From Factory to Showroom: How Love That Door Builds Doors
Chad Crenshaw
Most door companies don’t build anything. They order from a catalog. They take a deposit. They wait for a container to arrive from overseas. They install whatever shows up.
We don’t work that way. I own the factories that build our doors. That changes everything — from the steel we use to the way we handle installation. Let me walk you through what actually happens when you order a door from Love That Door, from the moment you visit our showroom to the day our installation crew walks out of your home.
Step One: You Visit a Showroom. You Touch the Product.
This sounds obvious, but in the door industry, it’s not. Most door companies in DFW operate out of a warehouse or a small office. You can’t see the product. You can’t touch it. You’re buying based on photos and a sales pitch.
We have four showrooms across DFW — Dallas, Frisco, Fort Worth, and Grapevine. Each one has full-size doors on display. Steel entry doors. Aluminum bifold systems. Lift-and-slide patio doors. You can open them, close them, feel the weight, see the finish, and understand what you’re buying before you spend a dollar.
I’ve been in this business for over 25 years. I’ve seen too many homeowners spend $10,000 or more on a door they’ve never touched, only to be disappointed when it arrives. Our showrooms exist so that never happens to our customers.
Step Two: Design and Specification
Once you’ve chosen your door style, the real work begins. Our designers work with you on every detail:
Door dimensions — measured precisely for your opening. Glass package — clear, frosted, rain glass, glue chip, Low-E, decorative. Finish — powder coat color, texture, sheen. Hardware — handle sets, hinges, locks, and smart home integration if desired. Sidelights and transoms — integrated or separate, matching or contrasting.
This isn’t a web form with dropdown menus. It’s a conversation. You tell us what you want your entry to look like, and we figure out how to build it.
Step Three: Manufacturing — Where Factory Ownership Matters
This is where the difference between Love That Door and every other door company in DFW becomes tangible. I own the factories that build our doors. I don’t place orders with a third-party manufacturer. I don’t wait for overseas suppliers to ship whatever they have in stock.
When your order hits our factory floor, here's what happens:
The steel arrives as coils of 10-gauge cold-rolled sheet — not 16-gauge or 18-gauge hot-rolled, which is what most competitors use and what the failed door companies in DFW were installing before they went bankrupt. Our steel is cut on CNC-controlled laser tables that are accurate to within 0.005 inches. The cut pieces are formed, welded, and assembled into door slabs, frames, sidelights, and transoms — all by technicians working to specifications I wrote, in facilities I control.
The assembled steel is zinc-coated for corrosion resistance. It gets a three-coat paint system: primer, base color, and clear protective topcoat — all applied in climate-controlled spray booths, not a dusty warehouse corner.
Polyurethane foam insulation is injected into every cavity of every steel door under controlled pressure, filling the entire interior. No voids. No shortcuts.
Glass panels — cut, tempered, Low-E coated, and argon-filled for insulated units — are fabricated to our specifications and installed into the door with precision gaskets and glazing.
Every single component is manufactured or sourced to my specifications. No generic catalog parts. No “whatever was cheapest this month.”
Why does factory ownership matter? Because when I control the factory, I control the quality, the timeline, and the cost. When something goes wrong — and in manufacturing, something always eventually goes wrong — I can fix it immediately, not wait weeks for a supplier in another country to respond.
Our factory-direct model eliminates the middleman and gives us control over every step from raw material to finished product.
Step Four: Quality Inspection
Before any door leaves our factory, it goes through a multi-point inspection:
Dimensional accuracy — checked against your order specifications. Weld quality — every weld inspected for penetration, consistency, and finish. Paint and finish — checked under controlled lighting for any imperfections. Glass installation — seals verified, glazing checked, glass inspected for scratches or edge damage. Hardware function — every hinge, lock, and handle tested.
If a door fails any inspection point, it doesn’t ship. It gets reworked or scrapped. This is the advantage of factory ownership — I can enforce standards that a third-party supplier has no incentive to meet.
Step Five: Delivery and Pre-Installation
Your door arrives at our DFW facility. Our installation team reviews your order, verifies all components are present, and schedules your installation. We coordinate with you — not the other way around — because we understand that you have a life and a schedule.
Before we arrive at your home, our installers have already reviewed your doorway measurements, assessed any structural considerations from photos and notes taken during the design phase, and loaded the truck with every tool, fastener, sealant, and trim piece they’ll need.
Step Six: Installation — In-House Crews, Not Subcontractors
This is the step that separates a great door from a great-looking door that leaks, binds, and fails within three years.
Love That Door uses in-house installation crews — not subcontractors. Our installers work for us. They’re trained on our products, our methods, and our standards. They install Love That Door products every single day, not random doors from random manufacturers one day and windows the next.
The installation process is methodical. Our crews arrive on time. They protect your floors and belongings with drop cloths. They remove your existing door carefully — not by kicking it out of the frame, which damages the surrounding wall and creates problems the new door won’t solve.
The new door is set into the opening, shimmed for perfect plumb and level, and anchored into the framing — not just the trim. Weatherstripping is installed and tested. The threshold is sealed against water intrusion. The door is operated multiple times to verify smooth swing, proper latch engagement, and complete seal compression.
Our installers don’t leave until the door operates perfectly and your home is clean. They walk you through operation, maintenance, and warranty registration. They answer every question.
For a more detailed look at the installation process, see our Steel Entry Door Installation Guide.
Step Seven: Post-Installation Support
A month after installation, we follow up. We want to know if anything has shifted or settled. We want to make sure you’re happy. If something needs adjustment — and occasionally, with Texas weather cycles, trim needs a tweak — we send someone out. No charge. No pushback.
Our warranty backs this up: lifetime on the frame and slab, 10 years on finishes, 5 years on glass, 1 year on labor. A warranty is only as good as the company standing behind it. We’ve been here for decades, and we’ll be here for decades more. The companies that offered “lifetime warranties” and went bankrupt last year? Their warranties are now worth exactly nothing.
Why This Process Matters
Every step I’ve described exists for a reason. The showrooms exist because you should touch a door before you buy it. Factory ownership exists because quality can’t be outsourced. In-house installation exists because the best door in the world fails if it’s installed wrong.
Most door companies in DFW skip most of these steps. They order from catalogs. They send subcontractors. They disappear when something goes wrong. We’re not most door companies.
If you’re thinking about a new door — steel entry, aluminum patio, anything custom — come see us. Walk through a showroom. Feel the difference between a door built by people who own the factory and one ordered from a catalog. The difference isn’t subtle.
Schedule your free consultation at any of our four DFW showrooms.