Pre-fab balconies at The Buildings Show 2023

Between an innovative CLT connection and a balcony design that stood out amongst the crowd – The Buildings Show was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet and greet Canadian professionals and show off our Next Generation suite of balconies.

Our Next Generation balcony, which is lighter, faster, and kinder than any other balcony on the market. If you missed out, don’t fret – we listened to what you had to say and collected some answers to some of the most crucial questions you had about our pre-fab Next Generation balconies.

Here’s how our Next Generation balcony could truly benefit your next residential project.

Connecting balconies to timber

A question that kept coming up was how we can connect to a cross-laminated (CLT) or mass timber framework – Our balconies have an innovative connection system that can connect to many building frameworks including CLT.

Unlike concrete, CLT is a relatively light building material and does not need to be cast in place. Brackets can be fixed to the top of the CLT slab at an angle to maximise pull-out resistance from the balcony moment forces and tested in advance to confirm structural integrity. One of the advantages of Sapphire’s system is that the light weight means it can be used with CLT. Our innovative Next Generation Cassette solution can be used as the structural integrity of the frame can be maintained even with the heavier steel anchor arms.

Read our full article on connecting to CLT brackets here:

Built-in thermal breaks

With an increased focus on LEED, TEDI and Passive House – thermal performance is crucial. So if you make penetrations in a building’s façade, how can you maintain thermal performance?

Simple. Our balconies are future-ready and pre-fabricated off-site. On the site itself, small penetrations are made in the building façade that we’ve incorporated a small thermal break into. Each of these small penetrations can achieve a reduction in heat loss without the need for a continuous linear thermal break.

In fact, built-in thermal breaks can be simpler to achieve than a linear thermal break in many circumstances and function at an even higher level of performance than traditional concrete alternatives. To enable the continuity of fire barrier integrity, we created the StubGuard® to improve this performance even further.

To know more, just ask us about the Sapphire StubGuard, or visit the link below:

Cold weather performance

How do modular balconies protect buildings from the cold?

Between using a material that doesn’t crack in the cold weather, unlike traditional concrete balcony building methods, and including our previously mentioned built-in thermal breaks, pre-fab balconies are the best way to protect a residential unit from the cold without having to sacrifice outdoor living space.

Sapphire has been supplying and installing balconies for many years and has amassed a large amount of knowledge and experience in effective balcony solutions to increasing demand for improved thermal performance, off-site prefabrication and reduced structural loadings.

Our balconies have been thoroughly examined by RDH, successfully tested for Freeze-Thaw and Cold Weather performance and we’ve collected our findings in a new whitepaper, available for request via the below link.

Bespoke design

Sapphire’s Next Generation balconies have a huge number of design possibilities that can be catered to your architectural design needs.

We’ve increased not just the number of connection methods available with the Next Generation Balcony but increased the aesthetic freedom for your design and architecture team too. Thanks to our new Clip-On™ connection, the Next Generation Balcony clips into small hooks integrated into the façade just like a seatbelt. Furthermore, we’re proud to introduce the Crescent Corner Cassette®, Identité Balustrade and Crescent Balustrade as options for your balcony balustrade, each available in hundreds of colors for a total of over 7 million aesthetic combinations.

Appearance vs. Concrete

Finally, we were overwhelmed with comments on just how good our system looks. Thanks to working with aluminum, we can not only control the design, but also the aesthetic that comes along with it.

• Premium Quality – Factory-controlled stage-by-stage quality control processes guarantee a premium balcony.
• Finished Deck & Underside – With neat aluminum soffits underneath and decking included as standard, Sapphire’s Next Generation balconies have an enhanced street appeal and take the aesthetic appeal of your building to the next level.
• Discreet Fixings – Sapphire’s Next Generation balconies have been carefully engineered to avoid visible welds and keep fixings discreet. Every single balcony comes with soffits included which complete the underside and maintain a clean, simple aesthetic.
• Balconies That Fit Every Time – We provide templates with our cast-in anchors. These templates avoid reinforced concrete frame casting mismeasurements and avoid the traditional bolt-on or concrete balcony misalignment issues, which can cause coordination issues and variations.

To understand even more about the benefits of our Next Generation aluminum balconies, download this whitepaper:

https://balconies.global/knowledge/aluminium-concrete-balconies/

What’s next?

You asked, we answered. Sapphire have got the future-ready balconies that North America is after.

That’s it. No greenwashing, true carbon reduction and a lighter, safer, kinder product with more possibilities than ever before that we’re proud to call the Next Generation.

Are you ready to be part of the future of construction? The Next Generation is here and can be specified for your residential project today.

Contact us to find out even more: