One of the many trends to appear out of the UK window industry in recent years is the rise in popularity of the timber-look joint. Or the mechanical weld. Or the mechanical joint. Whatever you want to call it, it is a product option that has gained strong traction in the world of windows and doors in the last few years.

Many fabricators have rushed to be able to provide mechanical look joints to their sashes, with some going the extra mile to design their own bespoke system in an attempt to score one more USP over their competition.

There’s not doubting they look a lot better than traditional welds. But seen as though I am looking at the industry through a lens ten years down the line, why not hypothesise as to whether timber look joints on sashes will become a new standard too.

Driven by timber

The very reason this sort of addition on PVCu windows is even a thing right now can be traced back to timber. As each year passes the demand for PVCu products that look more and more like timber rises. And with that, you’re going to need features that make PVCu look a little like their ancestors. Hence, joints on sashes that either look like timber joints or are actually mechanically jointed.

Mechanical joints have been available on outer frames of windows and doors for a fair old while. We have been using them for years on our engineered doors for ages. But, only in the past few years have mechanical joints on sashes become available and a genuine selling point for fabricators and installers.

Timber alternative products are only going to rise in popularity in the next ten years or so. If you’re a company such as Residence Collection, Evolution, Masterframe, Roseview, or even just a fabricator that produces a product aimed at the timber alternative market, the future looks bright. The question is, how long will it be before timber look joints become the standard and replaces welds?

I would wager that if you were to ask any of the above companies, they will tell you that since the introduction of timber look joints to their sashes, sales of that particular specification of product has risen year on year, and strongly.

It all boils down to home owner demand and their requirement for PVCu to look more like timber. So long as home owners continue to demand products like this, features like timber look joints will only rise in popularity.

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Should it replace a weld?

To be fair, on products like Evolution and Residence Collection, the welds are pretty damn thin. It’s not as if they’re the thick, ugly welds often seen on basic, cheap PVCu profiles. That being said timber look joints still look better. My opinion of course, but I reckon plenty will agree.

But as sales of timber look joint welds on sashes rise, suppliers will have to decide as to whether they retain the mechanical look as an upgrade, or introduce it as a standard feature and relegate the weld to the bench. It will depend on sales figures of course, but I have not doubt than in five to ten years time, sales figures will be booming.

I like to think of this as a fairly similar scenario as to when Solidor first introduced the Ultion door cylinder as an optional extra upgrade to their doors. You would pay more to have the Ultion, or stick with what you were given or put your own cylinder in. Before long, Solidor supplied the Ultion cylinder as standard as it’s popularity grew and it became apparent that it need not supply any other option. Since then, plenty of other suppliers have ditched their previous offerings and now only supply the Ultion cylinder.

I believe that fabricators will face a similar decision when it comes to welds and timber look joints on their sashes. As sales of the product rise, and home owner demand for mechanically jointed PVCu products rises, I believe that some will take a serious look at whether they should be doing it as standard.

It would be a brave decision. Unlike a door cylinder, which is fairly innocuous in the grand scheme, a timber look joint is not. It is a very obvious detail on a window or door product that is going to stand out. There is no guarantee that all home owners will like this look. Plenty will I have no doubt, but there will always be that percentage of home owners who either aren’t bothered about it, or even don’t like the look of it and prefer a weld. For that reason, suppliers could stick with timber look joints as an upgrade rather than a standard feature.

That being said, I think that if the industry decided to ditch the weld altogether and press ahead with timber look joints, most home owners will go with it.

There is one bigger barrier however, and that is cost. Timber look joints cost a fair chunk extra over welds. A house full of windows and doors with timber look joints can easily cost hundreds of pounds extra, thousands even if there happens to be a large property with lots of windows and doors. Unless the cost of the technology comes down significantly over the next decade, it may be a very brave supplier to ditch the cheaper weld for the more expensive mechanical joint and expect installers and home owners to readily pay for it.

All in all though, this is the direction the window industry is heading in. As I have written in a previous post, shiny white products are on the slope down, and demand for more authentic looking PVCu products is on the rise, and timber look joints on sashes forms a part of that.

Would you be willing to offer them as standard and ditch the weld? Your thoughts are welcome via the comments section below.

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