Make your façade design simple with Hilti

Hilti - your partner for light ventilated façade design

Façade is a complex topic of its own, but with Hilti, you can get all the information in one place. Having a single point of contact for façade design, bringing the complete solution saves you time and makes your job more efficient. Hilti ventilated façade is not just about the brackets and profiles. It’s the complete engineering solution. Here you can find the full scope of our engineering services guiding you through the façade design from vision to successful completion on site.

Cladding variability

Hilti is a partner to numerous panel producers and fabricators across the United Kingdom. This partnership enables us to follow the latest trends in cladding and provide them with innovative solutions to any kind of cladding material, weight, size or shape. This goes hand in hand with the certification process to offer a complete and fully tested solution, such as CWCT certification.

Hilti substructure can be used with stone, ceramics, terracotta, brick slips, wood, HPL, composite panels, fibre-cement and more. With us any cladding type is possible, giving you the option to pick across panel producers and materials freely.

Cladding variability for both vertical and horizontal systems allows you to pick from wide variety of panel producers.

Even render façade is possible on Hilti substructure with special reinforcing mesh and tapes to make a seamless look on the outside while keeping the benefits of ventilated façade.

Design services and support

Apart from our team of 22 Specialist Building Envelope Account Managers who partner with our façade contractor customer base, Hilti GB has also a dedicated force of field engineers to help make the architect’s job simpler. There is also a group of in-house engineers supporting large and complex projects in the UK. From anchor design, fire stopping, façade to installation systems, they also collaborate with specialists for BIM solutions in the Netherlands and ventilated façade specialists in Lanzenkirchen Austria, the home of Eurofox, to make a strong engineering foundation unique to Hilti.

Hilti Engineers can support you with:

-       Design of your façade with help to select the right cladding producer

-       Cladding view plans

-       U value calculation in accordance with ISO 6946 and ISO 10211

-       Structural design of the substructure according to Eurocodes

-       Design of fastening based on sub material, possibility of pull out tests in the field

-       BIM design and support

-       Installation documentation and training on site

-       Certification, approvals and tests

You can arrange contact with our field engineers further down in the article.

BIM

UK is currently leading in the world of BIM implementation among other developed countries.

BIM implementation is supported by government and defined in ISO 19650.

Here are three levels of BIM implementation:

Level 0 – Design in 2D, no sharing, printed paper plans on site

Level 1 – Design in 2D, shared across engineers involved, printed paper on site

Level 2 – Design in 3D, shared across engineers involved, printed paper on site

Level 3 - Design in 3D, shared across engineers involved, tablets, augmented reality on site etc.

Right now, Level 2 is mandatory, and Level 3 is expected by 2025. Façade is an important part of the BIM model to carry all the performance information of the external building envelope in the model, both for installation phase, but also for future facility management. Proper BIM modelling can increase the value of the property going into the future.

Hilti has been pushing BIM and digitalisation across our products, solutions, services and even on jobsites. For your specification you can download our BIM assets in various formats at our BIM Library

Or you can find selected objects at our RIBA NBS page

Lastly, we at Hilti can offer you custom BIM designs tailored to your specific project needs in collaboration with our BIM competence centre in Netherlands.

 In your BIM library you can find assets for modular support systems, fasteners, direct fastening, firestopping, ventilated façade and templates of technical descriptions to copy in your specifications.

Sustainability

Ventilated facades are nothing new in civil engineering and we can trace their origins back to Scandinavian countries where harsh winters combined with damp spring made high demands on performance of exterior wall. An outer layer with a ventilated air gap proved to be the best solution for demanding climates. With advancement of materials and production efficiency, Aluminium became the best material for façade substructure. Its lightweight, non-combustible, corrosion resistant, long lasting and has good thermal performance among other metals. Compared to contact insulation, ventilated façade offers more longevity and durability in general, adding more value to your project and allowing easy refurbishment in the future. Second façade option - curtain walls have good longevity properties, but there can be challenges meeting thermal performance requirements, so often combination with ventilated façade on parts of the building envelope is mandatory.

As we go into the future sustainability assessments such as BREEAM or LEED are increasingly becoming a standard and Hilti has experience with both. Our engineering support team can provide you with all the information necessary.

Fire safety

All Hilti Eurofox systems meet fire safety requirements for a wide range of European countries including the United Kingdom. For detailed information see our previous article dedicated to fire safety

Acoustics

Hilti Eurofox ventured research into this topic and now is able to use those results giving you advantage using ventilated façade in relation to sound resistance. You can learn about this in detail, in our first article.

Global reach

Hilti Group and its ventilated façade division Eurofox is present across Europe from Russia to Portugal and thanks to this robust global reach, it is the biggest player in the ventilated façade business in Europe.

Hilti is there to support you throughout the entire project.

Beyond the brackets and tools

Hilti started as a company focused on power tools and fastening solutions, gradually it expanded to cover a wide range of construction products. With digitalisation Hilti innovated in services and now its offering not just brackets, screws, tools. It also offers solutions and this complete façade solution starts from the Architects vision up to the cordless riveting tool used to fasten the last panel.

Our comprehensive service offering includes:

-       U value calculation and wall thickness optimisation

-       Cooperation with multiple cladding suppliers

-       Cooperation with insulation manufacturers

-       Cooperation with installers

-       Design and supply of façade substructure

-       BIM design and support

-       Façade fire safety consultation

-       Structural design

-       Sound resistance, calculation of Rw (C; Ctr)

To get in touch with our façade consultants to discuss your project specific needs, please send us an email

To download our BIM assets visit our library

For more information visit out Hilti page at RIBA NBS

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This article is part of ongoing series dedicated to ventilated façades. Find more here