to as a "cold bridge" - is any weak point in a structure that allows heat to pass through it more quickly than in other areas of the structure. An iron or steel door can be a thermal bridge because of its conductivity. The metals used attract the warm air inside your home and transfer it away, sending it into the great outdoors.

It works the other way around, too.

If it's a blisteringly hot day outside, you'll have your air conditioning on to keep your home cool. Heat conduction caused by a thermal bridge can be a problem there because the bridge runs its energy transfer game in reverse - the hot air from outside transfers into your home and counteracts your air conditioning.

How Thermal Breaks Fix the Problem

Thermal breaks come in because they stop energy transfer issues caused by thermal bridges.

For example, imagine that you have a piece of metal isolated in a plastic box. On one side of that metal, you have nothing but air enclosed inside the box. On the other side is a space within which is a heat source. Monitor the temperatures inside that box, on both sides of the metal strip, and you'll see an interesting progression.

First, the heat source warms up the half of the box in which it's stationed. However, as that warming occurs, the strip of metal starts to absorb the heat being generated and transfers it to the other side of the box. Stick a thermometer inside that empty side and you'll see that the air there will warm up even though there isn't a heat source on that side of the box.

That's thermal bridging in action - the strip of metal acts as the bridge for warm air to carry over from one side of the box to the other.

Now, try doing the same experiment, only with two strips of metal that have an insulating material - such as plastic - between them.

You'll still see the metal facing the heated side of the box start to conduct that heat. However, it can't transfer anywhere near as much of the energy over to the cooler side of the box because the insulative material - in this case, the plastic - is in the way.

That, in a nutshell, is how a thermal break works.

How Does This Apply to Your Window or Door Frame?

As the names imply, PINKYS iron and steel doors - as well as our steel window frames - are all made using metal. Without thermal breaks in place, those materials would act as thermal bridges, resulting in heat loss inside your home when it's cold, as well as heat entry when you're trying to keep your home cool when dealing with hot weather.

So, PINKYS uses thermal breaks to make our windows and doors more energy efficient.

The result is simple - your thermally broken PINKYS doors and windows prevent energy loss by using a material that's a poor conductor to stop heat transfer in its tracks.

The Reasons You Need Thermally Broken Iron Doors

As interesting as all of this may be to you, we haven't explained the key thing you want to know:

How does installing thermally broken doors help you to raise the value of your Portland home?

There are many factors at play here, from improving your home's curb appeal to delivering some features that will be extremely attractive to anybody who's considering buying your home.

Thermal Breaks Are Great for Energy Efficiency.

We'll start with the most obvious reason that thermal breaks increase your home's value - they make your property more energy efficient. When you're using the heating, the warm air your system generates stays in your house for longer, meaning you don't need to keep your heating on for as long. The same applies to air conditioning - you no longer need to waste electricity keeping your unit running all day long.

Why does all of this matter in the context of selling your home?

According to Energy Star, energy-efficient homes sell for between 2% and 8% more than homes that leak energy through tons of thermal bridges. Assuming you have two homes worth $513,000 - the median home sale price in Portland at the time of writing - you can add between $10,260 and $41,040 to your property's value just by ensuring all of its doors and windows are thermally broken.

All Our Iron Doors Keep Your Energy Bills Down

Why would a buyer be willing to pay into the middle five figures more for an energy-efficient home?

Part of it comes down to an increasing trend toward buying more energy-efficient products seen throughout the United States. Over three-quarters of Americans (76%) discovered it's worth paying a little extra to get their hands on energy-efficient products. That's good news for your home's value - your property is the product when you're selling, so you benefit from people being willing to pay more.

The reason people pay more for energy efficiency is simple:

It keeps their ongoing bills lower in the long run.

For instance, a homeowner can save up to 10% on their energy bills annually by adjusting their thermostats by between seven and 10 degrees Fahrenheit for eight hours per day. That isn't possible in a home with too many thermal bridges - heat escapes or gets let in too easily. But when you have thermally broken doors, you don't have to worry as much about heat transfer.

That opens the door for lower ongoing energy bills, which is a massive plus for homebuyers.

The Heat Transfer Effect Keeps Your Home's Temperature Stable

Closely tied to the energy efficiency and bill reductions that come with thermally broken doors is stability.

What does that mean in the context of homeownership?

If you've ever had a room that just won't heat up - or cool down - no matter what you do, then you already know. Stability in this context means that the homeowner doesn't have to deal with crazy fluctuations in temperature caused by changing weather conditions. They're able to keep their rooms comfortable because the temperature stays stable.

Don't underestimate the impact that simple comfort can have on a homebuyer.

It's one of those aspects of buying a house that is somewhat intangible but plays a large part in a buyer's decision. If your home looks and feels cozy, people are going to be drawn to it because they can imagine themselves spending time indoors without having to worry about sweltering or shivering, depending on what's going on outside.

Elegance and Aesthetic Appeal with Thermally Broken Steel Doors

Let's move away from the practical aspects of having a thermally broken door and switch to something that everybody knows matters when it comes to a buying decision:

Curb appeal.

A massive 76% of your possible buyers believe that first impressions are "everything" when it comes to buying a home. And that makes sense - you will always face an uphill battle to sell if your potential buyer's first impression is bad. You'll be trying to change that negative opinion rather than building on the positive sentiments they already have.

That brings us to thermally broken doors.

Every first impression of a home starts when somebody is standing on the curb and looking at its exterior.

PINKYS understands that which is why you won't find the "same old, same old" doors seen on the front of every home in our range. Our designs are inspired by California sunsets and the desire to meld the classical look of iron and steel with the bold lines and airy aesthetic that define modern architecture. You'll see this approach across our Air range - which is available in both steel and iron - all of which offer thermal breaking and use Low-e glass to boost your home's energy efficiency credentials while looking spectacular.

Amazing Longevity

As much as a prospective buyer may love how your home looks, they could still be put off if they know that the windows or doors will need to be replaced sooner rather than later. That's an added expense for them - they're already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house and may balk at the prospect of spending thousands more to replace windows and doors.

Longevity is key.

If you can show that a home isn't going to need much further investment on the buyer's part, you increase that home's value. Again, PINKYS comes to the rescue here. As long as they're properly maintained, iron and steel doors last for years without being subject to the same ravages that a wooden door faces when it's exposed to the elements.

 

And we'll give you an extra little tip here - give your potential buyer a few bottles of PINKYS Iron Door Spray. For less than $100 for three bottles, you might add thousands to your home's value by giving your buyer something to increase the lifespan of their doors.

High ROI with the Right Front Door

A staggering 484.55%.

That's the return on investment that Yahoo! News says that the average homeowner could receive by doing little more than refreshing their front door. In most cases, that means replacing the door with something modern and attractive - such as a PINKYS iron door - for far less money than you'd spend on other types of remodeling, such as renovating the kitchen or bathroom.

Don't get us wrong - those more extensive renovations will also add a lot of value.

But if your budget doesn't allow you to stretch to the tens of thousands of dollars, you'll need to change the interior so extensively, that switching out the front door is the way to go. And when you add thermal breaks to that door - with all of the energy efficiency and money-saving potential they offer - you might even be able to boost that ROI even higher.

PINKYS - Add More Money to Your Home's Value with an Energy-Efficient Door

Who knew that what stands within your door threshold could have such a massive impact on the value of your Portland home?

With a thermally broken door from PINKYS, you deliver an enormous amount of what a homebuyer wants to see when they're looking for their next home. Energy efficiency goes through the roof - with energy bills going in the opposite direction - and your curb appeal rockets up because of the modern design ethos we follow when creating our thermally broken doors.

Still, there's one more question to answer:

Why buy a thermally broken door from PINKYS?

• Nobody Does It Like Us - PINKYS unique aesthetic choices - which blend the classical feel of iron and steel with bold black lines and airy designs - is unlike any other. With us, you get a door that's both thermally broken and designed to perfectly match your home's aesthetic.
• So Many Options - While our Air range could be considered our signature design, we have so many more options. Dutch doors. Pivot doors. Even sliding doors for your home's interior. They're all available at PINKYS with thermal breaking to keep your home comfortable.
• A Family Passion - PINKYS is built on the jazz-infused spirit of Vic Der, who fled Iran and transitioned from being a jazz drummer to an ironworker. Today, his sons - Arin and Dion - continue designing stunning doors that combine Vic's mercurial spirit with their own love of California.

Are you ready to discover how a PINKYS thermally broken door could boost the value of your Portland home? We're always ready to hear from you - call (844) 843-6677 or email us at info@pinkys.com to book a slot at our showroom or ask any questions you may have about any door that catches your eye in our online store.