Pre-fab Balconies at BuildEx Vancouver
At BuildEx Vancouver, we had the chance to connect with Canadian industry experts and showcase our Next Generation suite of balconies, featuring an innovative CLT connection and standout balcony design.
Our Next Generation balcony sets a new standard, offering a lighter, faster, and more environmentally conscious balcony than any other option on the market.
If you couldn’t attend, don’t worry – we’ve gathered valuable insights from your inquiries and compiled answers to your most pressing questions about our prefabricated Next Generation balconies.
Discover how our Next Generation balcony could significantly enhance your upcoming 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.
As CLT is a relatively light building material, unlike concrete the balcony cant be cast in place and the strength of the slab to take forces of heavier balconies are reduced. 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. 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 linear thermal breaks in many circumstances and function at an even higher level of performance than traditional concrete alternatives.
To know more, just ask us about the Sapphire StubGuard, or visit the link below:
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.
Visit this page to understand even more about the benefits of our Next Generation aluminum balconies:
Conclusion
With our Next Generation Cassette system, we’re offering innovative solutions for connecting balconies to timber frameworks, such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), incorporating built-in thermal breaks, crucial for maintaining thermal performance, surpassing traditional concrete alternatives.
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:
