SPRING IS IN THE AIR!

In the Season of New Beginnings, how appropriate that a new partnership has struck up between two special names in the industry

The leaves are on the trees, flowers in bloom and the skies are clearing for a beautiful, balmy summer (OK, that last bit might be optimistic) but it’s a truism that brows are less furrowed as we emerge from another dour British winter, and everything is a little more positive.

There are two quite disparate locations in the UK where optimism is definitely the mood, Gloucester and Ballymena, as two key brands in the window and door industry have struck up a partnership that at first appears surprising, but which upon further examination becomes quite logical. The Residence Collection, the company that popularised the now ubiquitous flush timber alternative window system; and Apeer, the innovative composite door manufacturer, have come together to create The Residence Door Collection by Apeer, a new brand and one that does exactly what it says on the tin.

With the connection made, the coupling is logical: The Residence Collection was searching for a premium residential door to complement the company’s three window ranges that are renowned for their high-quality and class-leading specification; and Apeer, having produced its own doors for more than 20 years, is continuously updating and improving the performance of the doors it manufactures in its advanced, 120,000 feet2 factory. And after an introduction by Apeer’s new sales director Andy Jones, the synergies and potential of the relationship became increasingly clear.

The net result is a range of 20 door styles that have been curated to complement The Residence Collection windows in terms of aesthetics, quality and performance, and built around a specification developed by Apeer, that will provide future-proofing, including the much vaunted Future Homes standard which, whilst defining new homes from 2025, is expected to be provide the fulcrum for RMI in due course. Whilst designed primarily to complement The Residence Collection windows and provide the brand’s dealers with a powerful premium door offer, the range will be widely available on the open market.

Doors are presented in a 120mm format, including traditional, contemporary and stable door designs, with 78mm quadruple sealed glass units as standard. Doors will of course, be set in R9 and R2 outer frames. Construction is of GPR skins around a highdensity PU core, reinforced with aluminium anti-cut through security mesh embedded within the core. Every door, including skins and glass units, will be manufactured in-house by Apeer.

Specification from the outset will be comprehensive to include nine standard colours (seven grained and two smooth), with the availability of full sidelights and top lights at launch, with half lights and others to follow. Standard specification also includes weather deflectors, and Stormguard or full frame thresholds. High quality hardware and furniture will be used throughout, whilst extra touches such as Ultion KeyTagequipped, trackable keys will also form a comprehensive standard specification.

All doors will be PAS24 compliant, and thermal performance testing, which is being undertaken in advance of the FIT Show launch, will improve upon the 0.8 W/m2K anticipated to be published in the Future Homes standard.

With the introduction made, The Residence Collection’s Sarah Hitichings and Apeer’s Asa McGillian found that they had much in common, including an avid pursuit of energy efficiency, as Asa confirmed: “My passion has been to produce doors and windows to meet ‘passivhaus’ standards,” explained Asa, “that we use as our goal when developing new products, including the Apeer 70 residential door launched recently, which has the anticipated Future Homes numbers as its performance benchmark.

“When we met, the question was ‘why had we not worked together sooner?’”, said Sarah, who confirmed: “The Residence Collection is well known and appreciated for its commitment to remaining a premium product and we were impressed both with Asa and his team’s passion for performance and quality but also for their ability to intuitively understand what we were looking for in a premium residential door. We were also impressed with the speed with which they brought it to reality.” www.apeer.co.uk

That reality will be experienced with The Residence Door Collection by Apeer being launched at this month’s FIT Show, where members of both teams will be in attendance. And where spring will definitely be in the air.