We now need to replace the very old, about 50 year old door that leads out of the cellar to the stairs up to the bulk head.

This original door is solid wood about 1 3/8 inches thick with a glass window on the top of it.

The cellar is an unfinished cement floor cellar that has a furnace, water heater, wash machine and dryer, dehumidifier and in floor sump pump.

It is a damp cellar and has had water leaking into it for sometime now, do to the leaking bulk head and cement area crumbling.
Health issues for both hubby and I have prevented repair for some time now.

It's been suggested that we not use a wood door, but rather steel door for the replacement of the door that leads out of the cellar to the bulk head.

My concern is that the sun beats on the bulk head about 8 hours a day and if the inside cellar door is also metal, the heat trapped between the inside cellar door and the bulkhead would far to extreme and when the cellar door was opened to go out, it would be all but a health hazard when you got hit with the heat.

I had hoped to just use a solid wood door, and had hoped that I could find one with some kind of opening that a screen could be put in so that we could vent the cellar at times.

A trip to HD was not a good experience as it appears outside wood doors are in the $500 range and only steel doors have some kind of window that would have a screen.

There isn't room to put both a door and a screen door because of the stairs to go up out of the bulk head.

Any suggestions on a good door? Could we just use s cheap indoor solid wood door?

thanks in advance for any help

Fran

There are steel and doors with vents built into them, although you not likely to find one at the home center. You could certain add a vent to a solid wood door as well. All it would take would be a jig saw to cut an opening.

I might also suggest carefully measuring the door before purchasing a new one. Sometimes basement doors "look" to be a standard size but can be an inch or two shorter.