Summary
• Moralt makes the Finesse Klima and FireSound door blanks in Bavaria.
• The Finesse Klima is an all-timber door.
• FireSound 41 has a sound reduction performance of 41dB.
• JCK Joinery and UK Doorsets are using the products.

UK joinery manufacturers are able to benefit from moves towards increased energy efficiency and better sound insulation by German door blank producer Moralt Tischlerplatten and distributor James Latham plc.

With tightening Building Regulations and a general growing awareness of sustainability, Moralt and Lathams are aiming to give joinery companies an easy route to accessing the market for thermal and acoustic doors.

Two blanks made at Moralt’s Bavarian factory – Finesse Klima and Finesse FireSound – are being made available by Lathams on a nationwide off-the-shelf basis, which they see as a breakthrough for the UK joinery.

Moralt northern European sales manager Steven Dennard said satisfying orders for high-end fire-rated acoustic doors could often be a headache for joiners, who would usually outsource them from another company or face the delay and expense of developing and testing their own product.

Thermal credentials

On the thermal front, Mr Dennard said timber’s sustainability credentials gave it a headstart over PVCu and GRP external doors, with Moralt’s Finesse Klima external thermal door being 100% timber from either PEFC or FSC-certified sources. He also sees the design and production flexibility of using a Moralt door compared with PVCu and GRP as another benefit.

The 56mm-thick Klima product has a U-value of 1.27W/Km², weighs about 40kg/piece (for a 2135x915mm blank) and a maximum dimension of 2470x1220mm. Stiles are 160mm wide and are in Moralt’s Lamincore (sheets of spruce veneers cut and arranged vertically).

The balsawood core, greener than polyurethane and which gives the door its insulation performance, is surrounded by 10.5mm Lamincore, then a 5mm ply face.

Moralt believes Klima and FireSound are “good for the industry” since they can be cut, routered, glazed and trimmed, with the flexibility to order as many as 100 or just three, opening up the possibility for any joinery company to enter new value-added markets.

“The sales we’ve had so far have been encouraging and indicate that the product will sell,” said Lathams’ Bill Blacklock. “Some of the big joinery guys are starting to look at Klima as quite an important step.”

Acoustic qualities

He said acoustic doors with a sound reduction performance of up to 35dB are generally available, but not those up to or beyond 40dB. “Every decibel above 35dB is a huge achievement.”

The 54mm-thick FireSound 40 door blank has a performance of 40dB as a fully functioning doorset, with the 59mm-thick Firesound 41 rated at 41dB. Firesound 41 has an acoustic core, surrounded by spruce Laminboard and a 6mm chipboard face.

Lathams’ short-term goal is to get joinery customers using the products and then build up awareness among architects, specifiers and designers in the long term.

Secured by Design

Moralt has invested in a hard-body impact rig at its factory to ensure that Klima complies to the most onerous aspect of the UK’s Secured by Design (SBD) specification (PAS 24 Hard body impact).
JCK Joinery has completed SBD testing on doors produced using the Klima blank, so it can offer a thermally-efficient, secure external doorset on the market.

It has already supplied SBD doors based on a different Moralt door blank (giving a U-value of 1.5W/Km²) to a housing refurbishment project, and director Anthony Kellett said the company was planning to launch a new range of doorsets under a separate banner, in which it will promote thermal efficiency properties. “With these timber door blanks we can provide a contemporary door. We have seen what the Germans have been able to do; they can make some fantastic designs out of it.”

Projects

UK Doorsets is making acoustic doors based on FireSound 40 blanks, with contracts so far including the University of Birmingham’s Muirhead Tower development and another contract for police interview rooms, where sound insulation is an obvious priority.

“Every door manufacturer has an acoustic door market but this has enabled us to maximise the market instead of pay £30-40,000 on research and development,” said Wayne Humphreys, technical adviser at UK Doorsets. “It has allowed us to purchase a cost-effective system so we can complete the order, otherwise we would have to go to a different door manufacturer.”

Lathams said the combination of FD 60 fire performance with acoustics was also a real benefit for high-end joinery manufacturers and contractors working on top projects such as hotels, hospitals and schools. Moralt said there was a demonstrable need for patients to have “peace and quiet” in hospitals.