Aluminium or concrete cills

[djcdan]

I hadn't given this too much thought, but it's come to the point of confirming external cill specification to our window supplier (Rationel).

 

What is better; concrete cills or aluminium supplied by Rationel?

 

I'm leaning towards aluminium as you can tell from the list below, but happy to get other opinions.

 

Pros of aluminium:

requires less maintanence

doesn't require painting initially

cill matches the colour and finish of the glazing frame

cills installed at the time of kit erection reducing the workload on the brickie

Our largest window (sliding door) is 3.6m wide, potentially quite costly to supply and with little access to the rear, difficult to fit

 

Pros of concrete:

Allows for a shorter profile  aluminium cill to potentially look more streamline

 

Does anyone has opinions or feedback on this?

[jack]

One thing that annoys me a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

[Mr Punter]

+1 to @jack

 

I am doing concrete next time.

[nod]

18 minutes ago, djcdan said:

I hadn't given this too much thought, but it's come to the point of confirming external cill specification to our window supplier (Rationel).

 

What is better; concrete cills or aluminium supplied by Rationel?

 

I'm leaning towards aluminium as you can tell from the list below, but happy to get other opinions.

 

Pros of aluminium:

requires less maintanence

doesn't require painting initially

cill matches the colour and finish of the glazing frame

cills installed at the time of kit erection reducing the workload on the brickie

Our largest window (sliding door) is 3.6m wide, potentially quite costly to supply and with little access to the rear, difficult to fit

 

Pros of concrete:

Allows for a shorter profile  aluminium cill to potentially look more streamline

 

Does anyone has opinions or feedback on this?

You can get precast concrete with a colour of your choice Zero maintenance 

[djcdan]

17 minutes ago, jack said:

One thing that annoys my a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

 

Good point. Would this still apply with triple glazing?

[Mr Punter]

I have 3g and notice the noise of rain.

[Bitpipe]

20 minutes ago, jack said:

One thing that annoys my a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

 

Yup - we have a nice high level 'slot' window above our bed - about 2m long and 600 high I think.

 

Without fail the rain battering off the cill wakes me up.

[djcdan]

It seems noise is a major downfall of the aluminium cills, so will probably swing towards concrete.

 

11 minutes ago, nod said:

You can get precast concrete with a colour of your choice Zero maintenance 

and good to know this is an option

 

Thanks all.

[jack]

1 hour ago, djcdan said:

Good point. Would this still apply with triple glazing?

 

Yes, we have good quality triple glazing.

[Conor]

Feck. We've just measured up for our windows and assumed Alu cills. Assume too late to change to concrete as we'd need to rip out a portion of the wall openings?!

[Moonshine]

1 hour ago, jack said:

One thing that annoys my a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

 

is this on the single sheet type or the more robust type like these?

 

 

[Mr Punter]

My noisy ones are the folded add-on type.  The extruded ones are not such an issue.

[Moonshine]

19 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

My noisy ones are the folded add-on type.  The extruded ones are not such an issue.

 

That makes sense, and i am actually planning for extruded ones

[jack]

58 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

 

is this on the single sheet type or the more robust type like these?

 

 

 

Single sheet.

 

I was really surprised that no-one's ever mentioned this in the past, although it's interesting seeing in this thread how many others apparently have similar issues.

[craig]

6 hours ago, jack said:

Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder,

You need the dampener, severely reduces the impact but it’s very rare they are supplied

 

Certainly with the cills we supply, not all alu cills with have this option.

Edited March 26, 2021 by craig

[jack]

3 minutes ago, craig said:

You need the dampener, severely reduces the impact but it’s very rare they are supplied

 

Is the dampener a layer of nitrile-rubber-like material stuck to the underside? If so, we have that. Still loud, although I do find noise very distracting in general.

[Roundtuit]

We've got Rationel aluminium cills, and I've never noticed any rain noise.  If this is one of those things that you can't ignore once someone has pointed it out, I'm gonna be well pi$$ed off with you lot?

 

Back to the OP; if you're having a timber frame with brick outer skin, then I expect the cills will go on after the brickwork. (My windows didn't go in until the brickwork was finished).

[craig]

21 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Is the dampener a layer of nitrile-rubber-like material stuck to the underside? If so, we have that. Still loud, although I do find noise very distracting in general.

More like an insulation material that goes underneath. I’ll get the detail to show you.

[jack]

46 minutes ago, Roundtuit said:

We've got Rationel aluminium cills, and I've never noticed any rain noise.  If this is one of those things that you can't ignore once someone has pointed it out, I'm gonna be well pi$$ed off with you lot

 

Why should I suffer alone?

[craig]

@jack

 

It is a strip, but when insulated underneath also, has a much bigger difference.

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by craig

[jack]

Thanks @craig. No, we definitely don't have anything like that. We just have the strip of "sound-deadening coating".

[Eric]

On 26/03/2021 at 12:38, nod said:

You can get precast concrete with a colour of your choice Zero maintenance 

I find concrete cills tend to crack & go green. I’m actually considering aluminium for a new build but not 100% sold on them yet.

[nod]

1 minute ago, Eric said:

I find concrete cills tend to crack & go green. I’m actually considering aluminium for a new build but not 100% sold on them yet.

The reconstituted stone shouldn’t crack Quick spray with Algicide will clear any green and keep them clear for at least six months 

[jayc89]

Sorry to resurrect this. I'm placing my Rationel order and currently deciding between All and Concrete Sills. Shouldn't functioning guttering prevent drips landing on the sill? 

Edited January 22, 2023 by jayc89

[Russdl]

@jayc89 that will all depend on how high above the window the gutter is.

 

In our situation the window in the main bedroom is on the side wall, gable end and no gutter. When it’s chucking it down the big drips hitting the metal cill is like a drum. 

When it happens I generally move out to the spare room where the gutter is just above the window head and the problem is almost non existent.