A product for all seasons

Total Glass, the award-winning PVCu and aluminium specialist, announced a number of exciting new product launches for 2010, all manufactured from its modern purpose built 100,000 sq ft production complex at Knowsley in Liverpool

Over the last two and a half decades the company has evolved, growing in size and reputation to become one of Liverpool’s major employers with a loyal and highly-qualified workforce of around 140.

Total Glass was founded more than 26 years ago by Frank Deary, a trained cabinet-maker, who remains at the helm of the Group, supported by fellow directors Paul Ierston and Julian Wetherall (pictured). Deary’s unswerving desire to succeed and commitment to the business is reflected in every aspect of its highly customer-focused operations and attention to quality, backed with a solid trading history and financial stability.

Deary said: “As an established and thriving firm for over a quarter of a century, our success speaks for itself. Through our proactive and progressive approach to business, Total Glass has become a key supplier to the social housing sector and we thoroughly enjoy our involvement in the regeneration of local communities and we’re looking with confidence to the next 25 years.”

Since its move five years ago to the purpose-built facility at Knowsley Business Park, Total Glass has expanded considerably to offer much more than just windows to its diverse customer base. Its comprehensive portfolio of products now includes composite doors, vertical sliders and their new aluminium communal entrance door along with a full range of other high-performance aluminium products to suit all applications across the housing and commercial building sectors – such as curtain walling and entrance screens.

The company’s new aluminium communal entrance door has received a lot of attention from social housing landlords and has been nominated as a finalist in the Product of the Year category at the Housing Excellence Awards. Liverpool Mutual Homes has also selected the door for its properties in the Merseyside area.

Stephen Collins, director of regeneration & technical services at Liverpool Mutual Homes said: “Specifying the right communal entrance door is always a difficult task, the door needs to perform at the highest levels but too often this leads to a product that looks aesthetically unpleasant thus creating a negative image and poor perception of any scheme. Properties looking like social housing was never an option for LMH.

After 12 months researching and testing products we were delighted to find the Total Glass communal door. Its level of security combined with its contemporary look will greatly enhance the appearance and security of the communal space within our apartments throughout our estates – it really is a unique product that delivers at all levels.”

Total Glass started working with LMH, a not-for-profit, tenant-led organisation and one of the newest registered housing associations in Liverpool, two years ago. It has since supplied PVCu windows for thousands of homes as part of a £400 million social housing investment programme over a five-year period. LMH manages 15,000 homes following stock transfer from Liverpool City Council.

LMH is among a number of social housing procurement organisations and clients, both local and national, with whom Total has developed longstanding genuine working partnerships. Current partnerships include Valueworks and Fusion 21. Total Glass fully supports the Decent Homes initiative and works with housing clients throughout the North to help enhance tenants’ lifestyles and provide greater security, thermal comfort and environmental efficiency.

Continual product development and refinement is a core part of the company’s philosophy, aimed at ensuring optimum lifetime performance and reliability.

Other recent additions to the product range are a composite door and a new range of PVCu vertical sliding windows. Demonstrating the breadth of Total’s product range, these will be displayed with the aluminium communal entrance door, on Total’s stand at the Chartered Institute of Housing Exhibition at Harrogate in June.

Since its introduction last year and in response to customer demand, the composite door range has proved a great success – particularly in the social housing sector where it perfectly meets the need for a secure, lowmaintenance and cost-effective entrance.

Available in a range of attractive standard and bespoke colours, composite doors are manufactured to the highest quality standards within a dedicated part of the factory.

They can be delivered ‘ready to fit’ in just five days and are a sustainable choice, given that all the components are U K-sourced within two hours travelling time of the factory.

The third new product for 2010 is the vertical slider – an aesthetic, thermally-efficient and secure modern equivalent of the Victorian sliding sash window. Total Glass has set up a completely new fabrication line for the VS, along with investment in state-of-the-art machinery to produce a
product that is much in demand for sensitive refurbishment projects, such as conservation areas.

“With some of our social housing clients involved in the refurbishment of older properties in conservation areas, it made sense for us to offer vertical sliders for this growing requirement,” Deary said. It’s not just about products, with the company offering a complete supply chain partnering service drawn from an in-depth understanding of specifiers’ needs. This encompasses a complete range of services, from tenant liaison, site surveys and staff training to sustainable, lowmaintenance, energy-efficient ‘A’ rated windows.

The firm is one of only three BFR C-registered suppliers of ‘A’-rated windows in Merseyside whose windows carry the British Fenestration Ratings Council Certificate. PVCu ‘A’-rated windows are the most energy efficient and contribute to reduced heating bills and carbon emissions for occupants.

High performance, modern and recyclable PVCu windows address key issues of sustainability throughout their energy-saving, long life of up to 35-40 years. Early, single-glazed PVCu windows that are being replaced with modern equivalents are now being recycled. These old frames are going back into the manufacturing cycle as window reinforcement – Recycled Composite Material (RCM) made from 100 per cent waste PVCu. The RCM gives improved thermal efficiency and increased weld strength compared to conventional steel reinforcement.

This sustainable approach is also reflected in an ‘eco-friendly’ newbuild window system introduced by Total, which has exceptionally high recycled content and is designed to make site product installation simpler. The new eco-based system combines advanced performance energyefficient window technology with a cavity closer made from 98 per cent post-consumer waste P VCu. Its cill system has 92 per cent recycled content co-extruded with a virgin skin to deliver excellent weather performance.

Providing a template for window apertures, the cavity closer allows for quick and accurate frame positioning with built-in sealing for better thermal efficiency. It also optimises time on site as windows can be fitted faster from the inside without the need for scaffolding or ladders, thus minimising health and safety risks.

Deary explained: “The system delivers significant benefits on several fronts; by not only improving environmental performance and site efficiency, but in closing the loop on the recycling process. Re-using waste PVCu from factory off-cuts and end-of-life windows and doors into new sustainable products that deliver better performance is the way forward for our industry and the planet.

“Sustainability has long been at the heart of our environmental policy and this new ‘green’ cavity closer system is just one of many initiatives aimed at lowering the environmental impact of our operations, products and services.”