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REHAU-Dimension – Setting the Record Straight

REHAU’s soon-to-be-launched REHAU-Dimension complete conservatory superstructure system is an exciting new REHAU product with a powerful message designed to give our customers a competitive advantage in the conservatory market.

It will allow fabricators and installers to produce and install complete conservatory superstructures with proven structural integrity for which REHAU will accept design and product liability - as long as they fabricated and installed in line with our technical guidelines. Our market research shows that this message has a strong resonance with consumers.

Added to this are the significant benefits that REHAU-Dimension will be competitively priced, easy to fabricate and install and boast aesthetically matched walls and roof from the market leader. It will also be fully supported with a comprehensive technical service, software and sales and marketing campaign and, shortly after launch, will have LANTAC and STAS approval (subject to a successful assessment process, which we are very confident will be achieved).

It is no surprise to us that those manufacturers with a vested interest in preserving their market position by promoting separate ‘mix and match’ walls and roofs are criticising our initiative.

It is true that one of the key advantages of our strategy will be in its ease of demonstrating compliance, if and when the government presses ahead with its desire to have conservatories under 30m2 brought back under Building Regulations in England and Wales, as they had been until 1985 and as they already are in Scotland where a Building Warrant is required for conservatories of 8m2 and above. In effect, REHAU-Dimension is a ‘future proof’ system and we will certainly be promoting it as such.

However, at no point in the development of REHAU-Dimension has REHAU claimed that changes to the Building Regulations will force fabricators to use complete systems such as ours. Instead, we have pointed out that fabricators would probably be required to prove the structural integrity of their installations, which will be difficult and to carry on taking the design and product liability for them.

This is because the roof system designer’s liability only covers the roof and the glazed wall system designer’s liability only covers the glazed walls (if it even covers that), so it is the fabricator or installer who would have the very complex task of demonstrating, in a manner acceptable to qualified structural engineers, the integrity of the whole superstructure and in particular that it could resist and transmit the racking forces imposed by lateral wind pressure safely through the construction to the base and host wall.

Put simply, it doesn’t really matter how much technical information is available from each of the separate system manufacturers or how many generalisations are made about ‘typical’ installations. Roof and glazed wall system manufacturers do not accept liability for the superstructure as a whole, whereas with REHAU-Dimension, REHAU will.

Equally, we have never stated that conservatories built using glazed walls from one system manufacturer and roofs from another are necessarily structurally unsafe – rather that their structural integrity is difficult and onerous to prove. However, if the exemption for Building Regulations is removed, these types of installations would probably need to be proved – that’s the point.

Whereas customers fabricating and installing the REHAU-Dimension system in contrast will be free of this difficulty since their installations will be LANTAC (Local Authority National Type Approval Confederation) and STATS (Scottish Type Approval Scheme) approved, which will demonstrate compliance with Building Regulations, making it easier to glide through the bureaucracy.

We also believe that it is wrong to suggest that it would be impossible for Local Authority Building Control Officers to police conservatory compliance with Building Regulations, and REHAU supports the proposal that LABC take on this role because it is their raison d’etre. However, we are pressing for the bureaucracy to be streamlined and financed by reasonable inspection fees. We are not in favour of another self regulatory scheme along the lines of FENSA and certainly not an un-policed Good Practice Scheme in which installers sign up to a voluntary code, because this is nothing more than a licence to do nothing.

It seems we have ruffled a few feathers with our strategy, even before the product is launched, but we make no apologies for that. Meanwhile, our focus remains on helping our customers by providing them with better products and convincing sales arguments so that they can win more business and, above all, become more profitable. In developing and launching REHAU-Dimension, we believe we will be doing this.

Alan Hickman
Rehau
Tel: 01989 762600


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REHAU-Dimension – Setting the Record Straight REHAU’s soon-to-be-launched REHAU-Dimension complete conservatory superstructure system is an exciting new REHAU product with a powerful message designed to give our customers a competitive advantage in the conservatory market. It will allow fabricators and installers to produce and install complete conservatory superstructures with proven structural integrity for which REHAU will accept design and product liability - as long as they fabricated and installed in line with our technical guidelines. Our market research shows that this message has a strong resonance with consumers. Added to this are the significant benefits that REHAU-Dimension will be competitively priced, easy to fabricate and install and boast aesthetically matched walls and roof from the market leader. It will also be fully supported with a comprehensive technical service, software and sales and marketing campaign and, shortly after launch, will have LANTAC and STAS approval (subject to a successful assessment process, which we are very confident will be achieved). It is no surprise to us that those manufacturers with a vested interest in preserving their market position by promoting separate ‘mix and match’ walls and roofs are criticising our initiative. It is true that one of the key advantages of our strategy will be in its ease of demonstrating compliance, if and when the government presses ahead with its desire to have conservatories under 30m2 brought back under Building Regulations in England and Wales, as they had been until 1985 and as they already are in Scotland where a Building Warrant is required for conservatories of 8m2 and above. In effect, REHAU-Dimension is a ‘future proof’ system and we will certainly be promoting it as such. However, at no point in the development of REHAU-Dimension has REHAU claimed that changes to the Building Regulations will force fabricators to use complete systems such as ours. Instead, we have pointed out that fabricators would probably be required to prove the structural integrity of their installations, which will be difficult and to carry on taking the design and product liability for them. This is because the roof system designer’s liability only covers the roof and the glazed wall system designer’s liability only covers the glazed walls (if it even covers that), so it is the fabricator or installer who would have the very complex task of demonstrating, in a manner acceptable to qualified structural engineers, the integrity of the whole superstructure and in particular that it could resist and transmit the racking forces imposed by lateral wind pressure safely through the construction to the base and host wall. Put simply, it doesn’t really matter how much technical information is available from each of the separate system manufacturers or how many generalisations are made about ‘typical’ installations. Roof and glazed wall system manufacturers do not accept liability for the superstructure as a whole, whereas with REHAU-Dimension, REHAU will. Equally, we have never stated that conservatories built using glazed walls from one system manufacturer and roofs from another are necessarily structurally unsafe – rather that their structural integrity is difficult and onerous to prove. However, if the exemption for Building Regulations is removed, these types of installations would probably need to be proved – that’s the point. Whereas customers fabricating and installing the REHAU-Dimension system in contrast will be free of this difficulty since their installations will be LANTAC (Local Authority National Type Approval Confederation) and STATS (Scottish Type Approval Scheme) approved, which will demonstrate compliance with Building Regulations, making it easier to glide through the bureaucracy. We also believe that it is wrong to suggest that it would be impossible for Local Authority Building Control Officers to police conservatory compliance with Building Regulations, and REHAU supports the proposal that LABC take on this role because it is their raison d’etre. However, we are pressing for the bureaucracy to be streamlined and financed by reasonable inspection fees. We are not in favour of another self regulatory scheme along the lines of FENSA and certainly not an un-policed Good Practice Scheme in which installers sign up to a voluntary code, because this is nothing more than a licence to do nothing. It seems we have ruffled a few feathers with our strategy, even before the product is launched, but we make no apologies for that. Meanwhile, our focus remains on helping our customers by providing them with better products and convincing sales arguments so that they can win more business and, above all, become more profitable. In developing and launching REHAU-Dimension, we believe we will be doing this. Alan Hickman Rehau Tel: 01989 762600 RETURN TO HOME PAGE