Glass louvres let the sunlight in

David Construction, Sun Protection

Many of us will never have heard of brise soleil, glass louvres or external louvres but those who do business in buildings where they are fitted will definitely realise their benefits. When natural light is scarce they encourage its penetration of the building. In harsh hot summer sun they provide shade and keep us cool inside. These uncommon terms, so commonplace in architectural circles, should be learnt by any employers in any field who wish to keep their staff content.

In the winter, it is not atypical for staff to absent themselves from work because they feel down in the dumps with flu, exhaustion or mild depression. Increased exposure to natural light, which working in glass louvres or external louvres allows, will have a positive impact of the health of these workers. Anyone who has endeavoured to work in low light will know how sleepy it makes one feel. Working late when it’s dark or gloomy meanwhile, makes one feel an intense kind of self-pity.

Fitting innovative light and heat efficiency elements might also allow us to gaze out of the window a little less in summer and focus on our work. We might also be less tempted to spend our entire lunch breaks outdoors when the sun is at its hottest and capable of frizzling us to a crisp.  Inhabitants of the UK have a notorious reputation for worshipping the sun. Though we receive a much more bountiful dose of UV rays than people living in Finland, Sweden or Norway, our reaction to the first signs of fine weather would make anyone unfamiliar with the British stereotype think that we spent most of the year shut in the dark. The thing is, many of us who work 9-5 jobs do really feel this way. Especially in the winter, when we are obliged to get up before the sun has risen and leave the office at dusk.

The unhealthy culture of taking lunch at one’s computer means that it is easy in winter not to get very much light at all. Thus we suffer, from seasonal affective disorder or just a sallow complexion, and appear excessively overjoyed when spring and summer finally give us some sun. Encouraging your employer to install brise soleil, glass louvres or external louvres will be a move you won’t regret. With much more exposure to light when you need it and shade when the sun gets too bright, you’ll start enjoying your job and a newly energised you.

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further info.

Chelsea builders: a necessary investment for West Londoners in the property industry

Paul Construction

Looking for North London builders can present quite a challenge.  Everyone wants to find a builder they can really rely on, and without recommendations from friends, scouring phonebooks and internet sites for listings seems to offer little guarantee of identifying somebody who will do the best job.  Whether you are looking for chelsea builders or Hampstead builders, the following advice should help you in your search and make sure your loft conversion doesn’t turn into a paid excursion for some cowboy builders.

Most people will suggest that you go for a personal recommendation, but this can be a trickier business than just getting a name from Kate next door.  People who have had building done recently on properties and projects that are similar to the one you have in mind will be the best placed ones to suggest builders who are most appropriate for your needs.  You may also consider using online forums or websites as these seem to be increasingly developing with a local slant.  Still, as with all online suggestions, these should be regarded with a healthy amount of scepticism.  MyBuilder.com is a sort of trip advisor for building work, so you will find previous customers recommending tradespeople by leaving feedback.  You can also search for different building specialisms, which gives you the best chance of finding someone who will do the best job on your individual project.  It is often worth consulting the Find a Builder service, as the Federation of Master Builders vets all the members on its books.

You should ideally get written quotes from three different firms.  The more details you can give about the work you want done, the more accurate your quote will be and the less of a shock you might end up with when the project is finished.  As with other jobs, it is worth getting references from each builder.  Rather than just speaking to previous customers on the telephone, you should if possible visit the property so that you can see the quality of the job for yourself.  A conversation about the job and the service provided by the builders will be far more illuminating than a quick conversation where you hear that they did a decent job.  Once you have chosen a builder, you will need to draw up a written contract, which should be as detailed as possible.  It is certainly worth taking some advice before you do this.

There are so many North London builders that it really is worth taking the time and trouble to find the right one.  As property in these areas is often extremely valuable, you obviously want to be sure that your Hampstead builders or chelsea builders are good enough to enhance do as much for your house value as possible.

Please visit http://www.artisanlondon.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.artisanlondon.com/

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Getting to grips with design via the external louvre

Paul Construction

When I first got into the construction trade, I found the more technical aspects of the industry rather difficult.  Where construction meets architecture, it all gets a bit technical, apparently! Everyday parlance at work demanded, however, that I understood certain terms – for example, I needed to know my brise soleil from my aluminium curtain and external louvre.  I was hoping to learn a lot on the job but pretty soon I realised that I would only really get ahead if I spent some time teaching myself until I really knew what I was talking about in all things construction.

The word brise soleil, I discovered, is from the French for ‘sun breaker’ which pretty much explains its purpose.  Architecturally, brise soleil describes a function of sun-shading techniques – and there can be more types of them than you might think.  A brise can be a patterned concrete wall, or a more complex creation like the one devised by Santiago Calatrava for the Milwaukee Art Museum.  They are not always ornate or creative, though.  More typically, it will be a horizontal projection from the sun facing side of a building.  Buildings with large amounts of glass can overheat seriously during the summer moths, and a brise soleil is the ideal way to stop this from happening.

External louvres can be incorporated into a brise soleil to make sure it offers protection from sun which falls from a higher angle, while also allowing winter sun in, maximising the passive solar heating potential of the building.  An aluminium curtain is also a way of protecting buildings from the weather – it is basically a curtain wall which provides a non-structural covering of a building, but one which protects it from air and water infiltration, as well as the effects of the wind.  Initially, curtain walls were made of steel, but they tend to be constructed with aluminium at the present time.  The aluminium frame can be infilled with glass to create an aesthetically more pleasing building, which lets in a sufficient amount of natural light.

Although I now understand that an external louvre can be fitted to a brise soleil to minimise exposure to direct sunlight, and an aluminium curtain provides a non-structural outer covering, I still feel somewhat out of my depth when discussing the finer points of these structures with the skilled architects who design them.  The more I looked into the subject, the more I came to see why these professionals need to study for seven years!

Please visit http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.maplesunscreening.co.uk/

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