External shutters

Furts

Please_change_usernme wrote: »

Absolutely Furts! Take into account that also the hinges plays an important role into the entire "window system". Accoya has decided to use Tricoat hinges by Maico (German company) a particular kind of galvanizing hinges.
The guarantee on this product is 10 years.

Here you are guilty of misleading UK consumers and I suggest that is not a good way to move forward your business. You mention "Tricoat" as if everybody is meant to be in awe of such a name yet you fail to explain the reality of this term. You then mention "German" as if everybody should again be in awe of this without giving any technical data or accreditation. Countless sales people try this approach, and you are not alone here.

I will now offer a reality check. Not all UK consumers are fools, and many on this Forum are not fools. I have upvc windows made locally with locally made hinges. The windows are the cheapest I could find on the UK market. They do not claim to be the best, and they are barely fit for purpose. The locally made hinges come with a standard ten year guarantee. This makes your claim about the benefits of "Maico" look far from impressive.

Perhaps you should be looking for some real quality ironmongery? Then you might have a product worthy of boasting about.

Luca_Festa

Furts wrote: »

Here you are guilty of misleading UK consumers and I suggest that is not a good way to move forward your business. You mention "Tricoat" as if everybody is meant to be in awe of such a name yet you fail to explain the reality of this term. You then mention "German" as if everybody should again be in awe of this without giving any technical data or accreditation. Countless sales people try this approach, and you are not alone here.

I will now offer a reality check. Not all UK consumers are fools, and many on this Forum are not fools. I have upvc windows made locally with locally made hinges. The windows are the cheapest I could find on the UK market. They do not claim to be the best, and they are barely fit for purpose. The locally made hinges come with a standard ten year guarantee. This makes your claim about the benefits of "Maico" look far from impressive.

Perhaps you should be looking for some real quality ironmongery? Then you might have a product worthy of boasting about.

Maybe you don't understand what I'm talking about.
I'm not saying that uPVC or small producer are not good. Buy it if you want, what's the problem?
I am simply telling what we use. Tricoat it's the name of the hardware that we use on Accoya windows, maybe you should know that on this kind of material you can't put on every kind of hinges.

Smiley_Dan

the_r_sole wrote: »

I would guess that they are entirely different from the product being discussed here

We're talking about shutters. Those are shutters. Just like other joinery, shutters come in multiple forms. Just because you have something in your head what shutters look like, it doesn't mean that's what in other peoples' heads.

System

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

We're talking about shutters. Those are shutters. Just like other joinery, shutters come in multiple forms. Just because you have something in your head what shutters look like, it doesn't mean that's what in other peoples' heads.

have a look on the website of the products being discussed in this thread rather than trying to obscure the discussion with different interpretations of what shutters can be.
And timber doors in doorways are timber doors in my eyes.

dominoman

This thread is a little pointless, given that almost nobody in the UK has shutters, and even if they did want shutters I'm not sure they'd be contacting this Italian workshop selling Accoya ones...

Why am I even writing this.

leveller2911

dominoman wrote: »

This thread is a little pointless, given that almost nobody in the UK has shutters, and even if they did want shutters I'm not sure they'd be contacting this Italian workshop selling Accoya ones.

Why am I even writing this.

Its a very small niche market and the only shutters people tend to lok for are internal plantation style shutters and they are cheap as chips when made in China (which most are)......

Accoya may turn out to be the Holy Grail of timber for making windows etc but as I said before the jury is still out.

What I find disturbing is the way they promote it along side pictures of butterflies etc when in reality its not very enviromentally friendly.Just look at its carbon footprint. The trees are Radiata Pine felled in New Zealand ,transported half way around the world to Holland where its filled with Acetic acid and then shipped around the world to its final destination..

Not very enviro friendly.

Last time I checked there are only 2 UK companies with the contract to import it so they control the prices and currently its somewhere in the region of £2,200 per cubic metre.Top Grade European Oak is around £2,000-£2,100 per cube. Iroko will last a lifetime and is known as "Poor mans teak" and costs half the price of Accoya.

Luca_Festa

leveller2911 wrote: »

Its a very small niche market and the only shutters people tend to lok for are internal plantation style shutters and they are cheap as chips when made in China (which most are)......

Accoya may turn out to be the Holy Grail of timber for making windows etc but as I said before the jury is still out.

What I find disturbing is the way they promote it along side pictures of butterflies etc when in reality its not very enviromentally friendly.Just look at its carbon footprint. The trees are Radiata Pine felled in New Zealand ,transported half way around the world to Holland where its filled with Acetic acid and then shipped around the world to its final destination..

Not very enviro friendly.

Last time I checked there are only 2 UK companies with the contract to import it so they control the prices and currently its somewhere in the region of £2,200 per cubic metre.Top Grade European Oak is around £2,000-£2,100 per cube. Iroko will last a lifetime and is known as "Poor mans teak" and costs half the price of Accoya.

Just to point out ... I sell Accoya, but we work also with other kind of wood.

If we want to talk about "environment friendly" take a look at disposal of PVC ...and to greenpeace research about problems with uPVC...

Smiley_Dan

the_r_sole wrote: »

have a look on the website of the products being discussed in this thread

Erm... which website? There's nothing in the OP.

rather than trying to obscure the discussion with different interpretations of what shutters can be.

As I said I'm not aware of what was being discussed. Shutters come in many designs, just like any other joinery.

Luca_Festa

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

Erm... which website? There's nothing in the OP.

As I said I'm not aware of what was being discussed. Shutters come in many designs, just like any other joinery.

Absolutely! There are very different kind of shutters design. Some of them very similar, but each manufacturer has its own line of products.

brigittejohn

Hi Luca,

Pleased you raised this question - I have been looking for external shutters in the UK for many years - still haven't found them!

Must say I am French originally - from northern France where it is colder in the winter and warmer in the summer than in Southern England for sure.

Been in the UK for all my adult life, around 36 years by now.

Live in a lovely terraced Victorian house, thanks to an absolute fortune spent on it over the last 25 years.

The reasons I would love some external shutters are many:
- having a proper dark room at night - nothing else seems to work, even blackout blinds always leave light in - I would sleep so much better
- cold insulation in winter - windows are the place where most heat is lost - and here the government is subsidising wall insulation? strange
- heat insulation in summer
- security at night and when away - without using "too ugly to mention" metal bars on windows and doors, also potentially dangerous in case of a fire in the house not being able to get out
- can't put internal shutters as I have tilt and turn windows, which I thought were all inward opening (I also don't think that internal shutters would achieve the benefits that I seek)
- as for the material, I am open-minded, as long as it is visually atractive and relatively maintenance free

As for the esthetics, I am very concerned about them, being a very visual person, and have done a lot of work to the house to improve them - but the rooms I would like to add external shutters to are not visible at all as they are at the side return and at the back, they would not detract from the character of the house. If they did, I definitively wouldn't do it. I have been to many events such as Open House and seen how people transform and enhance their traditional houses with contemporary features.

Would also consider roller blinds which would not be visible at all.

As for the market in the UK, it probably isn't there, that's true in my view.
Having said that, all the Europeans coming to the country that I know complain about not being able to darken their bedrooms at night - and even some Brits.

That's my two-pence worth.

Enjoy mothers day!