Many of you will be aware of the impending changes to the building regulations especially the requirement for trickle vents to be used on most windows installed from the 15th of June 2022 for new build and replacement windows! This is being done due to the lack of value attributed to the cost of poor ventilation in dwellings by all interested parties from Installers to homeowners. Add a lack of information and education and there is little incentive or motivation to improve the environment in dwellings.
This lack of good ventilation then gets locked into a dwelling for decades and then ends up with remedial works and potential poor health outcomes due to the building’s ventilation provision. The estimated benefits being between £21m – £91m (its difficult to estimate the beneficial NHS costs!)
Therefore, it is now the government’s view is that there is a need for regulation to address these issues, as the market isn’t installing a solution. This can be seen in the studies used in this review which clearly showed that only a small number of homes met the existing minimum ventilation provisions recommended in ADF 2010: 2006.
They audited 55 sites for compliance to AD F and only 2 sites complied to the 2006 regulations! This was due to a lack of value given to the need for the provision of background ventilation by house builders, fabricators, Installers combined with a lack of education of the homeowners as to the need.
With trickle vents to be fitted to most windows this now presents opportunities for the supply chain and installers to add value, turn over and margins to their products.
Today’s trickle vents are significantly different to their predecessors in terms of addressing issues of design and performance. The Link vent from Glazpart for example has, depending upon how you view it either reduced its size by 50% or increased the equivalent area performance by 200%. The 5000-link vent delivers 5000EQA using a 13mm rout or 4000EQA on a 10mm rout with just a 454.5mm width. Consequently, you can fit (depending upon the application) the same number of vents you fit today in a habitable room to comply to the new 8,000mm2 EQA requirement per habitable room.
It’s the scope of the windows that needs to be understood as the previous guideline of only fitting vents to replacement windows where the windows have vents fitted has gone and the minimum requirements for background ventilation must be installed, depending on the room type, especially as the use of the night vent position has been specifically excluded as a means of compliance.
What has changed however is how the products look, with the opportunity to upsell a trickle vent with a basic, better and best product. The key is to sell these as you would a high-end specification handle.
Fabricators and Installers can now offer you coloured or colour on white vents:
A basic trickle vent is one with the vent colour matched to the profile colour you customer wants and that reduce their visual impact. Looks great on anthracite grey, cream and any number of other grey shades.
A better tricklevent can be delivered If the profiles are foiled with the embossed “tick” effect, they can give you a better product that matches the surface effect camouflaging it into the profile colours on the inside and outside of the window, even on white foiled windows.
The best and ultimate trickle vent can deliver a premium where the windows are wood grained, using various technologies we can now match these effects on the window. Creating an impressive premium finish on Golden oak, Irish Oak, Natural oak and even Anteak.
The added value is significant and should be seen as a route to make your offer different from the competition. Most investments in new windows as we know are not totally about price. If it were, everyone would buy a white window with plastic handles, and we wouldn’t have seen the rise of coloured windows. To see the latest designs visit https://glazpart.com/link-vent/ and for the widest range of colour options https://glazpart.com/colour-options/
According to Dean Bradley – Sales and Marketing Manager
“The Link vent has been a success as it addresses most concerns of the fenestration market and house holders alike. With vents half the size of traditional products and camouflaged on profiles using a range of finishes using a range of technologies the supply chain can add value”
