Demand hotting up for Winframer platform

Iso Chemie’s thermal insulating and load bearing bracket support system has been specified by a leading modular house builder for installation in its new designs. 

The development sees Winframer units along with Win2wall multi-level sealing tape supplied to CoreHaus, as part of the company’s five-year plan to produce around 1,000 precision engineered units a year built using modern methods of construction (MMC) to deliver long term energy cost savings.

Passivhaus certified and fire rated to up to 30 minutes, Winframer is a prefabricated installation frame, manufactured to accommodate cavities up to 250mm that allows windows to be supported independently from the face of the wall regardless of any external cladding being in place.

The modular housing sector is reported to be growing in the UK – industry sources estimate that out of the 200,000 homes currently constructed annually, about 15,000 of them are modular.

Iso-Bloco Win2wall enables window and door gaps between 2mm to 8mm to be easily sealed from inside the property. Available in two widths to give the extra thermal insulation equivalent to A Rated (40mm tape) or A+ and A++ windows (65mm tape), the tape is able to accommodate the vast majority of UK window installations.

Dan Selby, managing director at CoreHaus, said: “As a house designer, we are always looking at smarter ways to deliver low carbon structures, which includes using sustainable technologies. Iso Chemie’s fit and forget products offer innovative solutions for effective window and door sealing, delivering measurable airtight, acoustic and thermal sealing benefits in the process.”

Nick Thompson, ISO Chemie’s technical consultant, said: “Using Winframer as a platform for the windows to be moved forward, allows a cavity wall to be created outside the existing one. This can then be filled with insulation to massively improve thermal efficiency.

“As it’s also very thermally efficient and airtight, Winframer is proving to be an easy and cost-effective way to improve the quality of the modular properties.”

The composite Winframer brackets can bear heavy windows loads, including bi-fold doors. Installation is said to be quick with windows attached directly and secured mechanically using either standard fixing screws or fixing lugs in the usual manner.

A hinged insulation core combines with the composite wood structural bracket to become an integral part of the overall wall structure, providing compliance with window energy saving regulations (EnEV) and the RAL quality assurance association.

Win2wall is also weather tight to 600 Pa (Violent Storm Force 11) and is said to have excellent acoustic insulation properties.

According to Iso-Chemie, installing a window or door using Win2wall will give the window an equivalent or better thermal property than the window unit itself. Even the smaller 40mm size tape will give the joint between the window and wall a U-Value of 1.2, equivalent to an Energy A-rated window.