Sound-insulating and fire-resistant doors that meet the highest requirements

In September, Amare in The Hague opened its doors. This new culture house houses the Dance and Music Center The Hague Foundation, the Nederlands Danstheater, the Residentie Orkest and the Royal Conservatory of Music. The building is BREEAM 'Excellent' certified and is characterized by a high-quality finish. Merford Special Doors installed special, sound-insulating and fire-resistant doors there.

The name says it all: Merford Special Doors produces doors with special properties, such as security doors, utility doors, industrial doors and gas- and air-tight, fire-resistant and burglar-resistant doors. From design to installation, the doors are made in-house. There they are also painted and fitted with door hardware, pushers and other accessories. After installation, the company performs periodic maintenance so that the doors remain safe and meet the specified requirements.

For Amare, Merford supplied 296 door leaves, for both double and single doors. Some are sound-insulating, for example for the four halls, the conservatory rooms and the rehearsal rooms. Some were also made fire-resistant or have a combination of sound-insulating and fire-resistant properties.

Flexibly moving with construction

The doors for Amare were not chosen lightly. Initial plans were discussed as early as 2015. This was followed by tests in a mock-up of the building to test the suitability of the doors. Assembly took place in 2020 and proceeded in 29 phases. By September 2021, the project was only ready for Merford. "Because of the large quantity, production was a challenge. Also, these were not standard doors, but rather very customer-specific ones. This created extra pressure on work preparation and production, because it had to be ensured that everything was actually correct and fitted," says Olav Cristiaan, project manager at Merford Special Doors.

When the doors were finished, they had to get to the right place at the right time. And that while there was limited on-site storage. "Therefore, it was necessary to deliver stuff just-in-time. Combined with construction plans that changed last minute, this regularly led to ad hoc changes in our own production and assembly planning," says Cristiaan.

Guaranteed performance

On behalf of the Cadanz construction consortium, the doors were delivered completely finished. The paintwork had already been applied before the doors were assembled. Cristiaan: "We prefer to do the assembly ourselves because then we can better guarantee the performance, for example in terms of fire resistance and sound insulation. If the assembly is not done properly, the consequences can be disastrous. At Amare, too, we assembled the doors ourselves." He is particularly proud that the company was allowed to collaborate on such a prestigious project. "In the Netherlands you don't have many such buildings. Especially in the cultural sector there are special requirements. We specialize in preventing sound transmission between rooms. Our products do what they are supposed to do, are at the same time pleasant to use and a lot is possible aesthetically."