Sheerline has renewed its call for the fenestration industry’s aluminium sector to embrace transparency around U-values. With the Future Homes Standard (FHS) due to be implemented in June 2025, the company argues now is the time for installers to check if they are compliant.
The issue of compliance has become a hot topic within the fenestration industry against the backdrop of the FHS roadmap, which was set out in 2023. The final specifications are due to be released in June 2025, yet some systems houses are still quoting misleading or unclear U-values or failing to make available the test evidence that backs up their claims.
Installers are responsible for ensuring the final product they supply is compliant. If U-values are properly policed within the industry – as Sheerline has called for – installers must act to ensure they are compliant. Although fabricators and systems houses will also be culpable when issues, and potential litigation, arise.
The issue of compliance is particularly important for those installers who source glass separately to their frames, as they must ensure the units they’re using meet the specifications set out by the systems house in-line with the U-value simulation used.
This will ensure that any certificate they reference is valid and accurate. This is why Sheerline has made its independently verified U-value reports publicly available and has urged other systems houses to do the same.
It’s time the industry embraced transparency around U-values, to make compliance as simple as possible and therefore, achievable for installers.
Adrian Redshaw, Sheerline’s Product Design Director, said: “Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In the past, it may have been an option to plead ignorance if the requirements seemed unclear. But with the Future Homes Standard, we expect the requirements will tighten.”
“Which begs the question: why would an installer risk working with a fabricator or systems house that can’t prove the U-values they are claiming? There is no better time for installers to question if the products they supply are compliant, because this issue has the potential to cause real disruption,” he added.
To find out more about Sheerline’s U-values you can trust, visit the website here: https://www.sheerline.com/trust/
