Collection · 20 notes
Aluminium window specification
These are the drawing-office notes behind the schedule: what each step locks, which figure the buyer is actually checking, and where the argument usually starts. Performance first, then glass, then the frame, the operation, the finish, and the interface with the wall. Each note stands on its own and all of them run in the same order.
Start with the guideHow to specify aluminium windowsThe whole sequence in one guide, for a reader starting at the beginning.- October 23, 2026Glass railing specification: the post-free balustradeA post-free glass railing does two jobs at once: it stops a person falling, and it removes everything that would normally do that work. The barrier duty sets the load, the height and the post-breakage requirement, and the glass build and the channel are chosen to satisfy them. Four numbers decide the panel, and all four are settled before the sightline is drawn.
- October 21, 2026How to specify aluminium windows: the builder guideHow to specify aluminium windows is a question about sequence. The performance standard decides the glass, the glass decides the weight and the frame depth, the operation decides the hardware and the threshold, and the interface with the wall decides whether the warranty survives the first winter. This guide sets out that order, with the detailed piece behind each step.
- October 19, 2026Aluminium french doors: what the schedule has to stateAluminium french doors are two full-glass hinged leaves on one frame, locked to each other, not to the jamb. The FD-60 line runs each leaf to 1,000 × 2,400 mm on a concealed surface hinge, with a central multi-point lock engaging at six points across the meeting stile. That is the whole product. The specification questions are narrower than the product: which leaf sizes, which glass build for which position, what the hinge and the lock are rated to, where the threshold sits, and which document the submittal names. This piece works through those five, and separates the two standards that get confused most often.
- October 19, 2026Fixed glazing: how large a single pane can goA fixed glazing panel is limited by four numbers, and they run in sequence: the sheet the glass is cut from, the furnace that tempers it, the frame that carries it, and the door of the container it travels in. Each number is generous on its own. The smallest of the four decides the elevation.
- October 16, 2026Rough opening: measuring for aluminium windowsA rough opening is the hole in the wall, and it is always larger than the window that goes into it. The gap is the working space: the frame is levelled on shims, packed and sealed, then the reveal is closed. Specify the rough opening from the frame size plus the clearance the chosen installation method needs, and measure the structure on site before the frame is made. Get it right and the unit drops in square, seals and drains; measure it wrong and the frame is either cranked into an uneven wall or ordered too small to close the gap at all.
- October 16, 2026Window flashing: the detail that decides the warrantyWindow flashing is the water line around the frame: a sill pan under the unit, jamb and head membranes up the sides, and a head flashing with a drip above them, lapped so every layer sheds onto the one below it. The unit that leaves the factory carries a tested rating; the joint between that unit and the wall is built on site, and no test report covers it. Flash the opening in the right order and it drains. Reverse one lap and the water behind the cladding has nowhere to go but inside.
- October 15, 2026Tilt and turn windows outside Europe: what US and AU acceptA tilt and turn window is one sash with two actions: it tilts in at the top for ventilation, and it swings in from the side for cleaning and access. Europe built the hardware around that pair, and the export range sells it as standard equipment. Outside Europe the same unit arrives into a market that files it somewhere else. North America gives it an operator type of its own and rates it by performance class and design pressure. Australia rates the assembly against a site wind class and a water-penetration pressure, and says nothing about the gearbox. Neither market asks for the tilt position. Both ask two questions the European spec sheet does not answer: which position counts as the escape opening, and how far the sash opens where a child can reach it.
- October 8, 2026Custom aluminium windows pricing: inside a China quoteAluminium windows pricing starts from a blank page: a custom window has no list price. The quotation is built unit by unit from seven lines — the profile system, the glass build, the hardware, the finish, the size and opening mechanism, the packing and freight terms, and the commercial terms — and each line moves independently. That is why two buyers can hold quotes for the same wall at two different numbers and both be correct.
- October 4, 2026Bi-fold vs lift-slide doors: which opening a terrace needsBi-fold vs lift-slide: both answer the same brief — a wall that opens to the terrace — from opposite directions. Bi-fold folds the leaves into a stack and clears almost the whole width; lift-slide lifts the leaves onto a bearing and slides them past each other, keeping the frame line straight and the operation one-handed. The choice turns on the stack position, the threshold detail and how the room is used, and both run on our 70 mm thermal-break platform.
- October 4, 2026Barrier-free thresholds: the flush detailA barrier-free threshold is a level detail: the track is recessed into the floor build-up so the finished floor and the frame sill sit on one plane and a wheelchair, a pram or an unsteady foot passes without a step. Barrier-free thresholds are a specification item, not a site decision — the flush detail changes the door leaf height, the track depth and the drainage, and it has to be drawn before the frame is made. Get it right and the opening passes an access review and stays weathertight; leave it to the site and it does neither.
- October 4, 2026Pivot doors: specifying a 400 kg leafA pivot door is a single leaf that turns on a bearing set into the floor and the head, rather than on a side hinge — which is why it can be far heavier and wider than a hinged door, and why the structural work sits in the floor, not the jamb. The PV-75 line carries leaves to 400 kg; the specification that works names the bearing, the floor build-up, the swing clearance and the lock, because a leaf that heavy moves slowly and stops hard.
- October 4, 2026Solar control for the hot elevationsSolar control is about the sun that comes through the glass in the afternoon, and it is a different number from insulation: the U-factor holds heat in or out, the solar heat gain coefficient sets how much sun heat the glass lets through. On a hot or a westerly elevation the solar heat gain coefficient is the line that moves the cooling load, and the specification balances it against daylight — a very low coefficient lowers the heat and dims the room, and the schedule has to choose the point on that trade.
- October 4, 2026Sunroom vs conservatory: the glazed-room specSunroom vs conservatory: both add a glazed room, and the difference is in the build and the specification, not the name. A conservatory is a traditional construction with a wall base, a glazed roof and often a style that has to match a period house; a sunroom in our range is an aluminium-framed glazed space — a wall-and-roof system built like the rest of the envelope, insulated and sealed to the same standard. The choice sets the roof, the base, the thermal build and the planning route.
- October 4, 2026Screens and the insect-load marketIn the insect-load markets — South-East Asia, Africa, tropical Australia — a screen is not an accessory, it is the reason a window can open at night. The mesh sets a trade between airflow and insect exclusion, and the build sets another between a fixed screen and one that rolls away. The specification names the mesh, the frame and the operation, and the window is ordered with the screen as a line, not added on site.
- September 23, 2026Lift-slide door sizes: clear opening vs frame widthFrame width is what you order; clear opening is what the wall actually gives you to walk through. On a multi-leaf lift-slide door the two diverge with every added leaf — track, stiles and the fixed centre all take width — and because architectural drawings usually dimension the opening, the window schedule has to carry the conversion. Specify both numbers and the argument is over before production starts.
- September 23, 2026How to specify impact-rated windows for a Florida villaSpecifying impact-rated windows in Florida is position-driven, not style-driven. Every opening below the 30 ft debris line on an HVHZ elevation must carry a unit that passed the large-missile test on the Miami-Dade NOA / FBC path; everything else follows energy and schedule logic. State the wind zone, classify each position, and leave the glass build to the test report — the villa ships with the PGT documentation for the configured model.
- September 23, 2026Tilt-turn vs casement: what European buyers expectTilt-turn is the default action on European-spec export work: one sash that tilts in at vent height for controlled ventilation and turns fully for cleaning and access, locked by six to twelve points around the perimeter. The casement line (CW-60) is the same 70 mm thermal-break platform with a hinged action — chosen where the drawing wants outward opening, a wider multi-bay run, or the simpler hardware budget. The choice is made per opening, and both actions live on one façade.
- September 23, 2026Acoustic glazing: how 45 dB is actually achievedThe 45 dB figure is a system property, not a glass property. AC-90 is the acoustic glazing line that pairs a 47 dB asymmetric laminated IGU (24–42 mm total) with a sealed dual-cavity frame and a dedicated acoustic gasket, certified to Rw 45 dB to EN ISO 10140-2. The frame has to be as quiet as the glass — air leaking past the sash bypasses the glazing entirely, which is why Class 4 airtightness is part of the acoustic build rather than a separate specification line.
- September 23, 2026Wood-aluminium windows for coastal AustraliaA wood-aluminium window gives the Australian coastal project both halves of the brief in one profile: solid thermally modified timber on the inside — ash, oak or pine — and a weatherproof aluminium cladding outside, structurally bonded into a single section. WA-70 carries that build to a 1,600 × 2,200 mm sash, with the salt-fog hardware schedule, the AS 1170.2 wind-zone configuration and the low-U triple-IGU thermal case the NCC energy line asks for.
- September 23, 2026How factory-assembled sashes cut site labourFactory-assembled sashes mean the sash leaves the line already glazed, hung and gasketed: the installer sets a finished unit into the frame instead of building one in the weather. The site saves the glazing, the gasket compression and the multi-point adjustment — the three operations that are hardest to quality-check on a roof or a fourth floor — and the container is loaded with a per-bay report and a packing list per crate that the site agent can claim against.
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