Can you connect balconies to a Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) frame? What is Cross Laminated Timber (CLT)? CLT is created by glueing together layers of solid-sawn lumber from a single log. By glueing together layers of wood at the right angles, CLT can achieve better structural rigidity than regular timber in both vertical and horizontal…

Can you connect balconies to a Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF)? What is a Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF)? Light gauge steel frames (LGSF) are a modern solution for low-rise (up to 15-storey) buildings, offering faster construction, cleaner sites, and a reduced carbon footprint. As the name suggests, LGSF is a skeleton of sorts for…

How do you connect balconies to a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame? What is a traditional Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame? A traditionally poured 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…

How do you connect balconies to a DELTABEAM® Frame? What is DELTABEAM? Peikko’s DELTABEAM Frame is an innovative steel building frame solution that reduces the number of columns needed in a building, allowing for longer spans of unsupported horizontal beams, giving you more floor area for any given building footprint. How are balconies connected to…

How does the Balcony Passport app ensure quality throughout the balcony journey? ‘First-Class’ Quality Assurance with Passport At Sapphire, quality isn’t just a priority, it’s a requirement. Our Balcony Passport App ensures that only fully quality-checked balconies can progress through production, installation, and handover. Without full sign-off at each stage, a balcony cannot be dispatched,…

Understand Glide-On Balconies Although a lot more elegant, Glide-On™ Cassette® balconies are like a forklift lifting a pallet, it’s that simple. What are cantilever/projecting balconies? Projecting balconies, often known as ‘cantilever balconies’, are essentially platforms added to a building which cantilever off of the main building structure and allow residents to step out onto a…

Weatherproofing Weatherproofing is an important consideration because balcony brackets have to penetrate the façade and connect back to the main slab. There are a number of different ways of achieving waterproofed solutions. To assist, we can provide a composite sleeve (with excellent thermal properties) to shroud the arm or can use web infills to fill…

Glass Use in Balcony Balustrades Glass is generally considered to be one of the best materials to use in balcony balustrades. There are critical considerations needed in the design and selection of glass balustrade and some of these are explored in the following subpages. Some common benefits of glass balustrades on balconies are: Relatively low-cost…

Balcony Fires – What’s Happened? Following the tragic fire at Grenfell on 14th June 2017, the government conducted a complete review of the claddings used on high rise residential buildings. The result of this review was the introduction of significant changes to the relevant legislation including a combustible cladding ban How Is the Industry Responding…

Logistics How Can You Ensure Smooth and Efficient Balcony Deliveries? When working with Sapphire’s innovative balconies, efficient transport and logistics are crucial to maintaining rapid installation speeds. Our Glide-On system holds the record of 62 balconies installed in a single day, compared to the industry standard of just 4-6. This unparalleled efficiency means the next…

On Site We support on-site installation teams  initially with training, then supply them the unique specialist equipment they need for their specific project. Sapphire has developed many unique pieces of equipment to make installing balconies on site faster, more efficient and, most importantly, safer for installation teams. Innovations include the Counter Balance Lifter. In essence, the…

Procurement Our impressive production capability – and commitment to the quality process at every stage of the manufacturing process and the supply chain – is second to none in the industry. Sapphire’s Balcony Passport app provides key quality process benefits to customers because without the sapphire balcony passport app being signed off at each stage,…

Door sill Interface The door sill interface (the junction between the decking and the door sill) is often the subject of discussion between trades. We have categorised solutions into these options: The first door sill interface option is utilising a walk on structural support to the door sill avoids the cutting in of decking boards…

Drained Through or Free Draining Balconies Drained through balconies are either drained through the gaps between the decking, without any form of water management. Or, are free draining balconies using soffits with perforations. The use of perforated soffits offers balconies a neater aesthetic appearance than not using soffits as it hides the balcony supports and…