The ‘final-fix’ aluminium entrance door!

What if you could retro-fit the internal and external faces of aluminium entrance doors after other trades have finished on site? We find out that you can.

Doors get bashed on site. It’s a problem as old as time. Window companies go into new build sites to make the property weather tight and then plasters, electricians, carpenters and other trades either cover window in plaster, or use toolboxes as battering rams, leading to call backs.

Even with cheaper composite doors the cost of replacement isn’t limited to product but time coming back to site; with high-end aluminium entrance doors, the cost of replacement can run to thousands.

So, what if you could say to your customers that you could make their development water-tight but then come back in and apply internal and external faces as part of a ‘final fix’?

Well, the Decalu88 residential entrance door by Deceuninck Aluminium allows you to do exactly that, as Nigel Headford, director of Deceuninck Aluminium, explains.

“The Decalu88 entrance door uses magnets to hold the door panel faces in place. It’s completely secure because there are no screws to undo to gain access and you can only remove it when the door is in the open position.

“What that means is that you can fit a door panel on site. Leave it there for the other trades to ‘abuse’ and it doesn’t matter. You go back in after they’ve gone and do a final fix ahead of inspection.”

This also delivers additional benefits extending beyond installation to fabrication. As the system employs powerful magnets to hold door panel faces in place it also eliminates any requirement to glue them into position

According to Nigel this cuts manufacturing time from 12 plus hours for traditionally bonded-systems, to less than two by eliminating curing times.

Other than this the system is manufactured in exactly the same way as a standard aluminium panel door, with the exception that the sash and frame are fixed before internal and external faces are applied.

“It’s an instant win. There’s no mess, you aren’t losing that downtime while the cure goes off. The door isn’t going to get damaged in transit, or if it does, the face can be replaced, the benefits are massive,” he says.

“They also extend to the end-user. If a door gets damaged, or they simply want to change the colour, or within practical limitations, the design, they can.”

As the barrel also sits behind the external face of the door, the system delivers an enhanced level of security and aesthetic. Hardware fixings are also covered streamlining appearance and further improving the security of the door.

The Decalu88 Residential Entrance Door also delivers further benefits to installers by limiting bowing to a maximum of 2.5mm – even in extreme heat.

It does this through of patented ABS inserts which adapt to temperature change allowing the internal and external faces to expand and contract independently of one another.

Nigel continues: “Aluminium residential entrance doors have masses of end-user appeal but in common with doors in other material types, including composites, bowing with heat change can create major problems for installers, including multiple call-backs to adjust, and then re-adjust doors as temperatures change.

Historically, this has also restricted design, based on aspect and solar heat gain. Our door removes those barriers to design and eliminates call backs for bowing under heat stress.

The Decalu88 Entrance Door has gone through a rigorous testing programme, far exceeding the extremes of temperature it is likely to see here in the UK – even with climate change. This includes testing to 80°C or 176° F.

The system also ‘works in reverse’, so that even on the coldest day, deflection in the door is limited to no more than 3.5mm at temperatures as low as ^–30°C.

“The internal and external faces aren’t ‘fixed’, they can move,” Nigel enthuses. “That prevents the build-up of tension in the door slab with temperature change and the differential in temperature, internally and externally.

“The easiest way to think of it as rather than trying to stand there and absorb a direct hit, theDecalu88 ‘rolls with the punches’, in this case extremes of temperature, and back into position.

“That means no call-backs, no customer complaints – and the flexibility to specify dark colours regardless of aspect and exposure to heat”, Nigel adds.

The market penetration of aluminium doors has so far been limited. It is, however, growing and a market which according to Nigel, less likely to be impacted by the current squeeze on household incomes. “This isn’t a mass market product, it’s a premium sale.

“That’s a sector which is less likely to be impacted by inflation, and which remains comparatively embryonic. That means it’s going to deliver growth.”