Monthly Archives: January 2021

Fire doors, like all fire safety systems are, if you’ll pardon the pun, a hot topic at the moment. We see, use and rely on fire doors almost every day of our lives and yet so much confusion and misunderstanding about what constitutes a fire door still prevails, even among those that should know better. One of the first things that is drilled into those learning about fire doors is that you should never modify a fire door and its associated hardware, with the cardinal sin being to make a penetration in the door – to add a letterbox or spy hole for instance – as this will invalidate the door’s certification and, worse, make it simply not fit for the important purpose of holding back fire and smoke. Of course many fire doors have a glazed panel in them … Continue reading →

Cladding seems to be one of the most commonly searched construction phrases on google right now and there’s a lot of misinformation about cladding and curtain walling across the internet. So now seems the right time to address the issues around weather-proofing curtain walling. First of all, what is curtain walling? Curtain wall systems are non-structural cladding systems for the external walls of buildings. They are generally associated with large, multi-storey buildings and they separate the interior structure from the exterior. It only supports its own weight and the loads imposed on it like wind loads, seismic loads etc, which they transfer back to the primary structure of the building. Unlike many traditional forms of construction they do not form a fundamental part of the primary structure of the building. Typically, curtain wall systems comprise a lightweight aluminium frame onto … Continue reading →