CASE STUDY:
A beautiful and unique Passivhaus build with views over the North Pennines.
Features Internorm Passivhaus certified windows throughout plus Solarlux Passivhaus certified bifold doors.
When the owner first approached us with plans for his dream home, he'd already had experience with Internorm. He'd built an annex on the site that would be his family home during the build process. Unfortunately, although he was impressed with the windows themselves, he'd had a poor experience with the particular Internorm dealer.
Having seen our Trustpilot reviews, we were shortlisted along with two other partners with good records. He arranged a visit to our showroom to meet us and discuss the project — by the end of the meeting, he was very impressed with what he had seen and heard from us. Over the months that followed, we spend a lot of time getting into the fine details of the designs and working out how we could meet and improve the specifications. By the end, it was clear to the client that we were the only company who could deliver the complex and demanding requirements and an order was placed.
The actual installation was during the lockdown; building work was being allowed as long as the site was not being lived in. The rules allowed our installers to stay in a local hotel during weekdays, but they weren't allowed to leave the hotel apart form going to work and had to eat in their rooms! The installation was on a hillside in the winter and they also had to contend with ice and sometimes driving snow. But it was a clean, well-run building site and the lads enjoyed working there and they always enjoy the challenge of a complex install. Thanks to our usual meticulous preparation, the install went smoothly despite the challenges.
At the of the project, the client was extremely pleased, both with the result and with Spectrum as a company, and has continued to recommend us to others. He has exacting standards and an attention to detail and was happy to find a company that applies the same standards and met his expectations.
Technical
Internorm are very much the leading brand for Passivhaus windows which is why the client chose them. The plans had a long run of full height windows and we came up with the idea of using HS330 fixed panels normally used with sliding doors. This allowed us to have slim-profile frames along the whole run making a big improvement to the aesthetics. It also enabled us to include glass-to-glass corners in the design.
Despite being told that the Solarlux SL97 Passivhaus doors cannot be the required 2.8m tall, we came up with a design with extra horizontal bars for strengthening which made it possible, something not done before in the UK and the design proved to be aesthetically attractive. Fortunately, the technical knowledge here at Spectrum is second-to-none.
