The decision that is made
before the order
A panel is chosen once and stands for decades. The thickness of the insulation, the type of core and the method of installation do not follow from a catalogue but from what goes on in the building, where it stands and how much snow lies on it. We go through those figures with you — before anything is ordered.
Six questions that decide the building
Each of them has an exact answer — but only once the use, the location and the structure are known. That is why we go through them in order.
Which core
PUR and PIR give the best insulation per centimetre of thickness. Mineral wool carries the fire resistance and the acoustic protection. The choice follows the use of the building, not the price per square metre.
Which thickness
The thickness determines the U-value, and that determines the cost of heating over the whole life of the building. It is calculated from the temperature the building has to hold, not from what happens to be in stock.
Which span
The spacing of the substructure decides whether the panel spans one bay or two and how far it may deflect. We check it against the load tables before the steel is ordered — while it can still be changed.
Snow and wind
The loading is not the same in Bihać as in Mostar, nor at twenty metres above sea level as at two hundred. The location of the building goes into the calculation.
Colour and profile
Dark shades behave differently from light ones over large areas. The joint profile on a façade either shows or it does not — and that is a decision not put right afterwards.
How it is fixed
The type and number of screws per square metre depend on the substrate. Steel, concrete and timber are not the same thing, and fixing is where people save most often and most expensively.
Four answers and you have your bearings
This is not a calculation — we do the calculation, for the particular building. But it is enough to know what we will be talking about before you call us.
From the call to the quotation
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1
Get in touch
By telephone, by e-mail or through the form. For a first conversation it is enough to know what the building is for and where it stands.
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2
We go through the data
Use, location, spans, temperature regime and the fire resistance required. Where the building is complex or the data do not add up, we come out to site.
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3
You get a proposal
A particular panel, thickness and installation system — with the reasons why that one and not the one that is ten marks cheaper.
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4
Sample and quotation
You see the shade and the profile in person before anything is signed. The colour on a screen is not the colour on the sheet.
What it helps to have ready
None of this is a condition for talking to us. But with these details the proposal comes the same day, rather than after three e-mails.
- What the building is for — hall, warehouse, cold store, farm, housing
- The place of building and the altitude
- The spacing of columns and purlins, if the structure is known
- The temperature held in the building in winter and in summer
- Whether fire resistance is required, and to what class
- The approximate area of roof and façade
The figures we give you
are measured here
Alternativa has its own laboratory and factory production control to EN 14509. When we say how much a panel carries and how well it insulates, that is not copied out of somebody else’s catalogue.
Thermal conductivity
Measuring the λ value of the insulating core — the figure the panel’s U-value comes from.
Density of the fill
Density is checked on every batch; it governs both the load capacity and how the panel behaves over time.
Compression, tension, shear
Mechanical testing on a Stirolab ES.10 — the same tests that stand behind the load tables.
Salt spray chamber
Testing the anti-corrosion properties by the NSS method, for buildings by the sea and in aggressive environments.
Coating thickness
Checking the paint and zinc coating — the point at which sheet that lasts differs from sheet that does not.
Factory production control
The whole of production is under control to EN 14509, in cooperation with accredited laboratories.
Tell us what you are building
One call before ordering is cheaper than one façade ordered wrong.