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NC Doors' team passed nuclear medicine test

Workers - Door Specialist in Wauchope, NSW

Designing and manufacturing metal-clad timber doors for the ANSTO nuclear medical science complex in Sydney called for the skills of the entire NC Doors’ team. Our CAD designer Harris Butler visited the site of what is the world’s newest nuclear medicine facility to profile the door frames, capturing their exact dimensions. Collaborating with our CNC technician Jackson Sauer, the pair then developed the production programs required to size, shape and rout each of the door panels, which our fabricating team built by hand.


NC Doors computer-assisted manufacturing process removes the hinge rebate panels and lockset cut-outs, so the hardware can be fitted in our factory. This allows the doors to arrive ready to be installed in hours, instead of days when this pre-installation work has to be done onsite by a carpenter.


Our technology handled complex door designs


Several of the doors incorporated fire-rated Pyropanel cores, others had acoustic-rated centres, while the security doors featured high-strength block cores, in 40-50mm thicknesses. A pair of galvanised steel-sheeted solid core doors (pictured left with Sean) featured vision panels with aluminium surrounds.


“Where other door companies might struggle, NC Doors’ computer-assisted design and manufacturing technology can easily handle complex doors like these,” NC Doors’ General Manager and Director, Barry Drewitt said.


“We were working with non-standard sizes and a variety of materials, while the hardware was anything but commonplace. In the process of writing new programs for our CNC routing machine, we incorporated some very unusual door componentry into the designs.”


Precisely fitting doors and seals were critical


Our two most experienced installers, company Director Ian Drewitt and Sean Cummins finished the doors in our factory, adding the Colourbond metal cladding to the faces and edges of those pictured below, along with much of the hardware.


One of the challenges in designing the facility was accommodating various atmospheric pressures throughout the complex, which made it critical that the doors and seals fitted precisely. Pharmaceutical facilities are kept under positive pressure to keep dust contaminants out, while the nuclear industry facilities have negative atmospheric pressure to ensure that nothing escapes.


NC Doors again partnered with door installation specialists Robson Doors, who called on our technology for the project, which is being built at Lucas Heights by Icon Co, the Australian construction company which formed a combined construction services business with Cockram Construction in 2018.


“While these doors certainly were a challenge, custom-made non-standard doors are what we specialise in,” Barry Drewitt said.

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Luxury resort gets five-star doors

May 28, 2024
THE luxury, five-star Palm Lake Resort at Forster deserved five-star doors. That’s just what NC Doors designed, manufactured and installed. “For their Forster project, we created a bespoke face design chosen by the Palm Lake Group, which was in keeping with the Florida Keys theme,” NC Doors’ general manager Barry Drewitt said. “Our ready-to-hang profiled doors were hung in preassembled frames and jambs. That meant we could deliver them to the property and screw them on quickly without the usual hours of carpentry involved in traditional door installation. “The mixture of hardware routs included DDA-compliant locks and handles designed to meet disability guidelines. Another feature were timber louvres in the service cupboards.” There are 27 over-50s luxury resorts and seven aged care facilities in the Palm Lake Group, which operates three states. The Forster project manager, Jeff Foster said: “Barry and I have worked together before and he and his team are always looking to find ways to save us time and m
A Picture of A Door Before and After the Flood - Door Specialist in Wauchope, NSW

CASE STUDY - Restoring Lismore TAFE’s heritage doors

May 10, 2024
WHEN a flood devastated the northern NSW city of Lismore in 2022, the record 14.4m-high floodwater not only inundated hundreds of homes, but also critical community infrastructure. TAFE NSW appointed construction firm Lipman Pty Ltd to rebuild its campus in the heart of the city. The firm’s brief was to restore the heritage features of the main building where possible, or replace them in keeping in their original heritage style. Some 40 doors – around 90% – had to be replaced. NC Doors has partnered with Lipman on numerous new builds. At Lismore TAFE, the challenge was to not only faithfully replicate non-standard sized heritage doors, but to install them in frames and walls effected by days of immersion in floodwater.
Home Interior Design - Door Specialist in Wauchope, NSW

Convenience the key for Hunter builder

February 20, 2024
Builders love the flexibility and economy NC Doors offers. Being able to get doors supplied with hinges, locks, seals and any other hardware pre-fitted in our factory saves them long preparing doors for installation. However, sometimes builders like Ben Tracey, of Newcastle-based Insight Building Services, need to be able to add their own finishing touches. Keeping a handle on costs NC Doors CAD-profiled the frames before supplying Ben with seven sets of interconnected fire-rated door pairs to replace the standard doors in the suites at Kirkton Park, a luxury accommodation, event and conference venue in the Hunter Valley. “Insight is a regular client and the only reason we didn’t fit the hardware this time was that Ben was waiting on delivery of handles and locks to match the other doors in the suites,” NC Doors’ Managing Director, Barry Drewitt explained. “Ben only had to screw on the hardware. For us to be able to do everything else in the factory meant a big saving in time and on-site labour costs. And, there’s no dust and rubbish to clean up afterwards.” Quick turnarounds, competitive prices For Ben, spending hours cutting in hinge rebates and drilling lock cut-outs doesn’t add up. Not when doors can be pre-fitted and finished in our factory, then packaged and delivered to the site. “Barry responds when I need a quick turnaround and his prices are always competitive,” the young builder said. “Financially, it’s very attractive to be able to get quality doors finished to the stage that suits me for each particular job. NC Doors makes the whole process easy and with so much else to think about it’s great knowing the doors will arrive when I need them and be ready to go straight in."
Data Center - Door Specialist in Wauchope, NSW

Advanced door technology 'a huge bonus' at data centre

September 14, 2023
NC Doors’ ability to supply custom-made timber doors precisely sized to their frames and with all the hardware cut-outs removed during manufacture offers clients huge savings on installation. But pre-fitting the hinges, locks and other hardware in our factory proved critical for Morgan Civil when the firm won a contract to upgrade a high-security data centre in Sydney. The project was relatively straight-forward: enclose existing high-voltage electrical switchboards supplying banks of internet servers at a high-security Sydney data centre to seal them from smoke, fire, dust and other debris. The challenge was that none of the construction work could be carried out on the premises. “Nothing that could generate a spark or dust was permitted anywhere near the equipment," company director, Tycho Leathbridge said. “Because we had to pre-assemble everything off-site, it was a huge bonus to have the hinges, mortice locks and smoke seals pre-fitted into the fire doors that arrived ready to go straight into the steel frames."
Ready To Hang Doors - Door Specialist in Wauchope, NSW

Ready-to-hang doors ‘a godsend’ for remote property owners

August 9, 2023
When Craig and wife Nichole decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and refurbish their 70s-built holiday house in Lake Cathie, the first job was to replace the property’s original 17 doors. “Because we live in the NSW Southern Highlands, we couldn’t be there to co-ordinate multiple tradesmen,” Craig said. “First a carpenter would have to come and measure, before coming back to prepare them for hanging and screwing them on.Then, the painter would have to make three visits before the remaining door hardware could be fitted. Co-ordinating that from 500km away would have been a nightmare, so it was a godsend getting the doors delivered already sized and professionally painted, and installed in less than day.” CAD profiling the beachside holiday house’s original door frames presented challenges. OId door frames often warp over time, but our proprietary CAD-based door technology allows NC Doors to incorporate any variations in each frame into the manufacturing programs we created. Essentially, each door is unique: sized and shaped, with its hardware cut outs removed as it passes through our CNC routing machine. The fit is perfect first time, every time. For the internal doors, Craig and Nichole chose NC Doors energy-efficient doors with a lightweight core that keeps warm air in during winter and hot air out in summer. Our painter finished them with two undercoats and a topcoat of Lexicon White in our factory’s painting bay. They looked striking against the stained timber door jambs. NC Doors’ general manager Barry Drewitt described NC Doors’ technology as ‘a game changer’ for commercial and residential builders, and home renovators – especially for people like the Mahers living outside the area. “A job like that could never be done in one day using the traditional methods when you have to co-ordinate a team of tradesmen. Our technology is quick and clean – the doors fit perfectly first time and there’s no rubbish to remove or dust to clean up afterwards.”
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