Leading ventilated façade specialist, Shackerley, has extended the options available from its sought after SureClad® range with the introduction of SureClad® Terracotta.
The move is the innovation introduced by Shackerley, the first UK company to launch a ceramic granite ventilated façade system and the winner of a Queen’s Award for its innovative SureClad® ‘Access’ cladding system.
The SureClad® Terracotta range joins a wide choice of fire-safe ventilated façade systems from Shackerley, including SureClad® Ceramic Granite, Engineered Stone, Vitrified Glass and Natural Stone. This variety ensures that specifiers have plenty of choice to answer the requirements of their project’s design, structural loading parameters and local planning considerations from a single, trusted UK manufacturer/supplier.
Launch of the new SureClad® Terracotta system follows an intensive 18-month period of market engagement and product development by Shackerley, after the company identified increased demand for terracotta façades and a gap in the marketplace for a more robust, quality-led system. The company’s cladding experts have designed and engineered the new range in-house at the company’s ISO 9001 quality-assured production plant in Lancashire, creating a unique horizontal fixing rail to offer a terracotta façade system that is both more durable and easier to install.
Brian G Newell, chief executive of Shackerley, explains: “Terracotta is a very traditional façade material in the UK and it is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance as architects increasingly focus on creating façades that are in-keeping with the local built environment.
“In the past, there have been issues with some of our competitors’ Terracotta systems on the market, such as breakages on site and buildability challenges with fixing systems. Our design expertise has enabled us to overcome both of these challenges with thicker, more robust extruded panels that are easier to install onto our custom-developed continuous horizontal aluminium rail fixing system”.
Shackerley’s SureClad® Terracotta system has been tested and certified for enhanced resilience to impact damage, as compared to other terracotta systems, and is also certified to be Class A1 to BS EN 13501-1 non-combustible, making the system compliant for any building, including residential properties above 18m high.
SureClad® Terracotta is available in seven standard colourways in panels up to 1200mm long and in standard heights of 250mm, 300mm, 350mm and 400mm. Special colours can be produced to order.
Brian adds: “The introduction of our SureClad® Terracotta system enables us to offer specifiers a very robust, easy to install, Terracotta façade option with all the design values, engineering excellence and quality assurance they expect from Shackerley.
“The initial response has been fantastic and we are looking forward to challenging the marketplace with this hardwearing and aesthetically very attractive system.”
