Client: Manchester Central
Type of works: installation of SAFE-door acoustic doors.

Despite the venue in the centre of Manchester having been operating very successfully for a number of years the construction of new residential housing immediately behind the Exchange Hall threw up problems for the operators Manchester Central.

Site Operations Director Dave Mallard explained more: “The original escape doors were never meant to be particularly high specification doorsets, however when residents started moving in to the new apartments we began to receive adverse comments regarding sound leakage when we had events running in the hall.

We recognised that we needed to take action but had the dilemma of being able to fit very high-performance doors into a situation where we needed them to be easily operated. With the assistance of Steve Swan at Arup Acoustics in Manchester we identified an innovative new product that we thought could fit the bill. SAFE-door had been to visit Arup just a few weeks earlier and had discussed with them their tandem acoustic escape door that has laboratory figures of up to Rw 65dB. The door had been developed with their business partners Merford Noise Control who are based in the Netherlands.

We decided that we would try these on the openings and duly ordered them from SAFE-door. The doors have now been installed and the whole process from initial meeting to handover has been totally trouble-free. The doors fit perfectly and they have more than met our expectations. The finishing between the doors shows superb attention to detail as the void between the doors has been filled with mineral wool and then encapsulated by a perforated-steel sheet—just to catch any stray noise that makes it’s way in there.

In short we are delighted with the result and would recommend SAFE-door Ltd and their acoustic doors to anyone with problems similar to ours.”