An easy decision to make
Chris Baron, director at Prefix, explains why the company has a new supply partner for glass roofs and lanterns and outlines the benefits for customers.
There’s no getting away from the fact that market conditions are tough at the moment for most manufacturing businesses.
The economic outlook doesn’t look great, with rising interest rates starting to bite, borrowing through new loans and re-mortgaging has drastically reduced. This has certainly had an impact on the wider home improvement sector.
Post-covid we saw a raft of price increases across the sector, some of these prices have remained high, even to date. The early price rises were unforeseen as a result of material shortages, energy price rises then hit in 2022 with those costs past onto purchasers.
Whilst some of these increases were genuine and unavoidable at the time some others, in our opinion, have chosen to profiteer on the back of what is a weakened market and have been slow to work with customers to support them.
This is where competition in the market is key to a healthy supply chain, as any supplier who has any form of monopoly or domination will use this advantage to keep prices high and stifle competition. Which is simply wrong.
The market may be tight but there is still work out there and many existing extensions are in need of refurbishment or replacement, so this bodes well for the sector moving forward. What any market needs in times like these is something to boost interest, reinvigorating the industry and consumers alike.
The glass roof sector has stagnated in recent years as companies focus on the solid roof market, Prefix has the award winning Warmroof system which is going from strength to strength year on year, but glass roofs are still at the core of our business and is a product area we have been keen not to ignore.
The existing glass roof systems offered very much the same old aesthetics, performance and very little in terms of development.
One area of the glass roof sector that has grown is that of lanterns used on flat roof extensions. Whilst some systems have chosen to stick with using existing conservatory roof components for the lantern offering, the market has moved on and now a number of purpose designed lantern systems are available.
As a supplier of glazed roofs it’s important that Prefix offers the best systems available whether that be lanterns or glass roofs – our customers have rightly come to expect that from us.
Prefix are always on the lookout for new and innovative products, the glazed roof market is evolving and Prefix needed a glass roof that suited today’s consumers requirements. Something that offered modern aesthetics and was structurally sound to cater for modern designs incorporating bi-folds and sliding doors.
Class leading thermal performance and options to bespoke the roof with colour, lighting pelmets and decorative gutter shrouds was also high on the wish list.
So, when Sheerline approached us with the dedicated S1 lantern and the new S2 glass roof, we could see a lot of thought had gone into the development of the systems. This ticked all the boxes we were looking for in a modern glass roof and lantern system.
At Prefix we set a high bar in terms of what any roof system needed to deliver before we’d consider offering it to our customers, and flexibility was one of those key points.
As the system is based loosely on the original and hugely successful K2 roof, configurability was already built in.
The underlying system had been in the market for a number of years and many K2 roofs remain in place today, so longevity was also ticked off the list as the system is already tried and tested in the field.
Once we started to look at what the S2 roof could offer our customers the decision became a very easy one to make. The roof has many USPs, some of the main ones being modern, square look chambered glazing bar top cappings, making the roof the most thermally efficient glazing system available.
Internally, new square line claddings make the whole roof less fussy and more in keeping with today’s market. There is also a square line aluminium external capping which works with the aluminium ridge cappings to give a complete aluminium finish, all available in any RAL colour.
The square box sections eaves are stronger and will span further than other roof systems, and there is also an eaves bolster which will enable greater spans over openings for bi-folds making this the strongest eaves section available.
Optionally, the S2 has a lighting pelmet which can be used on the inside of the roof to create an orangery look and feel, and this is simple, cost effective and easy to fit. The pelmet system is configurable to a range of pitch and sizes variations. A gutter shroud is also available and can be easily retro fitted to any existing S2 roof or fascia.
The shroud has an innovative cast gutter bracket which supports the shroud and holds it firmly in place, eliminating the need for any unsightly wires to support the shroud and making installation less fiddly.
Some of the best original features of K2 have been kept – the large capacity 205mm box gutter has the built in structural brackets which means the box never needs unsightly gallows brackets for support. The ridge section is also the slimmest on the market and neat radius end cappings make sure you can maximise the amount of glazed area over plastic / aluminium trims.
Perhaps the most important factor is the fact that the new S2 roof is market leading not only in terms of all the above but also from a price proposition.
Dealing with the extruder directly ensures that the Sheerline S2 roof is available at a price competitive rate, Prefix can ensure that customers will directly benefit from cost savings gained through this new supply arrangement and that Prefix customers will have access to a glazed roof system designed for today’s consumer.
If you’d like to know more about the new S2 roof from Prefix Systems please contact enquiries@prefixsystems.co.uk or call 01254 871800.
