Whitepaper wooden doors: a wake-up call

Wooden doors remain as popular as ever, and that makes sense. After all, a wooden door gives a beautiful, natural look and is naturally well insulated. The plastic door industry is therefore doing its utmost to imitate wood as beautifully as possible, but that does not detract from the demand for wooden doors.

With 2020 already in sight and BENG requirements for airtight construction, wooden doors also bring a challenge. This is because wooden doors can warp. Sometimes this is already visible after installation, sometimes after some time of use. Companies like Venster Techniek from Zelhem and KEGRO doors from Groesbeek now have - literally and figuratively - conclusive solutions for this problem. Yet something is still bothering Jürgen Rensen, director and owner of Venster Techniek. We talk to him about a hidden problem, which in his view needs to be addressed.

Undocumented complaints have far-reaching consequences

"During the research phase, looking for a good solution to make warped doors still draft and watertight, we noticed something. We couldn't find any data anywhere in the Netherlands about the complaint rate belonging to wooden doors when it comes to warping. That is remarkable. The questions that immediately arise are: How do people in the construction industry deal with these complaints? What are the costs involved in repairs and replacements? Are exchanged doors even recycled? What impact does having to drive back and forth to resolve complaints have on our environment and over how many stages does such a complaint process run?", outlines Rensen.

Legitimate questions, which cannot be answered. There are at the individual level, if you ask further. However, there is no overarching overview. Rensen continues: "We did our own research and came to the conclusion that from reporting to handling a complaint on a warped door, communication already runs over at least three tranches. Often people swap haphazardly, without checking whether something can be improved in the suspension. Sometimes an incompatibility between door and hardware is the cause of the complaint. But for everything, there are no exact figures available, not even from industry organizations."

Then prevention is better than cure

Rensen believes that there is a fair sum of hidden costs and that unnecessary energy is being wasted in resolving the complaints by being too laconic about the problem. "Apart from the money it costs, no one has yet mentioned the fact that the rules of sustainability are being flouted. Reproducing doors, extra transport, having to use extra manpower ... It shouldn't be possible really. That's why we as Window Engineering advocate a new way of working. Prevention is better than cure, we can show the way," explains Rensen.

To further help the industry move toward wooden doors that do their job cleanly with less failure costs in a BENG home, he and Erik Bruil (intern) wrote a Whitepaper. Why a Whitepaper? "To point out what goes wrong and how to solve it. Of course we have solutions, but a Whitepaper should not be an advertising brochure. What we want to achieve is to create awareness so that our industry as a whole deals better with the wonderful product that a wooden door is."

The Whitepaper on wooden doors is in its final stages and will be available to everyone in October. "Those who don't want to miss it can send us an email with company details and the subject line 'Whitepaper'. We will then create a mailing list and once the PDF is ready, these people will be the first to receive it. After that, the Whitepaper will be available for download on our website," Rensen concludes.