We are so fortunate to live here in the County of Sleepy Suffolk and to not be in the midst of a high risk flood area. Though anyone who’s had half an ear open, to the current news, will be aware of the devastation of the recent flooding caused by Storm Desmond and the damage it has caused to properties in the beautiful county of Cumbria.
Maco – One of the Leading Window & Door Hardware Companies is calling for Installers and Fabricators of windows and doors to become “Flood Aware”. It makes perfectly good sense that if the hardware and extrusions of the external elements of a building can make a property more water tight then to encourage these types of products to be installed into buildings in harder hit flood areas.
The Governments Environment Agency launched a flood awareness campaign itself on 3rd November 2015. According to their statistics “Almost 5 million people in England are at risk of flooding. This is only going to increase with a changing climate.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/environment-agency-urges-people-to-be-flood-aware
The Environment Agency States “Many people think that flooding will never happen to them – but it could. The winter of 2013 to 2014 was the wettest in England for nearly 250 years and around 11,000 residential and commercial properties flooded.” If you are in a flood area you can register for flood alerts from their website.
https://www.gov.uk/floodsdestroy
MACO have been manufacturing and distributing security hardware successfully around the globe for more than 65 years. Thier extensive research and testing means that all products are designed and manufactured in-house to the highest standards. As a mark of thier confidence in the products our company installs into homes they have enrolled us and our customers into the MACO Secure Plus scheme. This scheme is designed to ensure that you can secure your property with confidence, knowing that forced entry is almost impossible.
Maco has been working on its Research and Development in Austria using statistics from the recent years of UK flooding and has now successfully tested to PAS1188-1:2014 (flood protection products and building aperture products), the flood door solution from Maco uses existing product lines. The solution to thier research is additional perimeter locking around the threshold and hinge side of the door, ensuring water egress is prevented. This is great news for companies like us who already use Maco locking systems on our Rehau Windows and offer Combined Door Locks and Multi Matic Tilt Turn Systems. It means we can now offer a “secure and completely flood tight” locking system for both residential windows and door installations and commercial use, if so required.