11 minute read
Cold Calling
INNOVATIVE NEW SASH WINDOW FEATURE
Specialist sash window manufacturer Roseview Windows has launched a new feature that marks a significant step forward for timber-alternative window design.
The new sash horn uses a design common to original timber sash windows, but which previously couldn’t be achieved in uPVC. The curved profile of Roseview’s sash horn, dubbed Seahorse because of its shape, was made possible by their investment in the cutting-edge technology already in use on their awardwinning Ultimate Rose sash window. Roseview director Mike Bygrave describes the new feature and what went into creating it: “At Roseview we’re constantly looking at ways that we can improve our classleading sash windows, both in terms of aesthetics and performance. By recreating an important detail often seen on period originals, Seahorse is another step on that journey towards making the perfect timberalternative sash window.
“Like all the best features, Seahorse seems simple.” Mike continues, “But creating it was anything but. A horn detail like this can’t go through a typical milling machine. It was made possible by the specialist CNC processes that we already use for our existing seamless run-through horns, and the different way of looking at product design these techniques open up. “The hidden cap also provided a challenge because of the deep recesses that are fundamental to such a traditional horn design. Long-term temperature testing showed that traditional foiling techniques couldn’t handle the intricate design and deep recesses reliably. So we had to take a different approach to design and manufacture a textured cap that doesn’t rely on standard foiling. “The result, however, was well worth the time, effort and investment that went into creating it. It may seem like a small detail but it makes a huge difference, and it’s another milestone in the development of timber-alternative sash windows. Pushing the boundaries of conservation-grade authenticity and leading the market for sash windows is what we do at Roseview; and this is yet another example.” The new Seahorse sash horn is available immediately and is exclusive to Roseview’s market-leading Ultimate Rose sash window. For more information visit www.roseview.co.uk/seahorse or call 01234 712657.
DANNY WILLIAMS ‘COLD CALLING’
Each month our special correspondent Danny Williams* replies to a reader’s letter...
“We are a retail and commercial installer in West Midlands. We and other installers face a constant barrage of new regulations that are often contradictory, and which have to be kept abreast of whilst adding to mounting operating costs. How can installers be expected to operate under such pressures?”
JD West Midlands
Well JD, as well as manufacturing and supplying a wide range of PVC-U and aluminium windows and doors, I too have a small retail installation business in addition to a substantial commercial installation arm, that carries out a decent amount of work for NHS estates. I therefore fully understand the pressures imposed by regulations and operating costs.
The latest round of amendments to the Building Regulations brought about considerable regulatory change and with it, some ill thought out and contradictory amendments to Part F, which contradict the improvements made in Part L; I refer of course, to trickle vents. Other Building Regs changes have gone under the radar with the attention given to trickle vents but for many installers, the changes made to this fundamental operating manual for anything to do with constructing and improving and changing buildings of any kind, went completely unnoticed. Because according to figures issued by FENSA, failed inspections in July and August – immediately after the revised regs became mandatory in June – reached new records. Hundreds of window and door fitters had no idea at all that anything had changed, obviously untroubled, as you seem to be, by feeling the need to comply with anything at all. I have even less sympathy after reading what installers have to contend with in the United States of America, and specifically in Texas, where new school safety standards have been proposed in the wake of what to date, was the third worst case of a high school shooting in the US, at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The shooting, which took place on May 24th last year, saw a former student at the school, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, shoot to death 19 students and two teachers, leaving a further 17 others wounded, after shooting his grandmother in the face before setting off for the school. Apparently, he fired shots for five minutes outside the school before entering unobstructed through an unlocked side door. Ramos then shut himself into two classrooms, remaining in the school for more than an hour before law enforcement officers shot him dead. There have been 139 such shootings since 2018. So, what has this got to do with anything? Whilst English and Welsh installers have struggled to contend with the installation of trickle vents and windows with improved U values, their Texan counterparts will have to amend their installation techniques and products to improve safety standards in the wake of this horror story, including the reinforcement of easily accessible windows, for all similar schools in the state of Texas.
Under the new rules, Texas schools would have to reinforce ground level windows or windows that are adjacent to or near a door and are large enough to allow someone to enter if broken. Easily accessible groundlevel windows near exterior doors need to be constructed or modified so that the glass cannot be easily broken, and they must have functional locking mechanisms that can be locked from the inside. There are a number of additional proposals all designed to prevent mass shootings like this from happening again, at least so easily, with the US glass and glazing industries getting involved by developing technologies designed to, bluntly, prevent children being murdered when they attend school. If you are struggling with Part F JD, then what would you make of ASTM International’s (an organisation similar to our BSI) Standard Test Method for Forced-Entry-Resistance of Fenestration Systems After Simulated Active Shooter Attack, which provides a method that sets the procedures to test forced-entryresistant building components, construction components and speciality security equipment. Certainly puts PAS 24 into perspective… JD, rules and regs are what we all have to deal with to be in business at all, and irrespective of the industry. And compared to the experience of installers operating in the US, fitting a few vents and filling in a few more forms, is hardly taxing, now is it? If you can’t stand the heat, JD then get out of the kitchen.
* Danny Williams is managing director of Chelmsford based Pioneer Trading and has been involved with all aspects of the windows and doors industry for 30 years. His activities include manufacturing a full range of windows and doors in PVC-U and aluminium, an IGU facility, retailing and commercial contracting.
YOUR LETTERS
WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?
Feel free to get in touch with your views on the industry, legislation, government, or even the newspaper.
Contact Chris:
chris@glassnews.co.uk
THE ‘R-WORD’ AND WHY WE SHOULD STILL BE OPTIMISTIC
Dear Editor,
The UK is in recession. The Office of Budgetary Responsibility downgraded its’ forecasts for the economy sharply following the Autumn Statement in November. Prospects for growth in 2023 have evaporated, to be replaced with a predicted 2% drop in GDP.
Rising energy and food prices have according to the OBR, ‘taken the wind out of the sails’ of the global economic recovery. The OBR report is pretty depressing stuff but while uncomfortable reading there are things that we need to note, because it gives us a sense of the direction of travel for the UK economy and the window and door industry within it.
The first are wholesale gas prices. These are currently four times higher than they normally would be and the OBR expects them to remain high for at least the medium term.
This is an over-riding reason for homeowners to invest in improving the energy efficiency of their properties. Costing the economy £86.4bn, it is also unlikely that the energy price guarantee can be maintained (at least in its current form) beyond April 2023. The energy crisis is going to continue and the cost to the end-user is likely to increase.
Our energy calculator shows how increased energy costs are already reducing payback times on new windows and doors, with savings of up to £1,400 per year. That’s a step-change. New windows and doors will pay for themselves in a 5-10 year period. Ask yourself what would you rather do? Burn cash – literally – or invest it in a home improvement, which will materially improve the comfort of your home, enhance its’ appearance and security, and lower your carbon footprint? Even if the energy price guarantee was retained in its current form, at £3,000 it still pushes average household energy bills to more than double where they were before April 2022.
Without it, energy analysts Cornwall Insights warns typical household energy bills would have topped £3,739 a year! Energy efficiency will drive window and door sales in 2023 and into the medium term.
The flip side of rising energy prices is that along with food and other costs, it contributes to a squeeze on household incomes. This the OBR says will push the economy into a recession lasting around a year from Q3 2022. The first point to draw out is that in this scenario, we’re already in recession and so far the market has held up. Things are perhaps marginally slower than they were but we need to remember that the baseline has been the two-years of exceptional demand, driven by COVID and numerous lockdowns.
The OBR also acknowledges that recession will be far shallower than previous downturns and significantly less severe than the last - the 2008 Crash.
There is in my view another factor to consider here and that is household saving. It remains at historically high levels with UK households collectively making more than £140bn of forced savings during the pandemic. That’s around 10% of household income.
The OBR has suggested separately that those who can afford to, will access savings to maintain spending. And this is the underlying point. Those with cash to spend will continue to spend it. In the decade preceding the pandemic, the top fifth of wealthiest households accounted for more than half of all home improvements in the UK. That is unlikely to change as we move forward.
It is also worth noting that the alarmist forecasts of a 15% or even 20% drop in house prices in 2023 in response to rising interest rates, are now being revised down to 6 to 8% Even in the dark days of 2008 and 2009 and the global banking crisis, house prices only fell by 15%. The economic prospects that the UK faces in 2023 are nowhere near as severe as those we faced in 2008. A correction of the market of around 6% would go some way to correcting the record house price inflation that we have seen since Covid which brough average house prices to a record high in August 2022 at £296,000.
Mortgage interest rates are also dropping from the October jump in response to the rise in the base rate and are forecast to come back to around 4% at the start of 2023. This will still be a shock to anyone coming to the end of their 1.8% fixed deal but compared to historical interest rate levels, they remain low.
If we take it that energy efficiency will be the foundation for window and door sales in 2023 and 2024, we should also assume that those with money still to spend, will want products which enhance and add value to their properties. Heritage, colour, flush casements, will continue to drive the market in the year ahead. Having committed to the Science Based Targets programme and a pledge to cut our carbon footprint by 60% by 2030 from a 2021 baseline, and as the winner of the G22 Sustainability Initiative of the year, it would also be remiss of me not to mention sustainability. It needs to be part of our offer, your offer and a collective offer from the window and door industry. Energy efficiency, carbon footprint and wider sustainability go hand-in hand.
It is not ‘the’ reason to buy new windows and doors. Energy efficiency as we have said, and other evergreen drivers, appearance and security, will drive sales.
It is, however, a point of difference. And when the market is more challenging the ‘margins’ of your offer assume far greater importance. Pre-pandemic in 2019 we were working hard. 2020 and 2021, and for much of 2022, new business has been served to us on a plate. Now we need to get back to working, marketing our products and our service offer, and start hustling again. For more information about Deceuninck’s product and service offer please call 01249 816 969, email deceuninck.ltd@ deceuninck.com or visit www.deceuninck.co.uk.
Rob McGlennon, Managing Director, Deceuninck
