Travis Perkins Confirms Its Commitment To Approved Fire Door Centre Expertise

A major initiative within the builders’ merchant sector is set to boost fire safety knowledge and the installation of properly certificated fire doors in a huge range of building projects, large and small.

Travis Perkins, the largest builders’ merchant in the UK, has confirmed its decision to become a BWF-Certifire  Approved Fire Door Centre as part of its long-standing commitment to fire safety.

It will establish 10 branches across the UK as experts in the specification and supply of BWF-Certifire third-party certificated fire doors and doorsets; located in Battersea Lombard Road, Birkenhead Stores, Glasgow Pollackshaws, Luton, Paddington, Salford, St. Pancras, Staples Corner, Vauxhall and Vivark Stores (Huyton).

The service will be made available to all Travis Perkins customers, from individual tradespeople to the company’s major contracts with local authorities and social landlords.

Richard Holland, category manager for doors, windows and joinery at Travis Perkins, said:

“While we first started selling third-party certificated fire doors more than 60 years ago, becoming an Approved Fire Door Centre now means that our trained branch teams will be able to offer specialist advice based on a much deeper knowledge and understanding of third party certificated fire doors and compatible components.”

Hannah Mansell, technical manager for the British Woodworking Federation and spokesperson for Fire Door Safety Week, said:

“Travis Perkins’ leadership in this area is to be celebrated. It is critical that the merchant sector steps up to this standard of expertise in products such as third-party certificated fire doors which play such an important role in saving life and property. A fire door won’t work unless it is fitted with all its correct and compatible components, and installed correctly, which some customers aren’t aware of. The chain of knowledge from supplier to customer is integral in making sure these life safety products are fit for purpose and work when they need to.”

She also highlighted the launch of the BWF’s Fire Door Procurement Tool and factcard, which is being promoted for all builders’ merchants during this year’s Fire Door Safety Week campaign (25 September – 1 October 2017).

The Fire Door Procurement Tool is a free, interactive app designed to support the procurement process for fire doors. It is particularly useful for merchants in the way it guides the user through each stage of the process, from design and specification to ordering, delivery and storage, and even installation, maintenance and inspection of fire doors.

The toolkit features a range of interactive checklists, diagrams and videos, and works on any smartphone, tablet or laptop that has Adobe Reader.

It can be downloaded free here.

According to Window Ware, anyone who has scoured the market recently for a PAS24 compliant letter plate will have turned up ‘meagre findings’ despite increasing demand for high security hardware.

And, says Window Ware, unless you’re prepared to spend extra time fitting a separate internal restrictor cowl on a standard letter plate or a self-contained external post box, you’re going to struggle to meet the latest requirements of PAS24:2016 and Approved Document Q of Building Regulations.

Thankfully, says Window Ware, the ‘clever’ engineers at Trojan have responded to this gap in the market with the launch of the TS008 approved, Unicorn letter plate, which is said to be ‘a great catch for fabricators struggling to meet the very latest requirements of PAS24:2016 and Approved Document Q of Building Regulations’.

Said to fit most domestic front doors, Trojan’s TS008 Unicorn letter plate can reportedly achieve ‘top-level security’ straight ‘out-of-the-box’ and is now available to buy from Window Ware.

Window Ware’s technical specialist, Robert Vaughan, said: “The TS008 Unicorn letter plate is the perfect addition to our range. Innovative products like this ensure we are always answering our customers’ calls for high-spec hardware that complies with the requirements of the PAS24: 2016 standard or Document Q of Building Regulations.”

The TS008 Unicorn letter plate’s patented design aims to reduce the likelihood of thieves using the letter plate to gain unlawful access to the home, or to steal personal belongings near the entrance. The inner protective housing has a unique concealed hinge mechanism to prevent attack. To guard against ‘fishing’, the inner flap has a ‘positive stop feature’ which lets mail through freely but won’t open wide enough to feed ‘light-fingered hands’, rods or hooks through the letter plate. And though the internal flap stands proud of the door somewhat, according to Window Ware, it only projects out as far as the average door handle, so it won’t ‘encroach on hall space’. Concealed external fixings also make it difficult to remove the letter plate by force.

The TS008 Unicorn letter plate is said to be suitable for both composite and PVC-U doors. Window Ware stocks a choice of three external finishes: chrome, PVD gold and white, all with white internal finish as standard. The external flap is manufactured from weather-resistant 304 stainless steel, with a 25-year anticorrosion guarantee (galvanised mild steel is used for painted finishes). There’s also a 10-year mechanical guarantee on all versions.

www.windowware.co.uk

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Endurance Doors is backing Fire Door Safety Week, which will be held during the week commencing 25 September.

Fire Door Safety Week is promoted by the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) at www.firedoorsafetyweek.co.uk and Endurance Doors says it is ‘eager to play its part’ with its FD30S-rated, ‘proven, solid and secure’ composite door. As well as a best practice guide on the website, there’s also an initiative to stop fire doors being wedged-open, with people encouraged to share their images using the hashtag #ClickItKickIt www.bwfcertifire.org.uk/kickit.

Thanks to the Rehau specification of the Rauferno Fire Door, Endurance Doors says it has been able to lead the solid core composite market with this FD30S performance standard, that is also said to offer reduced sound reduction to 34db. The range includes standard doors, along with additional top and side light options. With opportunities for sales of internal garage doors that necessitate additional security, it’s also a product USP that’s an important part of its portfolio.

According to Endurance, internal garage doors are a part of the composite door market that’s ‘relatively untapped’ but, the company says, the reported burglary of Jamie Oliver’s house through the garage door, back in October 2015, demonstrates the importance of a high security, internal garage door.

Stephen Nadin, managing director at Endurance, said: “We’ve been quietly promoting our fire doors for a number of years and with the considerable added security they offer, they make for a perfect internal garage door. With all the designs and colours now on our online door designer, it’s an unrealised segment that we hope to penetrate further.”

www.endurancedoors.co.uk

The post Endurance backs Fire Door Safety Week appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Hazlemere Window Company Ltd has announced the official re-opening weekend of its state-of-the-art Hertfordshire showroom, which has been the subject of major investment and refurbishment over the past three months.

Taking place on Saturday 30^th September and Sunday 1^st of October, Hazlemere will be marking the grand unveiling of its newly renovated showroom in Welwyn City Garden, Hertfordshire with a variety of special offers including £500 voucher towards a new conservatory, up to 30% off selected UPVC products and a free prize draw to win an iPad Air.

The Conservatory Outlet Network installer, Hazlemere Window Company moved into Welwyn Garden City on 18th November 2013. Last renovated in 2014, the site has now received a further major upgrade, with the conversion of the existing upstairs offices into a dedicated windows showroom and bespoke window design studio. Customers are now welcomed to a much larger home improvement showroom that contains an even bigger choice of bespoke window, door, conservatory, Roofline, orangery and roof lantern light options.

Hazlemere is the latest in a long line of Conservatory Outlet retail partners to announce the opening of a new or refurbished showroom in 2017, marking the 5^th in the network already this year.

Conservatory Outlet Business Development Director, Andy Miller commented “We’re extremely pleased to see the new Hazlemere showroom is ready for launch.

“The refurbishment not only sets Hazlemere up for future developments but enables customers in the region to see a huge selection of material finishes, window and door types, colour options and many different glass extension lifestyle designs all under one roof.

“We’re really proud to have this new addition to the network. I would encourage anyone considering home improvements to pay the Hazlemere team a visit!”

The Hazlemere team are also hosting a pre-launch event on Friday 29^th September, raising funds for Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. Suppliers, neighbouring businesses and customers are all welcome 11am-2pm.

Full showroom address: Unit 10 Mundells Industrial Centre, Little Mundells, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1EW.

For more details please visit: www.hazlemere.co.uk/showrooms/welwyn-garden-city-showroom/

Fire door manufacturers seeking to eliminate the risk of inappropriate or unproven materials inadvertently creeping into their supply chain can take advantage of a range of technically advanced materials and expert passive fire protection support under one roof from Promat UK.

The company, which is one of the country’s leading manufacturers of fire, thermal and acoustic solutions for the door and window industry, is in the unique position of being able to provide fire door manufacturers with a simplified supply chain for the various fire-resistant materials they require. 

In providing a ‘one stop shop’ solution, Promat UK can reduce risk for fire door manufacturers given its position to provide assurance that key structural materials supplied for the doorset’s construction are to the required standard. Importantly too, the company’s wealth of technical expertise is available to help with the design and specification of products to ensure they are integrated into the doorset in the correct way to meet the performance expectations, from FD30 right up to FD120.

Promat UK’s range includes a number of options for glazed panels, including PYROCET® and PYROSEC®, along with PROMASEAL® PL strip for intumescent seals and a non-combustible calcium silicate fire protection board, PROMATECT® H. This can be used to form the core material of fire doors as well as providing insulation strips where required in an assembly. It can also, in certain conditions, be used to provide extra insulation to enable upgrading of doors.

Cath McLean, Segment Manager at Promat UK says: “It is important to remember that a fire doorset is considered in its entirety. Its component parts are tested as a complete system to provide the required levels of fire protection – typically FD30 (30 minutes resistance to fire) and FD60 (60 minutes resistance to fire). 

“Only ‘tested’ materials must be used in the construction of a fire doorset and these must be as prescribed in the test. There really is no scope for substitution of the tested materials, because this may seriously affect the overall performance of the doorset in the event of a fire. This is a reputational – and litigation – risk that no professional doorset manufacturer would want to run, yet by sourcing the various fire protection materials from numerous suppliers this is exactly what can result.”

In additional to timber, composite, steel and aluminium doorsets, Promat UK also provides assured fire protection solutions to meet the increasing demand for glazed partitioning which incorporates framed glass fire doors. With the company’s complete glazing solution, SYSTEMGLAS®, butt jointed frameless wall constructions can be provided which incorporate SYSTEMGLAS T framed glass doors for EI30 and EI60 performance – this is consistent with the fire protection criteria for the surrounding glazed screens. 

Part of international building product manufacturing group the Etex Group, Promat UK has been producing fire, thermal and acoustic protection solutions for more than 30 years. In addition to its range of products for the door and window industry, the company manufactures market leading high performance solutions which are used in numerous hi-tech, engineering and industrial sectors. These range from Formula One racing, train rolling stock and aircraft manufacture, to offshore wind turbines, the nuclear industry and white goods.

Find out more at www.promat.co.uk.

Bowater by Birtley made a splash at the FIT show earlier this year with its colourful array of composite doors, proving that any colour is possible. However, the company is pleased to be able to not only deliver a high performance composite door in a wide range of colours (standard or colour matched on request), but also offer this wide range of options for both single and double rebate doors.

Kevin Kiernan of Bowater by Birtley explains: “We’re one of just a handful of companies to offer a double rebate composite door as part of our standard composite door offering. The thicker door with a 16 point locking system, is more secure and more thermally efficient. Despite this massive improvement on performance, we can still offer our double rebate doors with a wide range of colours, door styles and with a comprehensive range of hardware and decorative glass options. This means homeowners don’t have to compromise on aesthetics to get the additional protection they want.

“It also means that fabricators and installers have a true point of differentiation to offer. In an increasingly tough market, companies at every level of the supply chain need to stand out from the competition, and having a product that not many other people have, is a great place to start. Especially when it comes with no compromise in terms of choice of colour and style.”

www.bowaterbybirtley.co.uk

Ritec International are delighted to announce that long-standing ClearShield® customer, Go Glass Ltd, have reached not one but two finals at this year’s G17 Awards. This Cambridge-based company is shortlisted for Glass Company of the Year and Unsung Hero at this prestigious event.

Since 1978, Go Glass served the local area with high quality glass and mirror products. Today, they remain a family-run business and Clive Sparkes and sisters Tracy Saunders (Sales and Marketing) and Emma Sparkes (Sales and Specification) are dedicated to offering customers a range of innovative and exciting products designed to add warmth and individuality to any home or workplace.

Go Glass became a customer of award-winning Ritec ClearShield^® in 2003. Applied in their own factory, Ritec ClearShield^® is a durable ‘non-stick’ protection solution against dirt and fingermarks, a particular problem for sandblasted glass. This is a popular option amongst Go Glass’s customers that like their glass to benefit from low-maintenance, easy clean and anti-microbial properties that look like new for longer.

The Glass Company of the Year nomination has come at a good time as Go Glass are approaching its 40^th anniversary. Tracy says, “It is great that our small talented Go Glass team have been recognised for their hard work and commitment over the last 40 years. Led by our Director Clive, the design and production team hold NVQs from Level 2 to 4 and utilise both traditional methods and modern day technology to produce some great bespoke glass design work for both domestic and commercial customers.”

Clive is well-respected in the glass industry, exhibiting his work at Glasstec, Düsseldorf, the world’s largest glass exhibition and has designed glasswork for clients such as the BBC, BAFTA and Hampton Court Palace. His performance and achievements have earned him a nomination for the G17 Unsung Hero award. For example, he has designed and painstakingly produced three glass sculptures for auction in aid of CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children, young people and their families. The first two sculptures, a Ducati 996 sportsbike and Lewis Hamilton’s 2009 F1 car, were full-size original replicas and already raised thousands for the charity. The latest sculpture is called ‘Pushing the Limits’, a full size glass athlete, and bids are now being accepted on www.goglass.co.uk/charity-auction.php.

Clive says, “Being shortlisted for the G17 Unsung Hero Award is a great honour, the glass sculpture work we auctioned for CLIC Sargent charity has already raised over £10,000 and we hope to continue to raise even more for the charity with our glass runner.  Our thanks also to Ritec for their help and support with these projects over the years.”

The G17 Awards event will be held on 17 November 2017 at the London Hilton on Park Lane. For more information about Go Glass, visit www.goglass.co.uk.