Homes & villas - UAE

How does Homes & villas - UAE work, step by step?

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   Step 1: Take the design intent for the elevation, not just the opening

   Before survey, the installer needs to understand what each elevation is being asked to do. Orientation, the shading provided by reveals and overhangs, the glass specification the designer has set for that elevation, and whether the opening is a fixed screen, a hinged unit or a large sliding assembly all change the survey, the handling and the fixing. On villa projects it is common for the same building to carry three or four different glass specifications on different faces, and units are not interchangeable between them even where the sizes match.

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   Step 2: Survey the structural opening and confirm the substrate

   Openings are measured as built, exactly as anywhere else, with squareness, plumb and level recorded. What differs is the substrate: villa construction here is commonly blockwork with a render or stone finish over a concrete frame, so the survey establishes what each fixing point will actually be going into and how thick the finish over it will be. The position of the frame within the depth of the wall is confirmed against the shading and the reveal, because in strong sun a frame set a little further back gains useful shading and a frame set proud loses it.

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   Step 3: Plan the handling of large units before delivery

   Large sliding units arrive heavy, and a single glazed leaf on a villa terrace door can be well beyond what a crew lifts by hand. Handling is planned before the units leave the factory: the route into the villa, the crane or glazing robot required, the number of people, the temporary support while the leaf is offered onto the track, and where units will be stored on site. Storage matters here more than in a temperate climate - units left in direct sun, stacked and film wrapped, can reach temperatures that damage seals, distort packaging and bake protective film onto the glass so hard it will not come off cleanly.

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   Step 4: Set the frame with the thermal break intact

   The frame is set level, plumb and square, and packed at the fixing points as in any installation. The additional discipline is that the thermal break in the frame is designed to interrupt the path between the outside and the inside face, and anything that bridges it - a fixing that was not intended to pass through it, a packer bearing across it, a later penetration for a fitting - undermines the reason the frame was specified. Where the frame meets the structure, the detail the designer has drawn manages that junction as well, and the installer builds it as drawn rather than improvising a fixing arrangement that shorts it out.

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   Step 5: Fix into the substrate the design allows for

   Fixings pass through the frame into the blockwork, the concrete or the embedded provision the design has made for them. The type, size and spacing come from the designer and the manufacturer for that unit in that substrate, and they are set out in the specification - large sliding assemblies in particular carry loads that hand tightened generic fixings will not hold. Any temporary support under a heavy sill or track is left in until the fixings are complete and checked. The frame is re-checked for square after fixing, because a large sliding unit that is out of true will not run, and a track that has picked up a twist will bind long before anybody notices the cause.

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   Step 6: Seal for high temperature, movement and ultraviolet

   The perimeter is sealed in layers as elsewhere, but the materials are chosen for this exposure. The joint has to accommodate the daily movement between a frame in full sun and the wall around it, so joint width, backing material and sealant type are specified together rather than picked on site, and the sealant is one the specification has selected for the ultraviolet and temperature it will see. Application discipline is stricter, not looser: surfaces are cleaned of dust immediately before application because a joint prepared in the morning is dusty again by afternoon, and work is planned around the hours in which the substrate temperature is within what the product allows.

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   Step 7: Seal against dust and set up the drainage

   Every gasket, brush seal and interlock is checked seated and continuous, because fine sand entering a track or a drainage channel does not wash out - it accumulates. Drainage slots and weep paths are confirmed clear and are protected from the render and finishing trades that follow, since a slot filled with mortar or paint turns a drained frame into a water trap. Sliding tracks are cleaned before the leaves go in and are kept covered until handover. The installer also confirms that the internal seal is continuous, because in a cooled building the internal air seal is what keeps humid outside air from reaching cool surfaces inside the assembly.

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   Step 8: Commission, protect and hand over

   Every leaf is operated repeatedly through its full travel, rollers and closers are adjusted, locks and restrictors are set where the schedule requires them, and the effort to move a large sliding leaf is checked as reasonable for the occupier who will use it daily. Units are protected for the rest of the build with materials suited to the heat, and protective film is removed within the period the manufacturer allows rather than left to bake on. Handover includes the cleaning and maintenance regime for tracks, seals and drainage, because in this climate the difference between a unit that lasts and one that binds within two years is almost entirely whether the tracks and drainage were kept clear.