REHAU Nordic Design replicates timber

REHAU’s highly efficient, flush fitting Nordic Design Plus window system is designed for two quite distinct market sectors – contemporary new build and traditional timber replacement.

In the contemporary sector it has already been specified and installed in projects like Crest Nicholson’s Centenary Quay development in Southampton; and increasingly it is also being chosen by owners of cottages and stone built properties who want an authentic looking replacement for timber.

It proved the perfect choice recently for a homeowner in Gloucestershire, who was renovating his poorly insulated cottage by adding an innovative brick faced slip system to the exterior.

With a double brick build and no cavity wall, the cottage was difficult and expensive to heat, so the solution devised was to insulate it on the outside with a 150mm layer of high performance insulation and then face the whole of the front of the building with a slip system which gives the appearance of a traditional brick build.

The homeowner wanted to replace the single glazed timber windows which were in place originally with thermally efficient, low maintenance alternatives and the REHAU Nordic Design Plus system with its 120mm depth frame and its flush fitting 67mm sash proved the perfect choice.

In the single storey cottage, seven windows have been installed, all of which are triple glazed with U-Values of less than 1.0 W/m2K. They have the appearance of a solid timber window, complete with traditional timber detailing on the inside, but are manufactured using REHAU’s self-reinforced RAU-FIPRO® fibre composite material with a coextruded PVC outer layer which means they have better strength, torsional stiffness and thermal properties.

The homeowner is delighted with the finished project and, as a result of the thermal improvements, is already reporting energy savings of around 12%.