Insight / Facade basics
A facade is the outer skin of a building.
A facade passes wind load back to the structure, keeps rain outside, carries its own weight, and moves with the building. The systems, materials, and scopes of work that go by the name facade all start from those four jobs.
What counts as a facade
One word covers several systems that work differently, and a single building often uses more than one.
Curtain wall
One system that handles wind and water together. It runs on the outer side of the slab edge, past several storeys, and takes the place of the wall.
Window wall
A glazed system that fills the space between one floor slab and the next. Each level gets its own opening, and the slab line stays visible on the elevation.
Unitized
A curtain wall built another way. The panels are put together and glazed at a factory, arrive as finished units, and are locked to the structure. Stick is the opposite: the bars and glass go together piece by piece at the building.
ACP and cladding
Cover sheets fixed to framing behind them. The panel is only a surface, and the wind and water are dealt with by the framing and cavity behind it.
Doors and windows
The openings in a facade: lobby doors, service doors, and windows. Nearly every facade project includes them, and water usually gets in at their joints.
What a facade quotation covers
In a quotation, the word facade can mean the panels alone or the whole skin of the building.
One quotation prices the panels and their installation. Another adds the framing behind the panels. A third includes the detail where two systems meet, for instance where glazing meets a cover panel. A fourth also says who pays for the repair if the facade leaks later.
Compare two square-metre rates only after the scope behind each one is spelled out. We itemise that scope as soon as your facade drawings reach us, so it is clear what is already included and what is not.
A facade is a boundary, not just a surface
Appearance is chosen last. System, height, and water path are decided first.
As a boundary, a facade separates outside from inside, and it only does that once three things are settled. The system sets how wind and water are handled. The height sets how much wind pressure and rain the facade has to resist. The water path sets where the water that gets past the outer layer drains back out.
Colour, texture, and finish come after those three are settled. Choosing a colour first means deciding the look on top of a system nobody has fixed yet.
We therefore open a conversation with your elevations and building section: how tall it is, which system is in mind, and where the water will run.
Questions about building facades
In project talk, facade can mean the look, the system, or the scope of work. The answers below use the technical meaning.
- What is a facade?
- A facade is the outer skin of a building. It passes wind load to the structure, keeps rain outside, supports its own weight, and follows the building's movement. On a commercial building the term covers curtain wall, window wall, and cladding, together with their doors and windows.
- How does a facade differ from a wall?
- A wall carries load around its openings, and windows go into holes left in it. A facade is the outermost layer of the building. With curtain wall it replaces the wall, resisting wind and water and carrying its own weight without holding up any floor or roof.
- What is a facade made of?
- A curtain wall facade has an extruded aluminium frame. The infill is glass, ACP, sheet metal, or stone. Gaskets, sealant, and steel brackets complete it and tie the frame to the structure. The choice of materials affects the weight and cost of the facade.
- What types of facade are there?
- By system there is curtain wall, running continuously past the slab edge; window wall, set slab to slab; cladding such as ACP, fixed to framing; and doors and windows as the openings. Unitized and stick describe how a curtain wall is assembled. One building often combines several of them.
- What does a facade quotation include?
- That depends on the scope written down. A quotation can stop at panels and installation, or cover the framing, the details where systems meet, and responsibility if the facade leaks. Ask each party to state all four before the numbers are compared.