MFM Building Products Unveils New Website

With insurance and energy contract renewals consistently in the headlines, as a nation, we’re starting to move away from auto‐renewing policies, in favour of finding great new deals and better customer service. According to Certass, it’s no different for window installation companies, who are looking for a better service on competent person schemes (CPS).

MD at Certass, Jason Clemmit explains: “Competent person schemes are an essential part of any installer’s remit. Self‐certifying installations is just part and parcel of the job for them, so that’s why at Certass, we make it as simple and straightforward as possible to transfer to a scheme with friendly, helpful support and technical teams. So, if you are looking for a fresh approach in the New Year give us a call.”

With schemes covering more than 2.5 million installed products, Certass has one of the most comprehensive certification schemes in the industry that can provide schemes for all aspects of your work from windows to roofline. The switch to Certass begins with a simple online form and when the paperwork has been received, installers can register jobs within 48 hours. Completed jobs are certified as soon as the on‐site audit is signed off.

Installers registered with Certass can take advantage of extra benefits, including low‐cost public liability and business insurance, and the Trust Mark Scheme. As an extra bonus, Certass is waiving joining fees for installers switching to Certass who register before 15 January 2018.

Jason adds: “Historically, certification bodies have run CPS without offering added value for installers, but that’s where we’re different. Our schemes are designed by tradespeople, for tradespeople, so we can be sure that we offer the best schemes, backed by helpful and friendly service.”

www.certass.co.uk

Image Above: Peter Mulligan – Balconette Commercial Sales Director

Balconette has appointed Peter Mulligan as Commercial Sales Director with a focus on growing the company’s unique range of innovative glass balustrading products for the UK commercial market.

Bringing extensive expertise and experience within the glazing and construction industries throughout the UK and Europe, Peter’s new role coincides with on-going development of Balconette’s highly-aesthetic and expanding portfolio.

As a leading manufacturer of competitively-priced elegant glass balustrades, glass Juliet balconies and curved glazing, Balconette offers a complete design, supply and installation service to suit clients’ individual requirements.

Demand has been rising since the recent launch of its new leading-edge HYBRID® system, which is a new cost-effective alternative to structural frameless glass. HYBRID® balustrades offer the open views of frameless glass at the cost and convenience of the older post-supported styles.

Balconette’s CEO Effi Wolff comments: “In creating this dedicated new role, we’re delighted to welcome Peter to our experienced team as we continue to invest further in our customer service and quality products to meet increasing demand from the architectural, developer, residential and commercial sectors.”

Peter adds: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Balconette whose innovative balustrading systems offer limitless, stylish and simple-to-install straight and curved balustrading solutions that meet the design objectives for all types of projects.”

For further information on Balconette’s range of balustrading products, contact 01342 410411, email enquiries@balconette.co.uk.

Balconette, Unit 6, Systems House, Eastbourne Road, Blindley Heath, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6JP. Tel: 01342 410411, Fax: 01342 410412. Website: www.balconette.co.uk

Built in 1875, the Barnes Hospital is a French Gothic style building where patients from Manchester Infirmary were sent to convalesce. The Grade II-listed building, which was closed in 1999 and left to deteriorate, is now receiving a new lease of life as developer Henley Homes creates the Barnes Village around it.

Alongside the 38 homes that are being constructed within the Victorian building, Henley is building a further 117 two- and four-bedroom townhouses in the hospital grounds. The challenge for Henley and its construction division Reis Construct was to find windows for the new-build houses that would complement the character of the hospital’s originals, while providing the best possible insulation and acoustic performance.

The original specification from Jeffery Bell Architects called for an aluminium and timber profile for the new houses. However, in liaison with the local conservation officer, Reis elected to substitute these for Eurocell’s Modus flush sash casement window in Anthracite Grey. As well as satisfying the aesthetic requirements, the Modus windows offered a more cost-effective solution while delivering better performance than the original specification.

“We looked at several issues when selecting the windows, including initial cost, thermal performance and ongoing maintenance requirements for our customers,” says Henley Homes’ construction director Aaron Usmani.

The Barnes Village development, close to the village of Cheadle in Greater Manchester, is well-connected, on the A34 and close to the M60 and M56. However, this does mean that traffic noise could be a nuisance which is why noise attenuation is an important feature for the windows. Modus’ multi-chamber profile, designed to increase thermal performance, also aids the windows’ acoustic performance too.

Featuring a unique 75mm six-chamber profile system, the Modus range delivers the optimum energy efficiency performance and can achieve a U-value as low as 0.7 from a standard system using triple-glazed units.

The Modus casement, reversible and tilt and turn windows were among the first to achieve the ‘A++’ band in England and Wales for Window Energy Ratings (WERs) since the British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) launched the new rating in May 2015. The ‘A++’ rating is only given to those windows an energy index value equal to or greater than +20.

Consisting of 50% post-consumer recycled PVC-U as standard, this range of doors and windows demonstrates a sustainable use of materials and has a smaller carbon footprint than products made or recycled outside of the UK. Eurocell achieves this by employing dual material extrusion technology (DMET) that layers post-consumer recycled and ‘virgin’ material simultaneously, so the recycled material is concentrated in the central core of the profiles where it cannot be seen once the door or window is installed.

The first PVC-U window and door system to offer a 12-year guarantee (on white profiles), the Modus system is available in nine solid and woodgrain effect colours, all of which are available with white internal finishes to create a light and airy living environment. A further range of more than 25 solid and woodgrain effect finishes is available to special order, including colour both sides.

Eurocell worked with Reis to find three window fabricators to provide quotes for the £750,000 windows contract, with Unique Windows System winning the tender. “We needed to find firms that could handle the volume of windows and that had the right health and safety procedures in place for a site of this size,” explains Gordon Heron, Eurocell’s senior business development manager. “It’s also important to provide someone who is financially stable; that works in both directions.”

www.eurocell.co.uk

A Gloucester-based manufacturer of aluminium windows and doors is celebrating what directors at the business have described as ‘its most eventful year ever’.

Founded in 1992, CDW Systems supplies its products to trade, commercial and retail customers all over the UK and has grown year on year since it was founded.

In September of this year, the company underwent a management buyout (MBO).

The existing senior management team of Richard Smith, Angela Phillips, Jeremy Phillips, Allan Little, Martin Rowe and Mike Davis purchased the company from group chairman Jerry Webb who remains actively involved in the business as non-executive chairman.

East Manor Group Ltd has been newly formed by the new management team to manage the group’s three operating companies, which include CDW Systems Ltd, Clearway Doors & Windows Ltd and Designex Cabinets Ltd.

Mike Davis, Managing Director, comments: “This buyout marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter here at CDW.

“The company has performed extremely well this year and we believe that, by continuing to implement the same values and standards CDW has held for years, we can continue this success into the new year and beyond.”

In the last twelve months, the company has also launched several new Reynaers Aluminium products and plans to begin offering customers a range of Schueco UK products in the coming months.

Mike concludes: “In the new year we plan on maintaining our position as a leading aluminium manufacturer. In order to do this, we will be expanding our product range, to ensure that whatever the solution required by our customers – we can deliver it.”

For more information call 01452 414853 or visit www.cdwsystems.co.uk