Aluminium façade cassettes

Aluminium façade cladding in cassettes

Aluminium façade cladding in cassette form gives a façade a flat, crisp and even appearance. Each cassette is a separate panel with folded edges, mounted on a sub-structure with a narrow, regular joint between them. That regular joint pattern is exactly what gives the façade its calm character — and equally what places the highest demands on the installation.

We draw, produce and install aluminium façade cassettes for industrial buildings, showrooms, apartment schemes, schools and care institutions, on new build as well as on the refurbishment of an existing façade.

Why aluminium

Aluminium does not corrode, is light and stays flat. That low weight is often decisive in refurbishment: you can dress an existing façade without adding load to the supporting structure. The cassettes can also be removed individually, which means one damaged panel can be replaced without touching the rest.

Aluminium composite — two thin aluminium sheets with a plastic or mineral core — is the most widely used variant. The mineral core is the one to use as soon as fire requirements apply, which is usually the case in taller buildings and in publicly accessible functions. Solid aluminium is heavier and more costly, but flatter and completely non-combustible.

Colour and finish

The finish determines how the façade looks after ten years. Powder coating in any RAL colour is the standard; for south-facing façades and coastal locations there are heavier coating classes that fade more slowly. Alongside that there are anodised versions, metallic and pearlescent effects, and finishes that imitate timber, corten steel or concrete.

Watch one thing with metallic and wood-look finishes: the appearance changes with the incoming light and with the direction in which the panel is mounted. That is why we mount all cassettes in the same rolling direction and show you a sample in daylight beforehand, not just a colour reference.

Shape and detailing

Cassettes are not limited to rectangles. We rout and fold them to size, with cut-outs for windows, doors, grilles and lighting. Perforations in a pattern or forming an image are possible, and work strongly in combination with lighting behind them.

The sub-structure matters at least as much as the panel. It has to be flat, absorb thermal expansion and allow ventilation behind. Economise there and you will see it later in wavy panels and uneven joints. We draw the sub-structure out as well, rather than leaving it to the site.

Refurbishment: dressing a façade without demolition

Demolishing an ageing or damaged façade completely is rarely necessary. In many cases we fit the sub-structure against the existing façade and clad over it, with additional insulation in the cavity if required. The building stays in use in the meantime, and the result is a façade that looks like new.

For work of that kind we look in advance at the condition and load-bearing capacity of the existing façade, at the junctions around windows and the roof edge, and at the ventilation behind the cladding.

Maintenance

Aluminium cassettes ask little: periodic cleaning keeps the coating in condition and counters soiling, certainly along busy roads. Scratches and damage can be touched up locally; for heavier damage you replace a single cassette. We keep the colour and the panel type on file, so that a replacement still matches years later.

What determines the price?

Aluminium façade cladding has no fixed price per square metre. The cost follows from the panel type — composite with a plastic or mineral core, or solid aluminium —, the thickness, the coating class and the colour, the dimensions of the cassettes and the number of different sizes, the number of cut-outs and special details, the sub-structure and the condition of the existing façade, the working height and the lifting equipment required, and any fire requirements.

Send us the façade drawings or a few photos with dimensions, and you will receive a quotation in which the panel, the sub-structure and the installation are set out separately.

Putting your façade to us

Send us photos of the existing façade and the look you are after. We will produce a proposal with a material choice, a colour sample and a visualisation before anything is made.