Where would you start if you wanted to specify a modern window system that was simply the best at meeting all of the various criteria required of you today?

Probably being impervious to all our weather conditions including ice, rain, sun, salt/sea spray would be a good start, followed perhaps by an extra-long lifespan, and requiring no maintenance at all times. The wider color gamut would also be vital. However, considering the damage and wear and tear that any window could suffer, the option to easily repair and/or paint it at any point in its life would also seem like a sensible precaution, on this idealistic priority list, but avoiding the need for have to repeat it if you think not. A wide range of window design options would be essential, of course, in a variety of narrow and standard profiles.

In terms of our sustainability and social obligations, we must also insist that the window exceed the most stringent environmental standards by coming from a benign recycled source and being able to be recycled at the end of its life. In addition, the highest standards of thermal and acoustic insulation must be essential, as must the highest resistance factor and security credentials, to provide complete peace of mind and confidence to the specifier and owner. Finally, of course, this package, while desirable, must also be affordable and competitive in every way, and it must also represent the “best value” in the long run.

Is this a reality, or are we dreaming?

Perhaps surprisingly, this is an absolute reality, thanks to the technological marvel of pultruded GRP Fiberglass. Pultrusion is the manufacturing development that has made it possible to manufacture GRP fiberglass in the long continuous profiles essential for window frames. So now that it’s available, it unleashes the many material benefits of this amazingly strong, strong and durable composite on the UK window market, as it has already been with greater success in the US. climate has already been achieved, helped in part , by pultruded fiberglass windows.

So, to summarize the advantages that can be expected from GRP windows:

* High energy efficiency: “U” values ​​of 0.9 – 1.5 over the total window, including the leaves.
* High acoustic performance: Rw 38 achieved with a modest glass specification (4/16/6.4), reducing both weight and cost.
* Complies with the regulations of the inner city: where high standards of thermal and acoustic performance are required: now available with Rw value 41 and 1.4 U in the same unit. (Usually technically incompatible)
* Independently certified and accredited by a UKAS Test House
* 65% glass content, of which at least 30% is from a recycled source.
* BREEAM/CfSH compliant, providing additional credits, which can be verified.
* 50 – 75 years of useful life + 25 years of minimum guarantee
* Proven “Best Value” even on PVC based on total cost of living analysis, and even against softwood.
Price competitive with aluminum and aluminum and wood composite windows – ‘Super’ competitive when U-values ​​are similar.
* Any RAL color (200 options) – repair and/or refinishing is easy.
* Secured by Accredited Design – Source Preferred Specification.
* The most sustainable, best value and low maintenance option for the long term.
* Manufactured in the UK to minimize CO2 emissions from excessive road transport.
* Robust: Meets the anti-terrorist glazing specification of the MOD-DE “DMG2 Normal”, and is used in “Secure Units for Young Mental Offenders”

Architects, contractors and clients of the largest and most prestigious developments (Celtic Manor Hotel and Golf Complex, site of the Ryder Cup in 2010) and Birmingham University’s Masons Hall for students) to the most modest residential projects, both private and social housing, of new construction or rehabilitation. The popularity of GRP fiberglass windows is increasing exponentially.

Fiberglass windows are now the fastest growing option in the US commercial market and also the preferred choice for the most demanding residential customers. This popularity is now spreading to the UK where fiberglass is already specified in many major school projects across the country, as well as nursing homes, apartment blocks, community centres, healthcare and hospital projects and many more. .

At the same time that a superior window material is required to help us achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions and an increase in the sustainability of buildings, GRP fiberglass has arrived to help significantly in this important area.