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APRIL 2014 PRO INSTALLER
PRO PRODUCTS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Don’t let rainwater
products rain on
your parade
Out of sight and out of mind, your reputation often
depends on associated products not letting you down,
says Freefoam’s UK General Manager Colin St John.
It’s often the little
things that make or mar
a reputation.
You can do a brilliant job
on Mrs Smith’s windows
and doors or fascias but
if you walk mud on her
carpet; arrive late, work
with the radio full blast, or
flatten her prize-winning
roses as you step down
from installing her fascias
she won’t be thrilled. She’ll
tell her friends, and that’s
what they’ll know about you
when they’re thinking of improving their own home!
But, the memory of your
indiscretions will fade and
your reputation will recover
in time. More long-lasting,
and arguably more damaging, are the effects of an
associated product letting
you and your installation
down. Hardware finishes
that peel or corrode; sealed
units with scratches on the
inside, or units that mist up;
gutters that discolour, constantly drip, or leak so water
runs down the brickwork,
or creak during the night
keeping everyone awake,
can transform a good job
into a bad one in the eyes of
the homeowner. Some take
a long time to fix; a few will
stick to your reputation like
a bad smell. You might see
it as a problem with an associated product; something
partly out of your control.
But Mrs Smith is unlikely
to share that view. She’ll be
disappointed with her experience and the improvement
she expected. She’ll hold you
responsible.
The problem is, some of
these associated products
are not uppermost in your
mind when selling or installing. Rainwater, for example,
is out of sight and out of
mind until it goes wrong.
Even if they don’t normally
sell roofline, most window
companies do dormer windows and others which often
include rainwater products,
gutters and downpipes. And
unless they use a lot of it,
most assume that rainwater
is a commodity and that
one brand is very much like
another. That can be a costly
mistake.
Prevention is
better than cure
Leaks and noisy creaking
in warm weather are common rainwater problems
which, once they start, are
hard to stop. But on the basis that prevention is better
than cure, they’re problems
Freefoam’s Freeflow® range
of rainwater is designed to
solve.
Freeflow is a range of innovative, high quality PVC-U
rainwater systems that have
been designed to ensure reliable, leak-free performance
and quick installation. For
installers’ convenience, the
range is compatible with
other rainwater systems
using a range of adaptors
and it comes in a range of
standard gutter shapes, and
a range of colours including
white, black and brown.
Co-extruded
to reduce main
cause of leaks
Each rainwater system is
co-extruded with a white
interior and a range of exterior colours. This is Freefoam’s innovative solution
to the problems associated
with rapid heat absorption
and expansion of gutters,
which causes both leaks and
noises in the night when
they cool down. A white
surface exposed to sunshine
can absorb heat and attain a
surface temperature 10ºC or
more over the air temperature, while dark surfaces can
Water-tight joints
together. The seals allow
gutters to move without
making a noise and without
creating the gaps which
cause leaks.
All Freeflow gutters and
downpipes come covered
with protective film so
they can survive knocks in
transit and can be installed
without scratches.
A 50 Year Lifetime Guarantee is available on all
registered white Freeflow
installations, while a 10
year guarantee is available on colours. Customers
who don’t use the online
registration system to obtain
a certificate still qualify for
the standard 20 year guarantee on all white products
(see www.myfreefoam.com
for details).
Freeflow also pioneered
the use of advanced longlife compressible seals
which create flexible water-tight joints when lengths
of guttering are connected
Call 01604 591110
or visit Freefoam.com
to secure YOUR
reputation.
add a further 30-40ºC and
exceed the softening point
of the PVC. On large capacity gutters with a large surface area facing the sun, this
can be a particular problem.
Our innovation means that
while the interior is exposed
to sunlight as normal, it absorbs significantly less heat
from the sun and expands
far less along its width and
length. This dramatically
decreases the probability of
leaks - and creaks!
UPVC Maintenance Supplies Launches Maintenance
UPVC Maintenance Supplies
is running a series of short
training courses to help customers identify and solve onsite door and window maintenance problems instantly,
when on emergency repair
call-outs.
The specialist window and door
replacement hardware supplier set
up a schedule of bespoke window
and door training courses, after
MD David Earnshaw spoke to
customers at their newly-opened
trade counter in York and discovered there was a need to help customers understand how to identify
faults and problems which occur
on older, fitted PVCu windows and
doors.
UPVC Maintenance Supplies
kicked off their training schedule
with a series of introduction courses at their Batley Head Office. The
courses offered practical training,
tips and advice on identifying and
solving maintenance problems for
all types of windows and door
systems.
“In order for delegates to enjoy
a more practical experience; we
have erected a full sized window
and door structure in the newly
dedicated training area, enabling
the delegates to cover the course
subjects with a ‘hands-on’ approach, rather than just a class
room environment,” said David,
“and we received an overwhelm-
ing response from the session
– plus customer feedback left
us with more ideas for further
training.”
UPVC Maintenance Supplies will
be holding additional training sessions at their head office in Batley
with courses tailored to delegates’
requirements.
For more information or to
book, call 0113 236 0800, visit
www.upvcmaintenance.co.uk