Despite being a more premium product, often chosen on style grounds, Aluminium has often lagged behind PVC-U in some key areas: thermal performance, service, ease of installation and importantly the prevalence of consistent styling across an installation.

A lack of consistency in most aluminium systems, means that fabricators and installers often source products from multiple suppliers – creating a mishmash of styles and sightlines that don’t stand up to close inspection by discerning homeowners, or architects. With the market set to become pickier as supply and demand equalise and we leave the ‘hothouse’ conditions of the past two years, a belief that supplying all these mismatched products in Anthracite Grey will cover up the fact that they don’t follow a common design aesthetic is at best optimistic and at worst naïve. Even products from the same aluminium systems house often don’t match!

Which is why switched-on fabricators like Listers, have chosen to partner with Sheerline, bringing the full benefits of a modern, unified system architecture to their customers. Finally bringing the advantages of the very best PVC-U systems into the more refined world of aluminium.  

Sheerline’s systems are known for their straightforward thermal excellence – with unique Thermlock® multi-chamber thermal breaks achieving Part L compliant U-values of 1.4 with standard double glazing. With 12 standard colours delivered to fabricators in 10 working days, Sheerline is also leading the way in redefining service levels in the sector. Even dual colours are offered on this same lead time! Recently investing over £1 million in their own state-of-the-art powder coating facility to further strengthen this commitment, Sheerline provides customers with an agile and high-quality service they can depend on.

Roy Frost, Listers MD highlights the advantages he sees in this investment:

“It’s never been acceptable to me that fabricators must be the final QC for their supplier and that our first process is to identify the surface defects in the materials supplied and chop them out!! Frankly bonkers on reflection and when put like that and certainly an arrangement that would be unacceptable in most other supply chains. 

The new powder coating plant at Sheerline really is the game changer that Roger Hartshorn promised. Yes, it’s automated but there’s also an important manual intervention for quality control.

Coupled with design excellence in the latest Sheerline products that are easy to install and exceed all security and thermal standards I simply can’t wait to get properly stuck in, making lots and lots of Sheerline Aluminium Windows and Doors and, importantly, in volume, just as we make our PVC-U products.”

Installation benefits have also been key drivers in the uptake of the Sheerline system, with a universal clip-in bead system and flush backed cills helping to make installing the range of windows, doors, bi-folds and composite door frames as easy as installing a PVC-U system – but with the added advantage that the finished product is on another level in terms of finish and looks.

Completing this compelling list of reasons fabricators, installers and (perhaps most importantly) homeowners love Sheerline, is the simple fact that it all matches!

With consistent style options, across everything from its ultra-slim heritage style casements, residential doors to bi-folds and the upcoming patio system – Sheerline provides fitters with an easy route to ensuring consumers are left with installations that look balanced, with each separate element born from a common set of design principles and designed to work harmoniously together. This attention to detail, down to consistent shadow, and sightlines helps elevate Sheerline installations to the next level, leaving customers happier and more likely to recommend referral business.

As design trends move slowly away from Anthracite Grey to lighter colours, some of these ad-hoc buying traditions will come under closer scrutiny, as details are bought literally into the light. Forward thinking installers will embrace these benefits, shining a spotlight on how the industry usually operates and reaping the sales potential of promoting fully matching installations.

Sheerline has set the bar high with products that meet the latest regulatory requirements while providing ‘whole-house’ solutions that are also secure and stylish. The Made-in-Britain accreditation also provides confidence to consumers that products are locally sourced from within the UK, helping to reduce the products carbon-footprint, while being manufactured by a vertically integrated UK business also offers solace to installers who benefit from not having to face weeks of uncertainty, or disruptions in product supply. So stop selling a mish-mash of products – and start sourcing consistently.