New European Legislation to regulate the window industry

From the first of July 2013 it will be a criminal offence for anyone to install a window or door that does not fully comply with European legislation. CE marking indicates that a product conforms to the legal requirements in specific European technical standards. It enables a product to be placed legally on the market in any European member state.

However because very few uPVC windows manufactured in the UK are exported not many British manufacturers have seen the need. The CE marking symbol is placed on either the product or the packaging accompanying the product. In the window industry the manufacturer is the company that brings together the frame and the glazing. All product manufacturers MUST comply, otherwise they are in breach of the law.

Every window and door must be labelled, a “Declaration of Performance” certificate must be issued, and a tracking system put in place by the installation company that can trace all products for a minimum period of 10 years. This directive is going to be yet another beurocratic stumbling block that small companies already swamped by red tape must comply with just to stay in business.

Needless to say we at Rodda and Hocking have already got the systems in place and we will commence on the ist of June to iron out any teething problems to ensure we are fully up to speed by the due date.