Forever Homes

Tuesday, February 06, 2024

What can be called a ‘Forever Home’? For many it is a family home where memories are made, where one stays for a long time, a home where children are brought up, and one later retires into. This home needs to be something that can handle any changes life throws at it. Important considerations are location, flexibility that the home can change with your requirements and lifestyle, that it provides a sense of belonging, and a feeling of being comfortable. Decisions for a Forever Home are made with longevity in mind, and less about potential resale value. Often owners want

Quiet Luxury - No Noise

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

In our fast-paced world where noise is a constant, quiet is a luxury. It is possible to create a quiet oasis to recharge one’s batteries by insulating your home. Air brings with it noise, so reducing air infiltration and sealing the house, and you are well on the way to a quieter space. And windows play a large role.What is sound? Noise level is measured in decibels (dB). The louder the noise, the higher the decibels. But noise does not increase in a straight line. Each 10dB increase is an increase of sound by ten times, e.g., a sound at 20dB

BAU Expo Munich

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Tony Paarhammer and Andrew Ferguson were part of the 190,000 visitors at the BAU Expo in Munich end of April, gaining insights into all the newest products on show. The 2260 exhibitors from 49 countries included the following topics which might also become significant for the Australian building industry: Façade insulation and secondary façade insulation, Prefabrication and materials to streamline the building processes, Lifting equipment like small tower cranes to make work easier on the building site, Solutions to reduce or eliminate thermal bridging in building envelopes, Low and zero level thresholds with drainage and thermal breaks, Screws, bolts, connectors for the timber construction industry, Low VOC

External Timber Finishes

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Colourless coatings on external timber elements, whilst very fashionable, only provide limited and short-lived protection from UV radiation in the Australian sun. As human skin must be protected from UV radiation with sunscreen, timber too must be protected from UV attack by pigments in the protective coatings used.The basics of how UV degradation occursUV radiation permanently destroys all organic substances. This includes wood even it has been varnished with a colourless coating that has no UV protection. UV radiation destroys the lignin within the wood structure. Lignin constitutes about one third of the timber structure but also accounts for 80-95%

Upgrade your Entrance Door

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Whether you would like to increase curb appeal, increase security or stop drafts and noise, a new entrance door might be the solution. For new buildings or renovations, the right entrance door is an investment worth making. Size Often modern homes use extra-large entrance doors or double doors for a generous entrance. Pivot doors are a consideration although if one wants to be energy efficient and stop drafts and noise, the sealing is much better on hinged doors. Materials: Timber and timber /glass doors have the widest design possibilities. Timber is also a very good insulator and combined with double

What is the largest size for sliding doors?

Tuesday, December 07, 2021

Giant lift-slide doors can be made up to 400kg per leaf. This means that a height of 3.4m and a width of 2.5m (maximum of 8.8m2) per sliding leaf is entirely possible, or a slider leaf height of 2.4m with a width of 3.6m (again at a maximum of 8.8m2) can be made. Stacker lift-slide doors can be made up to 14m wide. Even large sizes like these can be easily moved manually and glide smoothly, and single slider configurations can also be automated. How lift-slide doors work: With a turn of the handle the slider lifts up to free

Your entry to comfort and energy efficiency

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Windows and doors are one of the weakest links when it comes to energy efficient buildings. With many houses still being built with single glazed windows, it lets down owners in aspects of comfort and energy efficiency. Komfortline and Komfort+ are about to make it more affordable. Less time to manufacture Technologically advanced window and door products can be quite costly as these are very involved to make, from the materials used to the time it takes to manufacture them. Komfortline and Komfort+ are an entry range for domestic sizes that still uses the same high-quality Australian timber and glass,

Avoiding Renovation Regrets

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Australia's love affair with renovating is expected to continue not only because Australians love to renovate, but also as households increasingly prefer to direct excessive property transaction costs towards improving their existing homes, rather than trading up. Top 5 regrets But renovations can be fraught with issues: according to research by the Victorian Government, the top five renovation regrets are insufficient insulation, air leakage, poor lighting, not selecting double glazing, and poor design. Energy efficiency Windows and doors play a very important role in buildings. They let in light but at the same time protect the home from wind, rain

Choose your Door Style

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Enjoy your outdoor areas all year-round, whether you’re dining alfresco on balmy nights or rugging up and toasting marshmallows in the heart of winter. The doors you choose to connect these outdoor spaces with the interior of your home largely depends on the building design and your requirements.Paarhammer presents its most popular door designs so you can choose to go inside or out in style:Sliding DoorsInterior/exterior flow comes easy with this crowd-favourite option. Think outside the box with custom-made giant sliding doors, sliding stackers and corner sliders. This space-saving door can slide over a fixed glazed area with no protruding

MultiFunction wins National Award

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

This project by Insite Design has just received the 2020 Design Matters National Building Design Awards - Winner – Commercial – under $2M. The building includes a new double height timber framed glazed facade overlooking a garden setting with mature Melia (white cedar) tree. In order to keep the double height glazed façade as expansive & simple as possible, laminated Victorian Ash timber was used to provide structural strength to act as both glazing & structural frame, resulting in no visible structure - just a timber framed façade. The Paarhammer ECO-façade also offers the highest level of thermal efficiency for

Heritage Windows and Doors

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Are you living in - or working on - a Victorian or Edwardian building? Would you like to update windows and doors to make them more energy-efficient and secure, keep out noise and reduce drafts? Paarhammer ‘Heritage Windows’ are the perfect solution. Mimicking double hung windows in looks Paarhammer’s Heritage windows offer high performance in windows which are double glazed and combine all the advantages of modern technology with the look of yesteryear. WindowsThe windows are tilt & turn style but with a 48mm horizontal bar to look just like a double-hung window. Even flyscreens can now be ordered with

Top 5 Renovation Regrets

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Insufficient insulation, air leakage, poor lighting, not selecting double glazing, and poor design are the Top 5 renovation regrets, according to the research of the Victorian Government. Let’s look at those renovation regrets in the context of Paarhammer windows and doors: 1. Insufficient insulation: Paarhammer windows provide excellent insulation with U-values from as low as 0.8, the lowest made in Australia 2. Air leakage: there are no drafts, and air infiltration is from a low 0.05% 3. Poor lighting: well insulated energy efficient windows can be made much larger, while still out performing a smaller single paned uninsulated window, hence