Looking for custom steel doors in Genesee County? IronMann Industries builds steel doors and Crittall-style French doors from raw steel in our Flint shop, welded and finished by hand and made to fit your exact opening, for homes and commercial spaces alike. The door below is one we built start to finish.
Most doors get ordered out of a catalog. You pick a size that is close, frame the opening to match, and live with whatever the manufacturer decided. A custom steel door works the other way around. We measure your opening, draw the door to fit it, and build the whole thing from raw steel on the shop floor.
The door in these photos is a two-leaf steel French door with a divided-light grid, eight glass panes in total, finished in matte black and installed in a home. It started as a stack of steel and a dimensioned drawing. Here is how a door like this comes together, and why people choose steel when they want a look that lasts.
It Starts With a Drawing, Not a Catalog Page
Before any steel gets cut, the door gets drawn. The dimensioned drawing for this build called out an overall opening just over 60 inches wide and roughly 97 inches tall, with each leaf about 28 inches wide and the glass divisions spaced evenly down the door. Every line on that drawing is a cut, a weld, or a tolerance somebody has to hit.
That drawing matters for more than looks. It is how we make sure the door is square, that both leaves meet cleanly in the middle, and that the hinge and lock positions land where the hardware actually needs them. When you order a stock door, you inherit someone else’s dimensions. When we draw it, the door is built around your wall.
This is the same build-to-print discipline we bring to every job in our custom metal fabrication work. A door is just a fabrication project that happens to swing on hinges.
Choosing the Steel and Cutting the Profile
The frame and the muntins, the thin bars that divide the glass, are cut from steel tube and bar stock. The profile is what gives a steel door its character. Thin face dimensions read as elegant and modern. Heavier sections read as industrial and substantial. We cut to the profile the design calls for.
The corners are mitered and welded, not screwed together. A mitered welded corner is one continuous piece of steel once it is ground back, which is part of why a steel door holds its shape for decades. There is no joint to loosen, no fastener to back out. Steel carries this kind of span far better than lighter materials, the same property that makes it the go-to for structural steel work, and the main reason architectural divided-light doors are specified in steel.
Welding the Frame Together
This is where the door becomes a door. Each muntin gets welded into the stiles and rails, the outer frame members, so the whole grid becomes one rigid assembly. The intersections where horizontal and vertical bars meet have to be tight and consistent, because once the glass goes in, every one of those joints is on display.
The welds are done by an AWS-certified welder, then ground smooth so the finished corners look clean rather than lumpy. On a divided-light door there is no hiding sloppy work. The grid is the design. If the welds are off, the door looks off.
Hinges and Hardware Are Built Into the Door
On a stock door, the hinge mortises are routed into wood and the hardware bolts on. On a steel door, the hinge and lock plates are machined, drilled, and welded right into the frame. You can see the heat coloring around the welds where the hardware plates were fused to the tube. That plate is now part of the door, not an attachment hanging off it.
This is why a properly built steel door does not sag the way a heavy wood door eventually can. The load path runs through welded steel from the hinge into the frame. Drilling and tapping those mounting holes to the right size and spacing is precision work, the same kind of machining we do across the shop.
Finishing It Black
The signature look of these doors is the deep matte black finish over crisp steel lines. Before finishing, the welds are dressed and the surface is prepped so the coating goes on smooth and even. The bare steel and the finished black sit side by side in our sample pieces, and the difference is night and day. The finish is not just looks, it is the door’s protection against rust and wear.
Black is the classic choice, but the finish can be matched to whatever the project needs. The point of building custom is that the decisions are yours, not the catalog’s.
The Finished Door
Installed and glazed, the door does what this style is known for. The slim steel frames almost disappear, the glass carries light from one room to the next, and the black grid frames the view like a window you can walk through. In a home it adds the kind of architectural detail people remember. In a commercial space it reads as intentional and high-end without trying too hard.
That is the whole argument for going custom and going steel. You get a door that fits your opening exactly, looks the way you wanted, and is built to outlast the building trends that come and go around it.
Who Custom Steel Doors Are For
We build for two kinds of customers, and the doors serve both well.
Homeowners and designers use steel French doors as room dividers between a kitchen and a dining room, as a statement entry to a home office or study, as pantry and closet doors, and as interior partitions that keep sightlines open while still closing off a space. The Crittall-style divided-light look has been popular for years and shows no sign of fading, because it works in both modern and traditional homes.
Builders, architects, and commercial clients use custom steel doors and partitions for storefronts, office glazing, conference room walls, and anywhere a stock door simply will not fit the opening or the look. Because we fabricate to print, we can match a spec sheet or build from a designer’s drawing.
What Does a Custom Steel Door Cost?
Every custom steel door is priced to the project. Size, glass layout, hardware, and finish all move the number, so a single interior panel and a tall double-leaf French door are not the same job. We price each door from its drawing, which means you pay for your door, not for someone else’s average.
Our custom doors typically land in a similar range to what dealers and importers charge for comparable steel doors, with superior materials and craftsmanship in both. Here is the part most shops will not put in writing: already have a quote from a dealer or an importer? Bring it to us. We will do our best to meet or beat it, and you will get a hand-built steel door welded and finished in our own shop instead of a unit that was mass-produced and shipped in. Same look, better build, competitive price.
A custom steel door is an investment piece, closer to a built-in than to a big-box door. Built right, it does not warp, does not sag, and does not date. Send us your opening size and a photo of the space and we will give you a real number.
Have a door or partition in mind?
Send us your opening size and a photo of the space. We build custom steel doors for homes and businesses across Flint, Genesee County, and the surrounding area.
Request a QuoteBoth. We build interior steel doors and partitions as well as exterior doors. Exterior doors are detailed and finished for weather exposure, so let us know the location when you request a quote.
Crittall is the company that made the slim-profile, divided-light steel door style famous over a century ago. The term is now used broadly for steel doors with thin frames and a grid of glass panes. We fabricate doors in that style to your dimensions.
Yes. Every door we build is made to your opening from a dimensioned drawing. We can build from your measurements, a designer’s drawing, or a spec sheet for a commercial project.
Lead time depends on the size of the door, the glass, and our current shop schedule. Contact us with your project and we will give you a realistic timeline.
Contact us about your project. We fabricate the door and can discuss installation depending on the job and location.
A custom steel door is one of those things you only notice the cheap version of. Built right, from real steel, welded and finished by hand, it just works and keeps looking good. That is the kind of work we do at IronMann Industries in Flint, and it is why people come to us when a stock door will not do.
