Which material should you choose for your apertures?

Apertures can change your way of life. By having the right windows and doors based on your needs, they can improve your house and transform it into a home.

Your windows and doors can be made of different materials and cater to specific requirements. A window per se is composed of three main elements, the raw material, glass  and fittings, as for ingredients in a recipe, the finer, the better. Materials vary from Wood, Aluminium, both cold and thermally broken, uPVC, fibreglass, steel and stainless steel, again, both cold and thermally broken. Which material to select varies according to your needs, wood, for example, is considered to be more elegant and gives a sense of warmth and comfort, however, requires a high level of maintenance, especially in hotter climates or areas exposed to high levels of ultraviolet rays.

Aluminium offers strength and attracts the attention of architects and designers because of its narrower profiles and variety of colour. On the other hand, uPVC apertures are synonymous to compete with wooden ones as they are similar in design, offering comparable technical characteristics but is considered as a low maintenance alternative.

On the high end of the spectrum, there are steel and stainless steel, including other chic materials such as corten and brass. Apart from offering strength and having minimal profiles, they are a status symbol themselves, giving that extra edge to your property, both in comfort and value. 

Eventually, your choice will boil down to six choices:

·       Sound Insulation

·       Thermal Insulation

·       Security Level

·       Aesthetics

·       Availability

·       Price

As in any other industry, there are a good number of brands who design and extrude raw material, then there are the window manufacturers, therefore, those who assemble your window. Different brands for the same material can have different technical characteristics, by asking your window manufacturer of trust specific questions about your technical requirements or by identifying your needs, one would be able to decide which material to choose according to the six choices.

There will be more articles in relationship to the subject that is: Apertures.

In the next article, I will go into the glass variable and how this will open another world of choices which will make your life easier and more comfortable.