Irish Oak Better Than Light Oak

Just to get things straight from the beginning, I do prefer Irish Oak to Light Oak. In fact I love it - as much as you can love a wood grain effect on PVCu frames! 


The wood grain effect on the foil is probably the most realistic wood grain that has ever come out, far better than the Light Oak, which at times can look a little bit fake and plastic looking. 


The colour of Irish Oak I think is also far better than Light Oak. It's a far more believable wood colour than Light Oak. Yes it is quite a bit lighter, but I don't think this stops Irish Oak from being used in various different situations and being used with various different glass configurations.


This is our new front door to the reception area of our building:

We had a Light Oak on white door previously, for about 3 years, but we were getting bored with the colour and were getting asked more and more for Irish Oak. So we changed it a couple of days ago. But we also wanted to push a slightly different glass option. We thought that sandblasted glass looks quite nice with the light colour, but we thought we'd mix it up and use Fusion hand made bevels instead, rather than conventional bevels. They look a little rougher than normal bevels, but I think that adds a more rustic character to the door to go with the more wooden colour. 

This is just one example of Irish Oak being a more versatile colour. Obviously it won't match every single type of house and brick, but I don't think it is limited to just cottages.

The last 18 months has seen us order more and more of this colour, almost to the point where it is outselling Light Oak. It's not become the most popular wood grain colour yet, but I'd give it a couple more years and I think Irish Oak will have the clear advantage over it's older Light Oak brother.

As always, thoughts and comment welcomed! Do you like our new door?!

This Year Could Be The Best Year For Foils Yet

Out of all the areas of the industry that are taking a nose dive, one area that seems to be gaining strength is the market for coloured and colour foiled PVCu.

The start of the year has seen for us, a big step up in the number of quotes we are sending out with coloured options on them. Black I still think remains the main colour of choice when it comes to front doors. But from the window perspective cream wood grain, Irish Oak and now Anthracite Grey are becoming more and more the popular options.

Customers have grown very weary of the standard white PVCu window and are now looking for something that extra bit special to transform the appearance of their home - despite the increasingly poor economic outlook.

One things that hasn't changed with customers is their high demand for new products. Consumers these days expect lots of choice, with whatever they are buying, not just windows and doors. More choice allowed the customer to purchase something which is more unique to them, rather than the customer having to settle for something 'off the peg', like the mass majority of people.


As well as the PVCu colour market on the rise. The expansion of coloured aluminium has also reinforced the coloured market over the last couple of years. The coloured option is now here to stay. And with one-off 'grand-designs' becoming ever more popular, coloured windows and doors are going to become increasingly popular over the coming few years.

Black Is The New White

It's clear that since the introduction of coloured doors in the industry i.e. composite and foil wood grained doors, the most popular colour with customers has been black.


The reason? You can only assume that this is because it is the most neutral colour when compared to the other choices. Colours like red, green and blue are suited to people with those sorts of specific tastes. Where as black, just like white, is very much a more neutral colour option for many people. It's also seen as the most sophisticated and classy finish out of the block of colours.


Black doors have now overtaken white doors in number of sales. Has anybody else noticed this sort of trend?

Irish Oak

I'd say Irish Oak has been out for about a year or so now, but how well has it done?


We were first able to sell it from late spring of this year, and we certainly liked it. We even went as far to say that it was the Light Oak killer! And since then we have seen it gradually take off. We've not sold huge amounts of it, mostly front doors, and they do look spot on. They look much more realistic than Light Oak, they are the same cost too.


Who else is finding Irish Oak becoming a mainstay of the wood grains?

Work We've Done Recently

I thought I might share with your some of the work we have a done recently:

The above is a small Rosewood Victorian conservatory we did a couple of weeks ago for some very good customers of ours!


The next two are images of some of the first windows with mock sash horns we have installed. I was a bit unsure what to expect when I first saw them but when I got on site they looked pretty impressive. They are only a small feature but they do add the extra character that PVCu windows sometimes need.


The bottom two are black composite doors and side lights which we have installed in the last ten days. Black is one of the most popular colours we are selling at the moment. And one thing which matches the colour well are the glass designs the customers have picked.


Since changing composite door suppliers, we have had a massive surge in composite door sales. We are able to give customers a lot more choice of designs, colours and glass options. We have also been able to bring ourselves in line with the majority of the industry in terms of cost.

Composite Doors Overtake Panelled Doors For The First Time

This isn't official news, but comes from a half-reliable source, and doesn't seem too inconceivable to believe.


We had a visit from a HWL rep based in Leeds who came in to drop one of their brochures off and do a half-demo of their product and what they do. He said (claimed) some interesting things like Door-Stop only produce less than 200 a week, which I found strange bearing in mind they managed to turnover £13million last year. He then had various other digs about Door-Stop when I asked him who he thought was his main competition, and it was at that point I turned my brain off.


But one point I did pick up on was that he said that last month was the first time composite doors out-sold PVCu panelled doors. Now this seems to fit the picture that various people are saying. Many have said that composite doors will be the future of the industry, and it now seems that they have powered their way through and reached the level of sales that PVCu panels achieve.


My view is this; that panelled doors will be extinct within the next 3-5 years, leaving just engineered and composite doors as the main types of residential doors installers will sell.

Colours Are The Way Forward

Coloured wood grained PVCu seems to be the innovation that has taken off most in recent years. We've had the introduction of orangeries and PVCu decking as new products to try to expand companies' product portfolios, but it's coloured wood grains that have made a firmer impact than the others.

Our brand new coloured door range includes, red, white, cream, black, blue, green and Irish Oak wood grains.

The push for colours started with the introduction of composite doors. Composite doors were the first choice in choosing a door which doesn't just come in the standard white or Rosewood/Light Oak wood grains. They came in all sorts of colours from then.

From there, the colours have been applied to engineered doors and windows as well. And since then, the market for coloured doors and windows has expanded. It's not been a boom, but it's become a steady rise which has become a market in which window companies could actually make decent money out of it.

Not only coloured doors, but with the introduction of white wood grain, customers are now able to have the standard white colour, but with the added touch of wood grain.

Coloured doors are here to stay I think, and hopefully the market will continue to expand at a steady rate, so everyone is able to take advantage of this new sales opportunity.

Woodgrained Arched Frames

I was going to write about if the next government would help or hinder the double glazing industry, but I'll talk about that later.

What I am going to talk about is woodgrain and arched frames. We have recently quoted a company for windows to an old chapel which they are currently renovating into flats. They have asked us for a Cream or Black woodgrain option, which is fine. But the complications come when the arched frames come into the picture. Universal Arches which bend our manufacturer's frames say that due to the acute angles of the frames, they wouldn't be able to guarantee them. The problem, they say, is that when the profiles are heated for bending, there is no way of protecting the foil finish from distorting, creasing up etc. And I can fully understand their point of view. There are a good few dozen arched or shaped frames which make up part of this big project. The last thing they want to be doing is replacing numerous amounts of frames, which were very expensive to produce in the first place.

What I want to know is if there is any different manufacturing process around which could combat these problems. I'm doubtful of that however. They did go on to explain that their stance is very much an industry standard. I also know who we are up against, and I'm pretty certain that they will have the same scenario as we have. If not, and they do decide to guarantee the arched frames, it will be their warranty and not a manufacturers one. Meaning they will have to pay for any replacements, which will be costly bearing in mind the type of product.

Let me know if any of you have any ideas.

Colours

For well over a year now, a huge new range of colours and wood grained effects have been available, yet the interest shown by the public has been quite low. The original wood grains of Rosewood and Light Oak remain a popular option, with white uPVC still being the main choice of colour.

Cream wood grain in particular is a colour option which seems to come in for most of the criticism. Whenever presented to the customer, the immediate reaction is: 'that looks discolured!'

We also never come across customers actually asking for something different other than the main three colour options. This could be down to a couple of reasons. Firstly, the majority of customers may actually not like any of the new options. But secondly, and more likely, the general public may just need more time to get used to the new varieties. Just as Light Oak would have taken time to take it's place next to white and Rosewood.