A Solidor wouldn’t be a Solidor without its solid timber core, so we thought you’d like to know exactly where your door comes from, and where its journey really begins.
You’ll know that we pride ourselves on giving you the highest quality product from the hardware and the glass all the way through to the timber core.
These high standards are why we’ve carefully selected our timbers from sustainable sources in Indonesia, a region renowned for the quality of their timber for the construction sector.
The timber core
Plantations, primarily harnessing Falcatta and Meranti species of tropical hardwood are used as the basis of your Solidor entrance door.
Our Indonesian timber partners are ethical and carry some of the most stringent environmental standards from across the globe. They consider the needs of their employees and the environment to be part of the Solidor story.
The timbers we source are also fully FSC certified and traceable (The Forest Stewardship Council).
Each Solidor core is made up of different types of timber, each one specified to offer a certain type of performance, while joinery skills including finger jointing are used throughout the manufacturing process. Combined, these timber elements and expertise help make up the unique Solidor core, which is ultimately part of one of the UK’s most trusted and secure composite doors.
Where it all begins
The journey of your new Solidor begins when the logs are transported to the manufacturing facility. Here they’re cut to size, processed into thin sheets and then placed through four dryers to bring the moisture content down to 10%.
Typically, 45% of the log is used and the offcuts and shavings are then used elsewhere for other product type applications as part of a recycling programme.
Once dried and quality checked, the thin sheets are bonded together with a cold press for positioning and then a hot press which activates the glue. Finally, the timber is sanded and finished by hand.
The core section of the door blank is manufactured in a separate process and the timbers are transported to the factory from local farmers/plantations, which in many cases have been cut and machined through an off-site saw mill. These mills are typically set up by our plantation owners, so the farmers can add further value to their supply and there is also a Social Forestry Programme in place to help support the local communities. We’ll cover this in part 2 of our blog.
Once the sheets have been bonded they are also dried in the same chambers for 7 days. Once the drying process is completed the timber sheets are passed through a variety of cutting machines so that the strips can be cut and bonded to size. These sections are then glued, rails applied by skilled craftsmen and pressed together for another 8 hours.
The final stage in the manufacturing process involves gluing and sanding by hand of all the sections together, in order to produce a very flat door slab of the highest quality. From here there is one last quality check before they are packed and shipped to the Solidor manufacturing facility in Stoke on Trent, where your beautiful new door will start to take shape.
Stayed tuned for our next blog post where we’ll talk about the plantations, nurseries and the Social Forestry Programme that we’re proud to support.
