The UK is home to around two million commercial buildings straddling retail, industrial and office space as well as infrastructure housing leisure, healthcare, hospitality and education facilities.
Recent figures from Construction Europe show that though UK commercial construction has slowed, the residential market has been hit harder. With both main political parties using their recent conferences to outline plans to regenerate towns or create new ones, the outlook for commercial installers may be brightening after all.
Every type of installer has its own challenges to navigate, from changing building regulations and stringent planning requirements to specific customer demands. As your fabricator, it’s our job to help make doing business that bit easier.
We do that in a number of ways, from providing sound technical advice to ensuring our portfolio evolves to meet requirements or trends. Right from the first conversation, we will work with you to ensure you receive what you need when you need it, with support at each stage of the project until the high-quality, compliant installation has been completed.
Depending on your requirements, this can involve consultation at the initial quote stage to ensure the architectural designs can be replicated in uPVC and, critically, meet the current testing guidelines for all accreditations, as well as technical advice on everything from frame design to wind-loads.
We find that our technical support offering is particularly invaluable for commercial installers during the tender stage when documentation, drawings, specifications and samples might be required.
One key way we support our commercial installers is with the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM enables architects and installers to visualise how windows and doors will fit into the overall building and provides data to optimise energy efficiency, check compliance with regulations, and improve accuracy, reducing the risk of issues occurring later on in the project.
Glazerite’s products are available from the NBS National BIM Library, which is the only BIM object library that links directly to NBS specification software and the NBS BIM Toolkit.
As an essential part of the design process, a poorly written specification can cause problems for installers and other stakeholders further down the line. Using digital technologies to deliver accurate specifications and plans helps our installers reduce costs and improve the overall quality of installs.
By linking in with the NBS Plus directory, the latest products and relevant specifications can be accessed to help with the project, right from the start. Alongside digital tools, our sales, technical and operations teams are also always on hand to support you on-site, online, or over the phone.
We can even help you with non-standard jobs thanks to our constantly evolving portfolio that meets the needs of every type of installer. It includes tilt and turn, fully reversible and casement offerings from VEKA as well as the Deceuninck 2500 bevelled casement and tilt and turn range, which we brought on board recently to give commercial installers an alternative price point and a high-quality option to bid competitively for larger projects. When it comes to lead times and deliveries, we can also customise these to fit in with other trades on busy construction sites.
As the UK heads towards Net Zero, energy efficiency rules have tightened for commercial property, while decarbonisation has led to a rethink in construction. The industry is looking at the whole life cycle of a building and its components, with many now being retrofitted and made more energy efficient rather than being knocked down and replaced.
Both VEKA and Deceuninck support the provision of their thermally efficient products with environmental policies that highlight how they work to minimise their own environmental impact. This includes the use of recycled UPVC material in products, and, at the other end of the process, recycling of old frames removed during refurbishment.
We are always looking to build long term partnerships with our installers. For commercial installers, working with Glazerite means you have the backing of a futureproofed fabricator and sustainable system houses who will work with you every step of the way.
Want to find out more about how we can work together on commercial projects?