craig

That's why we only have four teams across the UK and when we do take on another team, we vet them for a few projects alongside our other teams before we go down the road of training on the products etc. We then get them involved with some service work before given them a full project. It doesn't always work out but you put it down to experience and learn from it.

To give an idea, we supply only and supply and fit. We recommend the full package as the installers are fully aware of the best practice in placing packers, taping, adjustments etc. A lot of the call outs we receive after a supply only are due to poorly installed windows and then a call out charge is applicable for the visit and corrections. Most are not noted until weeks/months after installation. Warranties can also be impacted by poorly installed windows on a supply only. Cost wise, you should be looking at £250/£350 per man per day for labour, excluding materials & lifting equipment.

Manufacturers deal with distributors rather than direct in most cases. In most cases the factory discount will be the same or thereabouts no matter the distributor (manufacturer dependant). Some better performing ones might have a slightly better main discount. Generally speaking though, it will be the distributors mark up/discount that makes the difference. We don’t have an all singing and all dancing showroom ourselves as we like to use our clients and their properties. We like to give them an incentive, if it results in a sale. We like to keep things as minimal as possible so we’re not over stretched or over pricing or having to feed a massive beast. They could be paying £5k+ a month just to rent premises and then have £10/20K+ each month on salaries. Someone has to pay for it. Some manufacturers will deal direct but put you to a recommended installation team. As they don’t want the hassle with installs. A lot is also based on volume. Some will cut prices down massively and concentrate on volume sales.

That’s for glazing in bathrooms (single panes), not double/tripled sealed units. Expensive mistake unfortunately.

Never head of Liniar but apparently they designed the profile in the UK around 2008 and may be part of the Eurocell. Veka is Veka but only as good as the factory that is buying in the profiles. To be honest, I don't think you could go wrong with either of them.

I can tell you, this is an installation error and not product related. I would presume that GP200 is not designed for glazing at all or Soudal Silirub N (or similar) has been used and this should not be in direct contact with the hot melt, for the reasons you see above. I can tell you from experience, that one of our installers had used N for years and not Silirub 2. Hadn't ever experienced this issue because the glass used in the UK is generally taped. It's not from Europe. Until roughly £20k of glass experienced this issue. It's very important to use products designed for the job and GP200 is not designed for this job. Soudal Silirub N

The reason Rationel do if this way, is they want the frame to be able to breath as far as I understand. Doesn’t make sense to me as the system will breath irrespective of cladding over the frame. Over cladding is a pretty standard detail tbh.

Have a look at MBC timber frame, SIPS Industries and SIPS Eco Panels.

Just a few things here. 1: It’s not just the glass, great glass in s***e window just isn’t going to give great noise reduction. 2: In an openable window, the noise is going to travel between the frame and sash. More gaskets and better sealing of those gaskets is important. 3: Noise will travel around the glass and through the glazing bead area. Might be minimal but it does occur. 4: How the window is installed is a majorly important factor. Noise will travel past the frame and between the frame and building. PU foam on it’s on doesn’t cut it. It’s not a completely filled void when used and noise will travel past it. I recommend using a compriband as well PU foam. This dramatically increase the performance level thermally and acoustically.

This should give you a best guess to the weight of the unit. Double is 20kg per m2, triple is 30kg per m2 based on 4mm panes. https://www.glass-ts.com/glass-weight-calculator

We quote 200mm as standard to be honest, rare we use the smaller or larger tape. Check what that includes, give them a call and ask them.

Example, window size of 1000x1000 is 4 linear metres. So that’s 4m length of ME508. It comes in 25m rolls (direct from Illbruck), so one window at 4lm still requires one roll. m2 doesn’t help in this instance, you need linear metres. I did a quick calc based on 75 windows at 1000x1000 windows, which is 75m2, based on what I do and would expect that to be around 300lm. However, that’s a lot for just ME508, I’d expect it to include TP600 and FM330 but that’s still more than double the price I’d expect to charge a client (I would charge £2.4k for 300lm for all 3 - which includes markup and application). They may be charging per linear metre as well, it certainly appears to be the case.

That puppy needs it's knackers chopped if it's a boy lol

Look at it from a guideline point of view, if you can’t see from 3 metres away there is no fault. Additionally with glass you have to look through the glass, not at the glass.

You need a professional glass repairer. I’ve seen some shoddy work by installers trying to make things good but making it worse and clients doing just the same. A professional repairer will do a good job. I had a really bad scratch that was a “certain” replacement at over £4k for the glass. The repair (polish) made a 50% improvement, so much so that it was acceptable to the customer. It’s a skilled art.

They don't have to be a member of GGF but I would strongly suspect the glass supplier will be and the will most definitely be following the GGF guidelines. The supplier will not be the manufacturer of the glass as 9x10 they will buy the glass in. FENSA is for replacements only, doesn't have anything to do with new builds.

There is a few things which occur during the glass making process and some that occur later. Such as thermal stress fractures, which are not covered under warranty. Others such as roller wave is caused by the heat treatment process of the glass and it basically sags as it goes over the rollers. You need to talk to the supplier. If following the guidelines it needs to be checked that it is within guidelines. If it is, then it's not covered as a defect nor can it be claimed as a warranty defect. However, that is terrible. Probably one of the worst that I have seen. If the supplier is a decent supplier, they would be raising a complaint with the glass supplier and organising replacements. I would personally have rejected this immediately and delayed the delivery as a result. Sometimes you only see this after delivery and I would immediately raise a complaint and to be honest, I would have organised replacement immediately even if it was at our expense. Have a look at section 4.4 of the attached. GGF Standard Data Sheet 4.4.pdf

That’s why we use the i3 system, it’s not massively different but comes in under £10 per metre inc VAT.

Cost wise, all Illbruck suppliers will be there or thereabouts on price. You won’t find a massive price difference.

Everyones prices are going up, unfortunate but it is what it is. My suppliers timber costs have increased twice this year, last one being 50% increase per metre. Glass prices increased, expected again by September. Aluminium prices increased and again expected by September to increase further. The whole construction industry is volatile at the moment. Not sure who Westcoast windows are tbh.

Sorry, I got caught up with a few things. I did see it, I’ll pop his number on to you.

I'll drop you a PM.

Professional, experienced but not an inspector. I'm based in Scotland, were are you located? I could supply my expertise or recommend a 3rd party that could give you expertise from a building and installation aspect.

Correct. However, a lot of installers will apply this before offering the window up to the opening. It becomes an issue if the tape starts to immediately expand rather than a slow expansion (example video of application).

I've been watching for sometime the discussions surrounding per m2 costs. I've always felt these comparisons on per m2 are flawed and not a fair reflection (even when comparing per m2 cost with one another and potentially from the same supplier). The quantity of fixed versus openable can be different and the amount of doors for example and type. So I thought I would put a quick excel calculation tool together to get m2 based on the entered info. Which can then be filtered through the relevant options. There is a couple of minor points to make. It's basic but does the job. Due to the sheet being locked (password supplied), it won't expand the table as new data is entered, so I extended the table to accommodate. This presents an issue when calculating subtotals as it includes zeros and in the average cost per m2 field, this presents an incorrect figure for "all items" as they aren't filtered. I have entered a cost per m2 field for all items to combat this. It doesn't take quantities into account, each item needs to be entered individually. When you filter, it will calculate only the visible cells in the "Average cost per m2" cell and displays the correct per m2 cost. So you can filter by style for example (tilt and turn, top hung etc.) and it will always calculate the per m2 cost on the selections made. Discount amount (if any) can be entered and it will advise the percentage of discount supplied and then the cost per m2 cells will adjust to the discounted rate. I have tried to cover all the bases, including uPVC, Timber, Timber Alu Clad, Aluminium, timber type, internal finish, glazing etc. I've also put linear meterage data in plus install costs, which will display install cost per m2/linear meterage as well for a further breakdown. If you find this useful and can use this for comparisons with other suppliers / Buildhub members or if anyone would like to expand on it, feel free to download and amend accordingly. cost_per_m2.xlsx