When Do You Need Fire Doors? - Key Things To Know

Wood has long been accepted as the preferred material for use as a door

. It is aesthetically pleasing, easy to manipulate and has excellent insulating properties. It was discovered quite early in human history however doors made out of solid wood were liable to warp if there was any moisture present, so a method had to be found to be able to overcome this.

Traditional Door Design

Basically it was understood that if a door was made in a frame the tendency to warp was much reduced. The simplest of door frames would involve 2 long vertical sides called the stiles, with horizontal cross pieces, known as rails, which would be added at the top and bottom to form a rectangular shape. Traditionally the carpenter might have formed the junction between the stile and rail components in a variety of ways. Within door construction, the mortise and tenon joint, or the stub mortise and tenon joint, were common and popular methods of joining two pieces of timber together securely at right angles.

Further embellishments include an additional horizontal piece of wood, known as the mid-rail which could then be added to further sub-divide the rectangle and give extra strength. Cross-members known as intermediate rails could be added to create a ladder effect if required and vertically orientated components or mullions could be inserted above and below the rails to create openings for panels.The simplest type of panel is usually flatter and thinner in profile than the surrounding stiles and rails which form the frame of the door.The panel itself would be sited within the stile and rail framework of the door and secured using some form of moulded profile. For best results, the inner edges of the stiles and rails would be grooved to allow the panel to float within the framework. As timber can change its mass depending upon ambient moisture levels, this ability is vitally important to prevent uncontrolled expansion and contraction of components breaking the joints within the door.

Panels can have various profiles for decoration for instance, a more ornate version involves the overall thickness of the panel being increased and then graduated away at its edges to achieve a bevelled effect. This type of panel is traditionally named a raised and fielded panel.

Modern Door Components

When the first imported hardwood doors arrived in the UK in the early 1980s the factories involved preferred to use a dowelled joint instead of the traditional mortise and tenon joints, for ease of manufacture. When forming a dowelled joint, the components must be glued in place. Many of these early imported doors used inappropriate glues and failures in joints were relatively common. Despite the fact that a properly formed dowelled joint will almost certainly be stronger than a traditional mortise and tenon joint, these failures had a negative effect on the concept of dowelled joints for many years, and doors with mortise and tenon joints were sold at a premium. Today, modern glues and manufacturing methods have enabled the dowelled joint to dominate and with more and more doors being manufactured from engineered components, the dowelled joint is the most common and effective type of joint.

Veneered Doors

As manufacturing techniques have advanced, veneers placed onto engineered cores have become commonplace to reduce cost and vastly improve stability. The raised and fielded panel for example is still present in this veneered form, however, now the substrate is commonly MDF or a similar material, which is machined to form the bevelled edge effect. The veneers are then applied using a machine called a membrane press which applies the veneer under a combination of heat and vacuum pressure, such that the veneer bends to adopt the shaped profile of the panel.

The problem for door manufacturers when using engineered cores is that the cores themselves are unsightly, so while the veneered face of the door may look fantastic, the edges do not. The answer to this problem is the addition of solid timber to the edge which not only improves the aethetic appearance but also allows the door to be trimmed to fit the aperture. In the early days of flush doors, these lippings would be planted onto the edges of doors after the veneer had been applied, but the chance of colour mismatching was still present. More sophisticated production techniques now mean that the lipping can be applied before the veneer to eliminate any unsightly joints on the edges of the doors.

J B Kind doors have a comprehensive range of door patterns and designs available both traditional and modern in a variety of finishes. Contact them for more information on their outstanding range of doors

by: Absolute

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