Aluminium Curtain Walling

A curtain wall system is an outer wall of a building that is none structural and is used to keep the weather out and the residents in. Because the curtain wall is none structural it can be made of lightweight materials such as aluminium and glass. The frame hangs down from the main structure and is anchored down to slabs in the building. Curtain walling is commonly used in high-rise buildings, office blocks and is often referred to as a façade.
Glass facades are used to create distinctive pieces of architecture within major cities all over the world. It is the ability to create impressive and expansive elevations of glass why architects are using curtain walling within residential properties. Curtain walling allows architects to design whole elevations made predominantly of aluminium and glass, which looks stunning and the curtain walling itself can house bi-folding & sliding doors, plus windows and aluminium panels.

Curtain walling is a popular choice to create a grand feature within the entrance to a home. We offer a range of front doors designed to be installed into our curtain walling systems. Third-party products can be installed into our curtain walling also, we’ll provide the sizes and technical information should you want to install a third-party product into a curtain wall screen instead of one from Express Bi-Folding Doors.

Simply e-mail your plans or drawings with the site postcode to sales@expressbifolds.co.uk and one of our Sales Executives will be able to calculate an accurate quotation for you.

Yes, as the demand for large glass in residential homes grows, we're being asked to supply bigger and bigger windows. Our Sales Executives and technical departments have years of experience so we'll advise on the most suitable products for your project including when and where aluminium curtain walling is required.

No, we specialist in low-rise curtain walling for residential developments.

Curtain wall systems emerged in the 19th century with the development of large glass panels and became more common from the 1930's when aluminium was made available as a construction material for the first time. Curtain walls are considered as structural elements of a building. As it acts as a partition between exterior and interior environment of the building, it has a role in transmission of loads acting for structural stability.

The depth of the structural box that gives the curtain walling it’s strength is determined by the size of the screen & the site location but the typical sightlines when looking through or at the glazed screen are only 50mm. The box depth is location and design specific. Providing architects drawings and the postcode allows us to check the wind load(pa) ratings of the area which in turn tells us the IXX value requirements. This information then dictates the depth of the box required for structural strength. The boxes range from 100mm - 230mm. Mid-point steels that allow us to tie back to have a dramatic effect on reducing the box depth so you may want to consider working these into your build if you are looking for a slimmer finish internally.

Key visual features of curtain wall screens are the glazing appearance and slim sightlines. Sightlines are defined as the visual profile of the vertical and horizontal mullions. The sightlines are the width of the aluminium profiles as you look at the curtain wall screen from either the inside or the outside.

We use fixing brackets around the curtain wall screen to tie it to the building via the steel structural supports that are put in place by your builder.

As these areas are bespoke and do have different design parameters based on site location & requirements, it’s hard to be very specific. However, in single frames (not separated by structural steelwork) we work under 6.5 metres in height. Generally keeping glass in sizes that can be handled manually or using mechanical lifting equipment when required. For more information, please contact our team or better yet e-mail your plans to sales@expressbifolds.co.uk & we can advise accordingly.