Cardiff Glass win 2005 FMB award for conservatories rural conservatory scoops FMB award for Cardiff Glass

The company won the national prize in the best conservatory category sponsored by K2.

Cardiff Glass won the award for a large hexagonal conservatory constructed at the home of Robert and Sîan Longstaffe in Wenvoe, Cardiff.

The Master Builder of the Year Awards, now in its sixth year, is organised by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), the UK’s largest building trade association and was set up to show that the vast majority of builders deliver excellent work and are highly regarded by their clients. Builders cannot enter themselves: they must be nominated by a highly satisfied client.

Tough Competition

Competition organisers, the FMB, and the judging panels were hard pushed to choose from the hundreds of entries received from delighted homeowners up and down the country, but Cardiff Glass fought off the tough competition to take the conservatory award.

Shaun Armstrong and the Cardiff Glass team created a conservatory for year-round use, so the Longstaffe’s could make the most of the delightful views from their property in summer and winter. The conservatory features an underfloor heating system, and Shaun suggested using Celsius glass throughout.

This high performance glass has a special coating, so that heat from inside the conservatory is reflected back into the building during the winter, while excessive solar heat is deflected away to help prevent over heating during the summer. The coating also has self-cleaning properties, which means that rainwater runs off the glass taking dirt and grime with it.

A year after completion, it has not required any manual cleaning, and the Longstaffes are delighted with the performance of their new conservatory on all counts, ‘Even on the hottest day when we forgot to leave the roof vents open, the heat build up on our return wasn’t overpowering’, said Robert.

Robert Longstaffe continues, ‘The relationship with Shaun and his team was outstanding. At no point were we made to feel worried, insecure or superfluous to the job. Each stage was executed with total professionalism. We have no qualms in recommending Cardiff Glass and have done so already.’

FMB director general, Ian Davis said: ‘In an industry where customers’ complaints seem to attract most of the media interest, the Master Builder of the Year Awards really do prove there are plenty of brilliant builders across the UK, who are not only great craftsmen but also go the extra mile to make sure their clients are happy.’