How Many Building Frames Can a Sapphire Balcony Connect To?

What structures can balconies connect to?

At Sapphire Balconies, we can connect balconies to various building structures, including traditional reinforced concrete (RC) frames, cross-laminated timber (CLT) frames, light gauge steel frames (LGSF), tunnel form structures (TFS), and even Peikko’s DELTABEAM® Frame. Leading the market through innovation, we ensure that our balconies meet the unique demands of each structure, providing lightweight options that complement sustainable materials while maintaining strong, safe connections.

What are Cross-Laminated Timber Frames?

Cross-laminated timber, or mass timber, is created by glueing together layers of solid-sawn lumber taken from a single log. By glueing the wood layers at the right angles, CLT can achieve better structural rigidity than regular timber in both vertical and horizontal directions. Benefits of CLT:

1. Improved Project Efficiency: CLT as a prefabricated material is incredibly flexible for building design. Whilst concrete is the conventional option due to its perceived rigidity, some companies favour CLT over concrete as it is 20–30% faster to install and can reduce the need for on-site labour.
2. Strong Fire Performance: The fire performance of CLT is exceptional as it is fire-rated and compliant for ongoing use.

What are Reinforced Concrete Frames?

A traditional concrete frame is built from the ground up, poured between stacks of rebar steel to create a sturdy wall to the building. Thanks to its rigidity, this method is used to this day as a reliable (albeit slower than a precast alternative) way to build apartment blocks and a durable material to anchor a balcony into. However, given how labour- and carbon-intensive this approach is, many countries are looking for more advanced approaches.

1. We can connect to a traditionally poured concrete façade in several ways with our lightweight aluminium Cassette® balconies. Their slim, manageable form allows any number of connections to be made.
2. Using our innovative and speedy solution, we cast the anchors into the concrete slab. This forms a robust base for the balcony Cassette® to slide directly onto, at which stage it is secured by an on-site team.

What are Light Gauge Steel Frames?

Light gauge steel frames are a modern solution for low-rise buildings (up to 15 storeys), offering faster construction, cleaner sites, and a reduced carbon footprint. As the name suggests, LGSF is a skeleton of sorts for a building, a dynamic and versatile application that uses lightweight, 100% non-combustible material to provide the inner support for a building whilst staying as green as possible. Considerations when connecting balconies to LGSF:

1. Due to the lightweight nature of LGSF, balconies should be as light as possible to avoid any instances of deflection.
2. With balcony anchors, a key issue is the connection back into the frame, as rotational deflection can occur here. Sapphire has developed new connection methods that provide extra rigidity.

What are DELTABEAM® Frames?

Peikko’s DELTABEAM® is an innovative steel building frame that reduces the number of columns needed in a building. This allows for longer spans of unsupported horizontal beams, giving you more floor area for any given building footprint.

1. Sapphire Balconies are able to connect to the DELTABEAM® frame without compromising on thermal performance, installation speed, or cost.
2. This solution is suitable for any project as it comes with standard components that don’t require unique costs, technologies, or modifications.

Connecting balconies to a DELTABEAM® frame previously required a concrete infill, but – thanks to collaboration between Peikko and Sapphire – that’s now a thing of the past. We connected balconies to the DELTABEAM® frame at Silvertown Quays in Newham, London. Read our full blog to learn more.

What are Tunnel Form Structures?

Tunnel construction is a framework that allows a building contractor or developer to cast walls and concrete slabs at once as part of a daily routine. It is one of the many modern methods of construction (MMC) that are now used to increase the speed of projects and the quality of the final result, based on the accuracy that off-site production and storage can provide. Connecting balconies to TFS:

1. As with standard concrete slabs, tunnel construction cells can be penetrated and thermally guarded on-site to create balcony connection points.
2. Because tunnel cells are cast in situ, the balcony connections can be cast with the concrete slab to avoid excess penetration of the slab itself.

Sapphire’s lightweight balconies can easily connect to TFS. If you have a project in mind and would like to discuss it, get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to help you.