RIDGE BAL-rated timber front doors. Made for the conditions.

If your build is in a bushfire-prone area, the front door isn't a place to compromise on compliance. We build RIDGE timber doors to AS 3959 for BAL-12.5 to BAL-29, and for BAL-40 as part of a compliant system. Shop drawings and a compliance statement come with every door.

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What BAL means

Bushfire Attack Level: and what it asks of your door.

BAL, or Bushfire Attack Level, is the rating system that classifies how much radiant heat, ember attack, and direct flame a building element has to withstand. It's set by the building code (AS 3959) and assessed for every property in a designated bushfire-prone area before construction or major renovation.

Your bushfire assessor gives you a rating: BAL-LOW, BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL-29, BAL-40, or BAL-FZ. The higher the number, the more aggressive the protection your building elements need to provide. The front door, every external door, in fact, has to meet the rating that applies to your site.

Here's how it works under AS 3959-2018, the bushfire construction standard:

BAL-12.5 and BAL-19. A solid timber leaf at least 35mm thick, fitted tight to the frame with a seal at the base. 4mm safety glass at BAL-12.5, 5mm toughened at BAL-19.
BAL-29. The same solid leaf, but the whole frame must be a bushfire-resisting timber such as Spotted Gum or Merbau (or metal), the glass goes to 6mm toughened, and the hardware is metal.
BAL-40. The door changes as a system. The solid timber leaf goes in a metal frame behind a steel or bronze mesh screen door, or the whole entry goes under a bushfire shutter. Seals step up too. We build the leaf and take you through the rest.
BAL-FZ (Flame Zone). We don't make doors for BAL-FZ. It needs a fire-tested door system, not a custom-built door.

Every RIDGE door comes with shop drawings and a compliance statement that set out the BAL, the AS 3959 path used, the timber species, glass, seals and hardware, ready for your building surveyor to sign off.

This isn't paperwork. The rating affects what you can use, how it has to be built, and which timber species are acceptable. Get it wrong and you don't get sign-off. Get it right and the door does its actual job: keeping your house intact during a bushfire event long enough for the front to pass, embers to die, and the structure to survive.

Three things our BAL doors do differently

Engineered for fire, not just compliant on paper.

Australian Chestnut as the BAL timber

Dense, stable, and it chars rather than combusts. When the BAL assessor signs off, that's what they're looking for, a timber that doesn't sustain combustion, doesn't drop burning fragments, and forms a protective char layer under direct heat. Australian Chestnut is one of the species that performs.

Sealing engineered for ember attack

Most external door failures in bushfire are ember-driven, not flame-driven. Embers find gaps, smoulder, and ignite the inside of the building. Our BAL doors are sealed at the perimeter to BAL specification, every gap, every threshold, every transition between door and frame is detailed for ember resistance.

Merbau sill, full-width

The threshold is the highest-risk part of any external door, closest to ground level, where embers accumulate. We run a Merbau sill the full width of the assembly including any sidelights. Merbau is dense, dimensionally stable, and holds the sealing detail under load.

Sorrento BAL-rated entry, Australian Chestnut with double sidelights

Sorrento BAL-rated · Australian Chestnut

Reference project

Sorrento. BAL-compliant Australian Chestnut.

A Mornington Peninsula property where the previous front door was a 1970s slider, not BAL compliant, not secure, not anything. We replaced it with a 1220mm Australian Chestnut door flanked by double sidelights, full BAL rating, dense timber that chars rather than combusts.

Read the full Sorrento story for the construction approach, the timber selection, and the conditions we engineered for.

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What we need from you

Send us four things and we'll engineer the door.

Your BAL assessment. The bushfire assessor's report or your planning permit tells us your rating, and which side of the house the door faces matters. Tell us too if the door sits within 400mm of the ground or a deck, and who your building surveyor is, so the paperwork suits them.

The opening dimensions. Width, height, depth of the wall, whether you have sidelights, what the threshold looks like. Photos of the existing entrance from inside and out are usually enough.

The architectural intent. Are you replacing a door on an existing build, or speccing for a new build? What's the facade material? Are you working from drawings, or just photos? We can build to a door schedule or work from a brief.

Your timeline. BAL doors are individually engineered and quoted. Lead time is 8–10 weeks from deposit. Knowing your build sequence helps us slot the manufacture in at the right point.

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For homeowners, architects, builders

Bushfire-zone homeowners have nowhere to look online.

Search "BAL-rated front door Melbourne" and you get hardware-store generics that don't actually meet BAL spec. We build doors that do, engineered to your assessment, manufactured at our Moorabbin workshop. If you've got a property in a bushfire zone, talk to us before you spec anything.

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