Triple Glazed Units at County Glass

At County Glass, we have always been able to adapt to the changing times and the demands of the market place. To that end, we are now regularly producing Triple Glazed Units for some of our customers.
Both lines are optimised for production, but today we are focusing on the newer line and the photos below tell part of the story that ends with a pristine unit for delivery.
See more below.

The glass is pre-toughened using our on site facility. The pieces are then moved to our main factory and loaded on to the line. First stop, the washer.

Each unit requires two spacer bars. These are prepared for each order and moved into position in time for the units being made.

Spacer bar meets glass. A lot of our work is automated once elements are loaded, but some things will always need the human touch.

The press seals the three panes and two spacer bars together, effectively creating the unit.

Here is a close up of the pressed unit. You can clearly see the three pieces of glass.

Seen to the left, the air probes are creating a vacuum that is filled with argon gas.

At the final stage of the process prior to inspection, the Robot seals the new Triple Glazed unit with Polysulphide.

For more information, visit the County Glass website, or call our sales team on 01962 869447.


Thanks,
- The County TEAM.

County Glass - Glass Pack Load-In.

Here at County Glass, we pride ourselves on a long and distinguished heritage of processing glass for our customers. Whether this is pieces cut to size, or producing Double Glazed Units for the incredibly varied range of orders we are capable of providing solutions for, the final result begins as a large sheet of glass.

These 3 ton packs are sourced from various places, depending on the glass type. But the large float liners that bring the packs in are relatively similar in design. When the trucks arrive on site, the delicate process of unloading the glass one 3 ton pack at a time can begin.
Below is a little of the backstory showing how all this unfolds here at County Glass (click on a pic to enlarge).

After arriving, the truck may have to wait a short while for the appropriate loading bay to be free.

Steve, our Yardsman will helpfully direct the large vehicle into position.

Once backed into the bay, the back of the trailer can be opened, revealing the glass packs.

After uncoupling the L-frame, the truck shifts forward leaving tonnes of glass ready to be moved.

Steve (and now another Steve!) carefully position the crane under the glass-pack.

The secure glass pack (in the case, 4mm Satin) is now hoisted off of the tray.

Working as a team, both Steves use the crane to guide the glass to one of our storage facilities.

This pack of Satin has to be manoeuvred around other stock.

And now, it delicately comes to rest, ready for use. Great job guys.

Ready for processing!

Moving this around glass can be a challenge, but County has six decades of experience.

Sometimes we can have two trucks loads scheduled in a single day. Fortunately, we have a great team of guys and girls who make sure that the operation is smooth and seamless.
So next time you order a bulk shipment of double glazed units, a bathroom mirror, some glass for your greenhouse or anything and everything in-between, there is every likelihood that it began life with us as one of these sheets of glass. And through the many steps that piece of glass took to be processed, we at County Glass are always happy to help you, our valued customers.

Thanks for reading,
- The County TEAM.

County Windows showroom updates Phase #1.

For a little while now, County Windows have been planning a series of updates for what is already a market leading showroom in the Mid-Hampshire area. Glass and frame technology is constantly evolving as are the designs of products and their versatility. As we are starting to bring some of those products online, we wanted to update the showroom to emphasise their potential.

A small glimpse of the new showroom. The Victorian Conservatory is on the right.

Phase 1 of this renewal is two fold. First of all, the Victorian Conservatory has been completely remodelled and updated. The brickwork was revised to provide more glazing space, on top of which the brand new framework includes various solar controlled glass options along with newly designed openers which offer great summer ventilation. What we have now is a very modern take on a classic design.

The core value of most of the products we stock, supply and carefully install is that they are an investment to your home. Not just to add value, but to save you money by being energy efficient. And this is paramount, only becoming more and more important as time goes by and the price of utilities rises.
To reflect this, we designed a brand-new lighting concept which not only showcases all of our products, but also demonstrates a commitment to saving energy.
Historically, the showroom was lit by banks of strip lights and halogen bulbs. Now, the whole space is bathed in the white light of LED's, and it looks fantastic. The other benefit is that the combined wattage of all these new fittings is less than one bank of five halogen's we used to have in a particulr area of the showroom. This is a great example for anyone's home lighting and resulting electricity bill.

Phase 1 was very much about getting the new Conservatory and lights installed and looking great. The next phase is about us bringing in some new, genuinely exciting products to your attention. And the best way to do this is to install them in our showroom. As soon we have them, we'll let you know.

Alternate view from the rear of the showroom.

Meanwhile, please visit us any time you are in the area. One of the team will be happy to help out with your questions, and the coffee is always fresh. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Thanks for reading.

- The County TEAM.

County Glass and Social Media.

Since February, County Windows and County Glass have embarked on a social media odyssey. The idea being that you, the user, the customer, the potential customer, will be able to very easily find out more about not just us as a company and the products we sell, but also the people behind the stories.. the installers, craftsmen and other folks who make up the County family.

The Initial focus has been on County Windows. Daily site visits provide plenty of inspiration for taking photos, and if you have dipped into our Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram, we are hopeful that deeper details of our work are beginning to emerge.

Over the past couple of weeks however, we have been spreading the focus out, casting a wider net to encompass County Glass. The work done there on a daily basis is nothing short of remarkable. From cutting edge technology to the finely honed skills of our Lead / Decorative Glass department, County Glass is more than a factory, and more than a production line.

So the goal is, over the coming weeks and months, spend a little time each day in a different department and refer the stories to you with vivid pictures and descriptions that explain who and what is in action.

All our social media works as a repository of information for you. If you 'follow' us, that's great and we thank you. If not, you can still dive in and load up on knowledge about both of our companies.

Below are a few examples of the images you will find, although the in-depth  notes accompany the photos on the social media sites, all of which are conveniently linked on the right hand side of this blog.

Thanks so much for reading,
- The County TEAM.

Some of Stuarts work in the Lead Department

The journey of a roof DGU.

A finished piece rolling off our CNC Processing machine.

Conservatory Replacement in the County Windows Showroom

Here is the old Victorian Conservatory ready to be updated

Throughout 2013, County Windows are planning a number of upgrades to the showroom and the products displayed within. There will be more details of these updates as they come online. But first in the queue for a facelift was our Victorian Conservatory, which has been in place since this showroom opened in late 2000.
The feeling was that this model, whilst still popular, required an update to bring it in to line with both the changing market, and advances in frame, roof and glazing technology.
As this build was commencing in-house over a couple of days, we decided it would make a good photo study, which we could then share with you, our customers as a point of interest, and also a knowledge base for anyone considering a new Conservatory or modifying an existing structure.
The gallery is fairly extensive and can be found on our website HERE, or by either clicking on the below link, or copying and pasting it into your browser.

http://www.county-windows.com/conservatories/conservatory-galleries/?album=2&gallery=24

Each photo will have some text describing the stage of the process being depicted.

Please feel free to Contact Us with any questions or comments on the gallery.

Thank you for reading.
- The County TEAM.

County Windows Installation Video.

In what we hope will be the very first of many short clips for both County Windows, and County Glass, we take you out on the road for a very quick look around an installation we recently undertook as part of an entire remodelling for a customers residence.

The idea is that, over time, we can build a library for our customers that demonstrate many different aspects of the work we do, the products we install, and the people behind the stories.

This is beginning already on our Instagram and across other social media platforms such as our Twitter. We encourage anyone interested in what we do, past, present or future, to branch out on to these sites for a look around - as well as the new website of course.

So here is the first clip, and they are only going to get technically better in terms of edit, steady camera etc.
When a new video is released, we'll announce it here also on Twitter and Facebook so you can take a look.

In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you in the future.

- The County TEAM.

Summary of Recent Install.

 

Even in the worst of the recent weather, the County Windows teams were out, armed with their new site boards.For this installation, we were working on something that more and more customers are seeking - replacement conservatory roof systems.
The concept is very simple. The uprights (glazed walls, brickwork etc) remain, the existing, old roof is removed and we install a replacement system. This new system will have many options available across the framework, glazing options and furniture such as blinds. Our experience is that mostly, the upgrade will be about the glass. With the new systems available, we can install solar control and self cleaning units that will make the conservatory a year round, comfortable living space. Here is a run through of a recent piece of work we did on the south side of Winchester through a cold week in February 2013.

Here on the morning of day 1 you can see that our team, Wayne and Ben, have removed 90% of the existing polycarbonate roof to make way for the new installation.

Some really fantastic craftsmanship on display by the team here. It's day two on the replacement roof installation and the guys have created this new timber frame to both support the roof and fix it to the house. The far side where you can see Ben doing some cutting is going to be insulated and cladded. Tomorrow, the roof gets glazed.
If they visit your home, don't forget to make the guys a cup tea. Not Wayne though.. He drinks coffee.

During day 2, great things were done at this workstation. Thanks Wayne and Ben!

Risking life and limb to bring you these shots from day three! This team is close to completing the conservatory roof install, which is now fully glazed despite inclement weather. All external cladding is in place, tomorrow will see the remaining insulation and finishing touches added inside. I hope you'll agree the new roof looks great and is a definite improvement. I wonder if next door want theirs replaced too...?

And here is the cladding and insulation being fitted. Also pictured is the new roof doing a fine job of protecting the fitters from the snow, sleet and other cold things falling from the sky.

The new conservatory roof is finished. With insulation and cladding all completed, the snow and rain also paused, allowing us to share this beautiful morning with you. Very pleased to have been of service to another valued customer.

Every conservatory is different because every customer has a different need. This particular build had more if an outside feel as opposed to say, an extension of a lounge or dining room. With the roof upgrade and new cladding, this has been a real success. On to the next one!

Find out more about our Conservatory Roof systems Here and please Contact Us with any questions you may have.
Thank you,
The County TEAM.

The New County Windows website is online. Here are a few pointers on what you can find there.

www.county-windows.com. 

County Windows is incredibly proud to announce the arrival of their new website.

After a huge amount of work by both us and the fantastic local web company ADIRA (run by Phill Bernier), we are very hopeful that you will find new site a wonderful and intuitive experience.

The first thing you will hopefully notice is the striking new design, which is a natural extension of everything from our new company signage to our stationary. But dig a little deeper and you will find many more new features. Here is a brief heads of things to look out for.

The menu bar has most of the same content as the old site, but with this smooth design we have been able to add a contact form which drops down from the ‘Contact’ tab and can be filled whilst viewing any page at all.

The County Blog has been redesigned and will now take you to external pages which will contain both photo and text entries. The decision was taken to park the old blog and begin totally fresh. The new blog is based Google's Blogspot platform and will be active on a regular basis.

A lot of the old features have been streamlined, one of these is the brochure download page. You’ll find this in both the ‘About’ drop down menu, and in the ‘Important Links’ section.

Click on any of the headings on this page and that box will expand, revealing the titles of brochures and downloads within. Clicking on the word ‘HERE’ will open a PDF viewer and you can then scan through, read in depth, download, print and generally browse all the relevant literature you need. If you require anything else, please give us a call, or fill in the Contact form for us to help you out. On top of brochures, you will also find other informative literature about glass options etc, all located here. This library will continue grow as more literature becomes available or is produced.

The gallery pages are again separated into categories. Click on one and off you go! The site is brand-new so over time, these galleries will grow and grow, keeping the site a constantly evolving entity.

Our Twitter feed can be seen at the top right of the website and can also be clicked through to directly, using the social media links in the ‘Connect With Us’ box on the right, or the Social Media list at the bottom of the page.
The Twitter feed updates live with entries to the County blog and will also include site updates, testimonials, points of interest and many other bits of info worthy of a Tweet. So if you’re a Twitter user, click on follow. But if you’re not a user, you can still visit the site and read our Tweets.

The County Group Instagram is now online. Here we will be sharing images that tell the day to day story of who we are as a company, the products we produce and sell, and also some little personal touches that put names to faces and reveal more about this long standing, family run company. We are out on site daily, so as the Instagram cranks up, there will be more and more visual information showing our customers what we do, and how we do it.
Like Twitter, you can either follow us if you have an account, or just view the photos on the Instagram website which is conveniently linked from ours. These pictures will also be feeding galleries on the website as more and more jobs and processes are shot.
But the main goal of social media for us is not just the interaction with our customers, but also providing you with a great deal of visual information and stories regarding our work. We very much hope you enjoy receiving updates and browsing the content we provide.
There are some other things in the pipeline that we’ll announce either at, or close to launch.

‘Windows & Doors’, ‘Conservatories’ and ‘Roofline’ now all have devoted galleries. These are accessible via the ‘Important Links’ list at the bottom of the page, or via the drop-down menus on the relevant tabs. 

Next we have social media. The County Glass Group, which includes County Windows, is now fully active on the primary social media hubs, so please come and ‘follow’ us, or just take a look around. 

Our Facebook has been up and running for a while now, but did slow down a bit whilst the new Web site project has been running. We’ll be sharing more there in the coming weeks and months. 

So this is a brief overview of the new site that is not only packed full of information and features, but is going to be constantly evolving and growing over time.

We love feedback, so please, if you have any questions or comments, or want to see the addition of other features, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do.

For now, hopefully you’ll spend a little time on the site, get to know it, and we very much look forward to meeting customers old and new in 2013.

With our best wishes,

- The County Windows TEAM