If you have customers who want big, double-height openings with rooflights in their homes, talk to us about installing curtain walling in a domestic setting. Recent home design trends have meant more demand for putting this commercial application into homes – and we can help! Our expertise over the last 40 years means Hepworth Framework can help you with domestic curtain walling. You do the doors and windows, we do the rest!
When it comes to curtain walling, we liaise directly with the building contractor, who will hand the architectural plans over to us. We specify the requirements of every curtain walling system we do because we have to be 100% accurate with the calculations for the inertia values. As more architects are designing for larger sized glass, this becomes even more important – the bigger the glass, the higher the potential wind loads. We have to show proof of our calculations to be able to demonstrate the system will not be prone to twisting, buckling or any other potentially dangerous failure. We also have the right mechanical lifting equipment for any of our installations, another reason why we install what we supply.
Curtain walling has been a huge part of our business for 40 years. If you are a building contractor working on a new commercial project like warehouses or retail units, the only thing that might vary is the size of the opening and the size of the glass. That may sound easy but if it was, more people would be doing it! If you don’t get it right the implications are huge. Hepworth Framework will fit the installation rather than sell it as a supply-only item. You get expertise from the moment of production through to fitted and finished article.
We are the chosen supplier in the North West region for the simple fact that your average door and window installer is unable to take on a curtain walling installation due to the more complicated nature of it. What sets us apart is that we can do both: the doors and windows, and the curtain walling frontage. It is quite unusual for a manufacturer to be able to do that. To any building contractors out there who are speaking to customers who are looking at curtain walling entrances, talk to us first! We are best placed to advise about project feasibility, possible complications and requirements, and will take the pressure off you by doing all the calculations and advising accordingly.
We all know the upsides of aluminium as a fenestration product, but often aluminium projects are more challenging, so it’s important to find a specialist aluminium fabricator that really understands the intricacies of the material to get the best out of it from design and manufacture to quality control and handholding where required on install. This is especially important for installers who can / want to differentiate themselves and create added value for their businesses. Hepworth is built on supporting customers to this and over 45 years we have invested in and honed our manufacturing facility to support this.
In terms of staying ahead of retail trends, we closely follow the data from our composite door supplier, DoorCo Ltd who recently reported that around a third of their manufactured doors this year are a shade of grey of some type.
In addition to any shade of grey, did you know all our aluminium door and window products are available as standard in white, grey, black and great on white. Other combinations of any RAL colour are available on request.
We’re delighted to report the homes on new the Sustainable Shell Homes development in Sheffield have hit a sweet point with new homeowners and are selling really well. We manufactured and supplied top performance, thermally efficient Senior Aluminium Systems doors and triple glazed PURe wind windows and doors. The houses are sold as a weather tight and serviced shell, completed externally, super insulated and draft free, with a massive PV array, saving in total saving around £2k a year on bills for householders.
There’s so much detailed technical data and calculations to get spot on at the planning and fabrication phase which is why the Hepworth commercial team is always happy to help and find ways to make things right. We work closely with specialist contractors and installers across the North West from point of manufacture to partnering with them for advice on their installations with specialist on site support available on site.
It’s unusual to find an aluminium fenestration fabricator who is specialist in both domestic and commercial projects, both of which require different approaches, and as a result, an ability to control flow through the manufacturing process. We’ve mastered this over the last four decades working closely with our partners Senior Aluminium Systems Limited and Cortizo which means we can offer some stunning hybrid projects where we can introduce windloads, midloads and the correct glazing to large home extensions.
Vufold is a large, family-run window and door company that prides itself on both the overall service and quality of products. A key player in the online retail arena, Vufold also supplies trade installers. With the strapline ‘the difference is in the detail’, they offer an extensive range of high-quality aluminium products to customers UK wide. A year on from adding the Cortizo aluminium system from Hepworth into their range, sales of their sliding patio doors are higher than ever, and customers can’t get enough.
David Ross, Sales Manager at Vufold explains: “We’re delighted with the success of the Cortizo range from Hepworth. We were previously using a singular aluminium system that was quite expensive, but since we introduced the Cortizo bifold and sliding aluminium door system into our offering, sales have increased dramatically as the system is much more cost effective. In particular, we’ve seen a notable increase in the sales of our sliding patio doors in this range, which we believe is because the aluminium frame provides a much more aesthetically pleasing finish than it’s PVC-U predecessor, which lends itself to the more modern projects. The sliding patio also enables the customer to have much larger panes of glass, supporting the aspirational desire to bring the outside in.
“Hepworth consistently proves themselves to be reliable and trustworthy in terms of their product quality and service delivery, which makes a real difference when we are managing the day-to-day expectations of our customers.
“We have a great relationship with Hepworth. They have an extremely experienced management team and that experience is felt by their customers. If you have a more obscure question in relation to a bespoke project, if they don’t know the answer straight off, they know where to find it. They keep lines of communication open and are honest and transparent in their approach, which is all you can ask for from your supplier.”
Richard Steckles, Managing Director at Hepworth concludes: “Vufuld is a shining example of a team that understands the need to develop and adapt in order to offer customers what they want and need. Their previous aluminium system was cumbersome and expensive, so they took the opportunity to change their offering and have seen great success with the
Cortizo range. We wish them all the best and look forward to supporting them as their aluminium door range continues on this upward trajectory.