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1. 
   acornw | Jan 12, 2011 04:30pm | #1

   Local Glass Shop

   A local glass shop will be the place to go. Cost of shipping soon dwarfs the product cost, and every sizeable community has a local shop to deal with. If you buy a lot of IGU and are a commercial operation, then you can find and utilize a wholesaler/fabricator. The local shops do not fabricate the insulated units - they buy them from the wholesaler. 

   You will need to provide actual size for the IGU, rabbet width or coverage, and any adds like Low-e or triple glaze, or Argon. They will tell you thickness, and help you select a sealant to use to set the units in the door, and tell you clearance allowancves around the glass.

   A door should have safety glass for various good reasons. Tempered or laminated will do, but be aware the tempered glass will have a logo unless you can have the fabricator eliminate it. Some will, some won't.  Fed law requires anyone in the masnufacturing chain be able to prove the glass is safety, and the logo is the easy way for them to do this.

   Moveable sash in a door is not as good an idea in practice as it may seem at the design stage.  With a large moving object like a door, a second moving object presents real hazards. The tell is that you probably have never seen this before unless as novelty. 

   Combination storm doors utilize a screen sash and a storm/glass sash, and are changed out seasonaly.  Often storm doors unwittingly become solar collectors, so if you use one where the sun will hit the doors, you need to provide very ample ventilation at the top and bottom of the storm door - effectively rendering it mostly useless.

   Dave S

   Acorn Woodworks, Inc.